By: Mark Glennon*
At least credit them for not hiding what they stand for.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle spoke Friday at a Chicago conference promoting universal basic income, or UBI. Separately, Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Jackson Potter celebrated the union’s ascension to political power beyond the workplace, detailing its history and reach in an In These Times column. The two speeches and the Potter column tell us much about what Chicago faces.
Few things illustrate how far left today’s progressives have gone than their support for UBI. It means money-for-nothing — no questions asked, aside from a maximum income level. It calls for no work requirement and no restrictions on how the money is used.
Don’t call it Marxist, because a basic tenet of Marxism is “from each according to his abilities.” UBI asks for nothing, so it’s something worse.
Johnson and Preckwinkle (full video linked there) each gave ringing endorsements of UBI, particularly Cook County’s program, in their addresses to Friday’s Basic Income Guarantee conference — the BIG conference, as it’s called. Preckwinkle is arguably the country’s leading UBI supporter, regularly boasting that her Cook County program is the largest in the nation. It has been giving $500 monthly to about 3,000 county residents, Preckwinkle says. She’d have liked to cover far more. A quarter of the county’s residents qualify for the program, the income limit on which is 2.5 times the poverty level. Some 230,000 residents applied but could not be accommodated because she did not have the revenue to cover them.
Both Johnson and Preckwinkle emphasized that a key reason they support UBI is that they trust people to use the money they are given wisely. “Unrestricted cash assistance means that we trust people, Johnson said, “and we provide them with the flexibility and choice in their public benefits to determine the best way to meet their household needs. So it’s not just about the guarantee, it’s about the trust that families know what to do with their resources when it comes to their lives.”
“Historically,” Preckwinkle said, “both public and private institutions have been unwilling to directly invest in low-income people without significant restrictions attached…because our society does not trust that people living in poverty have the character or ability to make good decisions for themselves.”
If only it were true. No, we cannot trust people to use cash handouts properly. Some will use it wisely, but others will spend it on booze, dope or gambling — outlets happily used as major revenue sources by Illinois government. Far more will simply blow money on current consumption or foolish expenditures. Examples are all too common for any age, income group or race. Professional athletes are routine examples, so many of whom end up bankrupt despite huge incomes that should have set them for life.
Preckwinkle then appeared on CSPAN to promote UBI. Watch all 40 minutes if you can stand her smug dismissal of concerns about her program. She cited figures she thinks support her program showing that 56% of program recipients are working. Forty-four percent aren’t working but get cash handouts with no questions asked, and that’s success? Just 15% have a disability, she also said.
Particularly astonishing were here comments about sustainability of funding for her Cook County plan. “We have the resources thanks to Joe Biden and Congress,” she said. That prompted the host to ask where that use was authorized in the federal COVID bailout money she was referring to. Her answer, which you can see at about the 6:10 mark: “One of the blessings of the American rescue plan is that there weren’t, ha, ha ha, restrictions.”
A listener later called in also to question sustainability of funding for the plan and she claimed that the county is setting aside revenue from cannabis sales to fund it in the future.
Got that? The government will sell pot to cover checks handed out. She’s quite proud of that.
Turning to Jackson Potter’s column, what’s frightening is that it’s entirely accurate. Potter is a key leader in the Chicago Teachers Union. The union now has unprecedented power in city government thanks to its very effective help electing its former worker, Johnson, who got over $5 million in campaign contributions from the CTU and other teachers unions.
Potter first gives the history of how the radical CTU faction he helped found, CORE — the Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators — got control of the union. For our many readers from out of state who want to avoid Chicago’s fate, there you go.
Most importantly, he describes how the CTU now exerts political power that goes beyond issues about teachers and schools — power derived mostly through strikes — and how that has inspired similar action in other cities, primarily through strikes.
“Today, Potter says, “the CTU’s 2012 strike is often referenced as the dawn of an approach to contract negotiations known as Bargaining for the Common Good (BCG). While we started with more traditional proposals for lower class sizes and increased staffing, we experimented with demands for progressive revenue, equitable use of the Tax Increment Financing program” and more. “Another example of this approach was the CTU’s demand for affordable housing for all of Chicago’s 20,000 homeless students during our 2019 strike,” he says.
