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BANGKOK, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Thailand's Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra on Tuesday said part of the government's vaunted 450 billion baht ($13.1 billion) "digital wallet" handout will be distributed in cash, in another change to its flagship populist policy. Details are still being finalised and will be announced in a policy statement to parliament, she added. The digital wallet handout had previously entailed transferring 10,000 baht ($292) in credit to 50 million Thais via a smartphone application to spend in their localities within six months.

A recent study confirms that universal basic income—no-strings-attached benefit checks offered to recipients regardless of need or contribution to the program—discourages work. That’s relevant to the presidential race. Kamala Harris has called more than once for paying UBI-like benefits. Participants in the UBI program worked nearly 1½ hours less a week on average, and unemployment rose. Other adults in recipient households reduced their work effort, too. Overall, the study found for every dollar in benefits, “total household income excluding the transfers fell by at least 21 cents.” As vice president, Ms. Harris cast the deciding vote to create a temporary...

ALBANY (WBNG) -- Governor Kathy Hochul announced Tuesday that around $350 million is supplemental payments to low and moderate-income families statewide through the Empire State Child Credit program. Hochul’s office said more than 1 million families will receive this financial assistance without any need to apply, as each eligible family will receive a direct payment of up to $330 per child. The Empire State Child Credit is a refundable tax credit for income-qualified New Yorkers with children. Hochul and the State Legislature expanded the Empire State Child Credit to include children under 4 years old which benefits an estimated 600,000...

Artificial intelligence will result in adults earning a basic income, billionaire Elon Musk said. AI could lead to a world of self-driving vehicles and other computers and machines that replace humans in work settings and perform virtually all physical and mental labor, Business Insider reported. When that happens, Musk said adults, regardless of their wealth or employment status, will receive a universal basic income.

Artificial intelligence scientist Geoffrey Hinton, known as the “Godfather of AI,” is urging the British government to enforce a universal basic income (UBI) to cope with the impact of AI technology. Universal basic income is a social welfare system in which the government provides every citizen with a standard minimum income. These payments are unconditional and transferred to citizens on a regular basis without any pre-qualification. The concept is in keeping with the Marxist ideal of wealth redistribution and has been proposed by socialist figures such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Hinton told BBC Newsnight that a universal basic income...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Illinois lawmakers are considering a bill that would create a state-based guaranteed income program. State Sen. Ram Villivalam (D-Chicago) sponsors Senate Bill 3462, which calls on Illinois to adopt such a program after the 2027 calendar year. Through this legislation, residents who meet certain qualifications would be eligible for monthly $1,000 cash payments, regardless of immigration status. It’s unclear how long the payments would last. According to the bill’s language, those potentially eligible for $1,000 cash payments include people who: Provide care for a child or other specified dependent Recently gave birth or adopted a child Enroll...

A group of just over 100 homeless people in California's Los Angeles County and San Francisco Bay Area were given $750 per month for a year — no questions asked. The newly released results of the first six months of the study into the impact of a basic income and social support intervention reveal what the recipients spent the influx of cash. ... Those who received the $750 monthly stipend were less likely to remain unsheltered and closer to having enough money to meet all of their basic needs as compared to a control group who accessed usual homeless services,...

As finance and development ministers and legislators gather in Morocco for the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), from Oct. 9 to 15, the pressing issue of runaway global inequality will loom large on their agenda. Governments can use various tools to address inequality, including fair taxes, quality public services and just labor conditions. And an important tool they should consider now is universal social security, a set of policies and programs designed to ensure financial security across a person’s lifetime. The World Bank and IMF wield substantial influence by funding and shaping social...

CHICAGO (CBS) –Mayor Brandon Johnson spoke Friday in favor of a basic income guarantee program at a conference held in Chicago. "We are ushering in a more dynamic, prosperous economy by giving people a guarantee that their lives have meaning," Johnson said. About 3,200 families are receiving direct payments in the first-ever Cook County Promise Guaranteed Income pilot program for low-earning households.

