Across the country communities are addressing economic insecurity with a simple idea: what if we gave people cash?
We’ve created a toolkit to help you learn more about the movement for a guaranteed income and share it with your neighbors. Download the toolkit below to host a community conversation.
Can’t host a community conversation? Follow along yourself below.
How to Follow the Toolkit
This toolkit is designed to help you learn more about basic income and the power it can have in people’s lives. It is also designed to give you an opportunity to share your knowledge with us to help shape our campaign for an income floor in Oregon.
There are several activities throughout the toolkit where you will have a chance to share your reflections with us. When you reach those sections, just use the embedded forms to share your thoughts with us.
Submitting your reflections will share your responses with the Oregon Center for Public Policy. Submission forms will ask for your email in the event a team member needs to follow up with you. Your responses will help inform our campaign, and will not be used publicly without your consent.
Section 1: The Power of Cash
Communities across the country are innovating new ways to address people’s economic insecurity. What if our response to our neighbors struggling to make ends meet was to give them money with no strings attached? How would their lives change? How would our communities be different?
The reason why communities are experimenting with unrestricted cash is clear. Far too many people are paid wages too low to meet their basic needs. In Oregon, more than 2 in every 5 Oregonians live without the resources they need to afford the basics like housing, food, and other necessities.
While social safety net programs that provide food or housing assistance are critical, they are often limited and require people to jump through hoops to get help. Increasingly, people are asking what would happen if we simply gave people cash with no strings attached?
Most of us have some experience with direct cash in recent years. Federal stimulus checks and the expanded federal Child Tax Credit delivered cash directly to millions of Americans in recent years. Today, there there are more than 100 pilot programs experimenting with providing people a basic income. Across the country communities are realizing direct cash can improve people’s economic security and give them a foundation to build their futures.
Activity: 'Inherent Good' Reflection
Click play below to watch a brief clip of the film ‘Inherent Good.’ While you watch, jot down your reactions. Then answer the questions to the right.
Section 2: The Basics of Basic Income
In this next section, we get into the basics of basic income. What do we mean when we talk about guaranteed income versus a universal basic income? Both are a version of a basic income, so let’s start there.
Basic income is a term that describes a program or policy where people receive direct cash payments with no strings attached. Typically these payments are regular, meaning they can help with monthly expenses. They are unrestricted, meaning the recipient can spend the money on whatever they choose. And they are unconditional, meaning there are no work requirements or other conditions a person needs to meet in order to qualify.
For a brief moment in 2021, our country had a basic income for families. The expanded federal Child Tax Credit delivered monthly checks to families with children. In Oregon, 9 in 10 low-income families who received those dollars reported spending it on basic needs like paying the rent or keeping food on the table.
Activity: Basic Income Works Reflection
Click the video below to watch episode one of ‘Basic Income Works.’ After you watch the clip, reflect on the following questions to the left.
In this next section, we will explore the differences between a Universal Basic Income and a Guaranteed Income.
A Universal Basic Income, or “UBI,” is a basic income that everyone receives, regardless of their income or whether or not they need it. A family living in their car gets it, and so does Elon Musk.
A Guaranteed Income is a form of basic income that is targeted to people below a certain income level, or to a particular community, to ensure they are guaranteed a baseline level of income.
In either case, the dollars someone receives are unconditional and can be spent on whatever a person chooses. The key difference between a Universal Basic Income and a Guaranteed Income is that a Guaranteed Income would be targeted to those who need it most.
Activity: Universal vs. Guaranteed Income
Watch the two short videos below, then answer the questions to the left.
Section 3: An Income Floor for Oregon
In this last section, you will get to design a basic income for Oregon! But before you do, there is one more video to watch.
Stockton, CA is home to one of the most high profile guaranteed income pilot projects in recent years. The video in the next section will briefly share some of the successes of that program.
Activity: Design an Income Floor for Oregon
Click the video below to learn more about the Stockton Guaranteed Income pilot program. As you watch, listen for the details of the program. How much money did people get? Who benefited? What did people do with the money?
Join the Movement for a Guaranteed Income in Oregon
All of us deserve to be economically secure. Every Oregonians deserves the economic foundation needed to build our future. It will take a movement of Oregonians coming together to win a guaranteed income in Oregon.
Click the button below to learn more about how to get involved with the campaign. Sign up for email updates to stay up to date on our campaign. Share your story to help us build a vision of what is possible with a guaranteed income in Oregon. Or share this toolkit with your friends, family, and neighbors to help grow the movement.
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