He cites where teachers unions followed CTU’s lead, including cities in Minnesota, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona and Kentucky.
The playbook, in short, is to use unions as the vanguard of a radical, class struggle movement of to capture political power, with strikes as a key weapon. Sound familiar? That is textbook Marxism.
*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
Income is another word that has been hijacked by social scientists. These payments aren’t income at all. Income is defined as: money received, especially on a regular basis, for work or through investments. They’re cash payments. Nobody is working or investing for these payouts. Pot dispensaries, from what I’ve gathered, operate exclusively on a cash basis. Because marijuana is still illegal federally, banks aren’t allowed to do business with dispensaries, however there might be some workarounds. This means that there are huge amounts of cash just sitting around at these dispensaries, as well as a large invitation for theft, violence… Read more »
Just change the definition of “income”, Davey Boy. Are you naive, or “gifted”?
I’m really surprised that these places haven’t been robbed more. Large amounts of cash in these businesses and the ones I’ve been in well, lets say security was there, but not there,
Most accept debit cards processed as ATM transactions which is probably how most people pay.
Are we surprised that people who never had a job, never wanted one and never will are getting handouts from the smug, grey haired giant that makes her contempt for taxpayers evident? Are you surprised said cradle to grave welfare gravy train riders blow the money foolishly? That’s why they are in the situation they are. If they used the myriad of social services as intended, they would be out of the poverty hole. But that’s no fun and would entail getting a job so, no.
Indiana, you make an excellent point. The fact that programs to alleviate poverty have existed for decades, but we still have multi-generational poverty, leads to the conclusion that people do not make good choices, despite the help offered.
But progressive just scream that they need more money.
Life for the uneducated, illiterate union-controlled school graduate is a future doomed to low wage, low skills employment, combined with the inability to function as a normal person in society. This is evidenced by people of all races with: low credit scores, children born out of wedlock with multiple fathers, low incomes, high crime rates, low home ownership rates and the inability to control food intake. They literally eat themselves to death on processed food. I have family members that are diabetic and on welfare, gorging themselves on dollar store pizzas three times a week, guzzling it down with soda… Read more »
We’ve all seen the comparisons of society now to an Orwellian 1984. That seems to be true on a macro level. But the reality in leftist controlled areas is more comparable to Lord of the Flies. A society and culture led by emotional, irrational children pretending at being adults. An educational system led by these immature people, devoted to turning out more and more “victims” incapable of functioning in a civilized society. The “culture wars” that people disdain as unimportant are actually the only way to stop the complete fall into Lord of the Flies territory. Once that happens, 1984… Read more »
Basic Income Guarantee has been around for decades. It was called welfare, food stamps, public housing, free health care, free utilities, free cell phones, free breakfast, lunch and dinner at school along with a take home backpack for the weekends, free meals at schools for the summer, free cab and bus rides, free, free, free for everything. Nothing new here because does anybody believe that the free stuff listed above is going away? Nope, that’s included along with a check from working taxpayers to spend anyway they want.
Here is what I posted on another article if you missed it. The value of all this free stuff can be significant depending on family size.
https://www.heritage.org/welfare/report/largest-welfare-increase-us-history-will-boost-government-support-76400-poor-family
TY, why work? Go on the handout program and have everyday off. I remember just a few years ago the welfare checks were going to be reduced by an amount of approximately $0.25 cents a person and the outrage was epic. Meanwhile there are constant attempts to lower SS benefits, Medicare benefits, Medicaid payments to doctors and hospitals and thats okay, no outrage. Generational welfare, you can’t go wrong.
I don’t know, I think everyone is overthinking this. Like I’ve said many times, Chicago is a minority-majority city where the minorities mostly live at or near poverty levels. Toni’s merely found a new way to make her poor voters happy, and improve their lives, by giving them free money. She’s not doing this for votes, she already won her last election handily. We middle class folks believe that working, being responsible, raising children properly and not commit crimes is the best way to stay out of poverty. But her voters don’t want her moralizing. They just want the cash.… Read more »
My understanding was that it was to be $500/ month/ two years. Thats 12K to be a lazy, non-productive parasite that is already likely to be sucking the welfare system dry.