In a development straight out of a dystopian sci-fi thriller, fast food giant Wendy’s has embarked on a chilling experiment, replacing its drive-through order takers with an AI chatbot powered by Google software. This technological takeover aims to streamline the ordering process by training the AI to understand customer requests and decrease waiting times at the drive-throughs. According to reports from the Wall Street Journal, Wendy’s is set to launch this eerie transformation in its home state of Ohio, starting with locations in Columbus. The company plans to implement the change in June, all in the name of shorter lines...

A team of researchers at the University of British Columbia, working with two wealthy donors has found that transferring money from rich people to poor people can increase the level of happiness reported by the poor people who receive the money. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes experiments they conducted that involved transferring money from rich people to poor people in both rich and poor countries. There is an old proverb that says "you can't buy happiness." But that may not be true, at least for people living at the lowest...

Residents, which includes illegal immigrants, of Cook County, Illinois, will be eligible to apply. To receive the assistance, applicants must be adult residents of Cook County, which includes parts of Chicago, and make an income of below 250% of the federal poverty level. ***** The government's press release state’s that 36% of county residents are eligible to apply, and the program is funded through the American Rescue Plan, which was launched to help struggling Americans dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

More than 140 people experiencing homelessness in Denver will each be provided up to $1,000 in cash a month for up to one year as part of a basic income program designed to help "lift individuals out of homelessness," the city announced last week. The $2 million contract with the Denver Basic Income Project was approved by the City Council and will provide direct cash assistance to more than 140 women, transgender and gender non-conforming individuals, and families in shelters. "Just as important as housing and shelter is a regular source of income for those experiencing homelessness," Mayor Michael B....

I have often wondered how to determine when the United States of America is approaching a catastrophic financial crisis, similar to the stock market crash of 1929. President Biden will never provide us with that information because it would further expose him as a dysfunctional, incompetent, nowhere man sitting in his nowhere fake office land. Biden, as the captain of the Titanic, would yell, "Full speed ahead. Maybe we'll get lucky and hit a mine!" You get the point. The Biden administration, better known as dysfunction junction, still blames Trump for their disastrous tenure in office: "Hey, look over there...

Pennsylvania Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf is pushing state legislators to pass a bill that would send checks up to $2,000 to households with income under $80,000.

Ukraine just silently announced it’s the first country to implement the WEF’s ‘Great Reset’ by setting up a social credit application combining Universal Basic Income (UBI), a Digital Identity and a Vaccine Passport all within one app. Similar systems in other countries too. The Social Credit Score System is silently being implemented around the world.

Welfare is often sold as a means to help people lift themselves out of poverty, but every piece of data ever accumulated on the topic reveals the opposite is true. With few exceptions, welfare becomes a generational problem as families who become dependents of government remain dependents of government. There are ways to properly assist those in need without locking them into the welfare state. Jobs programs, education programs, and temporary relief funds can help people get a leg up from their circumstances, but Democrats know these types of programs do not accomplish the singular goal of the welfare state:...

One of the favorite utopian goals of the left-wing loons — from members of "The Squad" to Andrew Yang — is the guaranteed-to-fail fantasy of Universal Basic Income...or, as Dire Straits said in their 1985 hit, "Money for Nothing." This welfare-on-steroids plan has already been tried and failed in Ontario, Canada and Finland, but progressive hopes spring eternal in California, where many new ideas — business concepts, laws, social experiments, fads, drugs (legal or not), or whatever — are often tried. It's a type of proving ground, if you willStockton, California has tried an experiment of its own, giving $500...

..the government of President Emmanuel Macron announced an "inflation allowance" that will send at least 100 euros (116 US dollars) to 48 million people in France. The move comes with less than six months until voters go to the polls next year in the presidential election. For those in France who's income is below 2000 euros a month the payout will be even greater perhaps as much as 200 to 300 euros. Also this week legislative action to allow school principals in France to have knowledge of the vaccination status of school students. It was a matter that caused a...

The votes — 36-0 in the Senate and 64-0 in the Assembly — showed bipartisan support for an idea