April 24, 2018

the Millennial mayor with a big idea

Politico -Out in Stockton, California, there’s an experiment underway in millennial-led government that’s trying to pull a city back from the brink using what is essentially privately funded socialism.

The experiment’s name is Michael Tubbs.

The 27-year-old mayor of a city of 307,000—26 when he knocked out the Republican incumbent, the same night Donald Trump won, in his own status quo-bulldozing election—is looking to redefine the sense of what works through redefining how people think about work.

It’s not just the $500 checks that will soon start going out to 100 residents monthly in a universal basic-income pilot program. It’s about transforming the entire posture of city government.

Stockton declared bankruptcy in 2012 after years of big spending on showcase projects, like a sparkling new marina where yachts could dock. Meanwhile, the city had a murder rate that had sped past Chicago’s.

The formula was off, Tubbs said, and everyone he knew was living out the consequences.

He learned about universal basic income through reading Martin Luther King Jr., but he’ll happily cite comments that Richard Nixon and godfather of conservative economics Milton Friedman made in support of the idea.

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