I have great sympathy for people who are of advanced age and for those who have significant physical or mental health issues where a realistic hope of a brighter financial future likely is not attainable. For that segment of society I do not begrudge such help at all. Maybe you don’t share that feeling. All I know is that your statement on its surface castigates all such recipients—not a flattering mirror into one’s personal character. Be charitable in thought and deed, and you will be rewarded.
Ms. Preckwinkles stats, if to be believed, stated that more than half of the recipients have jobs. Whether that entails full time employment or a token effort at work wasn’t specified. So clearly, the elderly/ disabled angle can’t be utilized to excuse all participants. Most, myself included, have no qualms about caring for the elderly, disabled ( mentally or physically) and veterans that need it. But when I see able- bodied adults fully capable of working and contributing to society that seem to have the energy ( and money) to persue pleasure siphoning off funds from those that truly need… Read more »
Did any of the participants in the basic income program pay to attend the basic income conference?
Or at least be required to attend mandatory financial literacy classes…???
To those who continue to cling to Chicago and Illinois, protect your wealth and children. Run run run away as fast as you can to Wisconsin, Indiana, Kentucky, Iowa or Missouri. Any one of these states will be better than the one your in now. You have had years of warnings. Act on them now or forever hold your peace.
Run away?? You should run to your nearest political affiliates and team up!!
If you disregard the tendency of Wirepoints & subversive commenters to beat up and demoralize their readers, these clowns have a serious uphill battle. They’ve basically declared war against the business class, and poor folks have never won a fight in the history of the USA. Claiming victory over kids and disinterested parents in one thing, but telling your supporters that you’re going to “get the money” and distribute it Robinhood style is the worst lesson these clowns have ever taught, and that’s saying a lot.
But wait, there’s more! I suspect that reparations move is just around the corner.
BLM BJ and Prickwinkle are both racists, and their primary constituents look like them and want free stuff for their fake victimhood. Their constituents vote for a living, not work for a living. It’s the white liberals who get to pick up the tab, for as long as their dumb enough to continue to live in Chicago/Cook County.
Qualifying for UBI is such a huge underachievement, I have strong assumption that those capable might even be too lazy to vote.
Yes, too lazy to vote. That is why the D’s are all about harvesting ballots.
Elections have consequences. This is a big one. Those of you who were too busy to vote in the mayoral election now you can get out your wallet and pay and pay and pay. Of course all the people getting a universal basic income will spend the money wisely, and of course Brandon Johnson will transform Chicago into a brand new, debt free, shiny city on a hill. This is just the beginning.
“One of the blessings of the American rescue plan is that there weren’t, ha, ha ha, restrictions.”
Well, she’s half right. There were no restrictions, but that wasn’t a blessing.
Not worried about saying it though. Periwinkle and BJ and the public employee union’s ‘radicalism’ seems to me to be pretty much Democratic Party orthodoxy in Chicago and Cook County – in all of Illinois, truthfully.
It’s not like there’s a ‘wing’ group of Illinois Democrats who feel compelled to call any of this progressive-paradise left-of-left stuff into question in response to Periwinkle or BJ or JB bragging about it.
If UBI was really that simple. Why don’t they push for $10,000 per month to everyone and we’ll all be rich?
Amazingly, I think this idea originated in the left wing venture capital community. They think people will be “more creative” and “pursue life’s goals” instead of being tied to the albatross of having to work for money. Albert Wenger (Continuations.com) who runs Union Square Ventures is where I was first exposed to it. It’s a horrifically bad idea–but during Covid with all the stipends and govt spending it is essentially what we got. Hint: Minimum wage won’t stop at $15.00/hr either… Have written about a lot of this at my substack
Yep, minimum wage is the same gal in a different dress. Why don’t they push for $60 per hour and we’ll all be affluent? Crickets….
