Booker and Yang

I come from a long line of blue-collar, union-member Democrats. In large part, that's the motivation for this blog.  Trump-bashing can be seductive and addicting, but I want 15104 to be better grounded.

A number of family stories illustrate the importance of what I call proactive progressivism ; here's one.  My Grandfather Boytim worked in the Homestead mill of U. S. Steel; two of his sons worked with him.  They also accompanied him in an ambulance to the hospital after a crane, hoisting a steel beam much heavier than the weight limit defined for the crane:

• dropped the beam
• pinned him
• smashed his pelvis
• caused him so much pain that even successive shots of morphine didn't help

 and ultimately killed him..  So call me a socialist, if you like, for what I'm about to present.

It's entirely possible that my grandfather might have lived a normal life span, might have left his widow and nine children with some material support, had not the politics and the economy of that era made him a victim.  Two current Democratic candidates have ideas that might preclude such victimization.  Senator Cory Booker suggests what he calls baby bonds - that is, a guaranteed stipend for every child born in the U. S.    Andrew Yang proposes UBI or Universal Basic Income - a set of guaranteed payments of $1,000 per month, or $12,000 per year, to all U.S. citizens over the age of 18. 

The cost to the Federal government of either or both of these programs would be roughly $4 billion for baby bonds, and $888 billion for UBI .  That works out to about $12.-00 per person of those served.  Strikes me that the quality of life and health that could result are worth it ...