🇺🇸 Stockton, USA (2019 - 2021)
In 2019, the city of Stockton, California launched a bold guaranteed income experiment, offering $500/month to 125 randomly selected residents for two years, with no conditions attached. In a country where social support is often tangled in bureaucracy and shame, this trial was a quiet revolution in trust.
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USA
2019 – 2021
125 low-to-middle income residents
$500/month (no conditions)
Assess stability, mental health and employment
Stockton Economic Empowerment Demo (SEED)
Completed
Dignity, trust, mental health and employment
Stockton Basic Income Case Study - Summary
The Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration (SEED) was the first mayor-led guaranteed income initiative in the United States. Spearheaded by then-Mayor Michael Tubbs, the program provided $500 per month to residents earning at or below the city’s median income, no applications, no requirements, and no oversight of how the money was spent.
What happened was both predictable and radical. Recipients used the funds to cover basic needs: groceries, bills, rent, and car repairs, stabilizing their lives in ways that allowed them to plan, breathe, and move forward. Over the course of the trial, participants experienced improved mental and physical health, lower levels of depression and anxiety, and, in a key surprise to critics, increased full-time employment, as the stability gave them time and energy to seek better opportunities.
Stockton’s success challenged the long-standing myth that poverty is a moral failure, or that support must be earned through suffering. It offered a glimpse of a system built on trust, not punishment, and sparked a national conversation about what it really means to empower people.
Increased Life Satisfaction
Recipients reported feeling more hopeful, more capable, and more in control of their futures, a quiet but powerful shift in everyday wellbeing.
Reduced Stress & Anxiety
With basic expenses covered, participants experienced measurable drops in cortisol levels, financial panic, and decision fatigue.
Increase in Full-Time Employment
Participants were more likely to find full-time work, as the financial tability gave them freedom to search, interview and take chances.
Increased Financial Security
Even modest monthly support helped smooth out income volatility, reduce debt cycles, and provide breathing room for emergencies.
Greater Sense of Dignity & Autonomy
With no strings attached, recipients felt trusted, not survelied, and used the income to make empowered, self-directed choices.
Improved Focus & Agency
Freed from daily financial pressure, participants reported clearer thinking, stronger motivation, and a greater ability to set and pursue goals.
Why It Matters
In a country where social programs are often tangled in red tape and stigma, Stockton proved that unconditional support works. This wasn’t just an economic intervention, it was a challenge to deeply held assumptions about poverty, motivation, and worth. By trusting people first, the SEED project sparked real gains in mental health, employment, and stability, and lit a path forward for cities everywhere.
Evidence and Reports
These links offer deeper insights into Stockland’s Basic Income trial and related global research:
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