It was easy handing out the UBI equity “free stuff” fed $bucks$ during COVID. Now the hard part for machine/ new machine is to see if dullard taxpayer/voters will dig into their already overtaxed pockets. Or maybe they don’t even notice
What goes along with BIG? Make work jobs to grow the union numbers, also known as featherbedding.
The Marxists have big plans for Chicago – play this out by ten years, and you may not even recognize the place anymore.
What’s astounding in gigantic Potter–In These Time article about the heroic history of CTU/CORE is that he not once mentions taxpayers or voters??
I wish WP-ers would quit referring to Johnson, Periwinkle, Potter, etc (“the New Machine”) as SOCIALIST/ MARXISTS. They are all wealthy people. They are simply con artists users with their guaranteed upper-income not to be diminished deals & pensions of ME and chump change virtue signalling UBI peanuts for THEE. Somehow all on the chump fed or taxpayers dime?
But that actually proves the case. A hallmark of Marxism is that party leaders make out like bandits.
Mark, here is a “must – read” article on the interesection of marxism and wokeness. Long, but *essential* reading; below excerpts: “At the heart of both political cult rituals and the diversity training racket is the conviction that all participants suffer from incurable ideological failings, with which they must contend in a literally endless cycle of confession and penance…” https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/the-story-of-o-woke-labor-management The Story of O. How a Marxist whole foods cult from the ’70s perfected modern woke social control BY SAMUEL BIAGETTI JUNE 06, 2023 “… Previously known as the “C.O.,” for “Cooperative Organization,” it had first taken shape in the… Read more »
Yes, excellent, as Tablet usually is. I agree completely with its main point that wokeness is primarily a means of enforcing conformity and control.
“Racket” that a good word to describe all the fake-progressive public sec hero $opportunists$. You have the city of Chicago, “city of big sholders/hog butcher to the world”– who very reason for existence is because it is (or was) at the center of transportation, commerce, commodities, agriculture & industry—PRODUCING GOODS & SERVICES now bizarrely reduced to being the equity hustle handout capital of USA. My parents moved here after WWII from hardscrabble rural Midwest & immigrant USA backgrounds because it was where the opportunities where to live a productive life (enjoy the fruits of your labor). Who can say that… Read more »
I think that article is trash and wordy. Normally, I like Tablet, but not this. I couldn’t get past the ridiculous and sensational ‘five chairs’ without skimming the rest. Cults are hard core entities that require massive resources for enforcement and some sort of spiritual drive to keep them going. Literal bandits redistributing captured money from a functional and self-sustaining system has none of this. One is rooted in spiritual drive and vagueness that appeals to everyone. The other is analogous to theft and classical behavior conditioning. Just as in classical conditioning, you remove the stimulus and the behavior disappears.… Read more »
Yet, wokism is driving western civilization off the cliff, and nothing is stopping it. I read someone yesterday describe wokism as being as revolutionary and as completely entrenched as the Enlightenment rapidly changed Western Europe or the Islamic Republic enforced theocracy in Iran. It’s no longer some fad or fringe belief system – Every institution from the very top to the very bottom prays homage to the new globohomo value system, you can’t go into your local retail store or play a simple video game with a pride or trans flag displayed prominently. Blackrock at the top enforces it, and… Read more »
“Yet, wokism is driving western civilization off the cliff, and nothing is stopping it.” This is the most incoherent and ridiculously untrue post of yours I’ve ever read.
Wokeism -> Enlightenment -> Western Europe -> Islamic Republic of Iran -> Blackrock -> Antifa. -That’s one hell of a segway! LOL
To me, it is completely insane, dystopia even, that antifa attacks and protects globohomo in the streets, just as blackrock protects globohomo in the board room, and HR protects globohomo over corporate email, and the school board protects globohomo in the classroom, and the even the LA Dodgers baseball team protects globohomo – in this case – gay men in drag acting like nuns mocking Christians. This insane narcissistic belief system that celebrates exotic ways to self-pleasure oneself is so completely bizarre and foreign to anything we’ve ever seen. Its taken over the entire culture, and it is completely entrenched,… Read more »
What you fail to realize, this is assuming you aren’t a bad actor who is circulating this junk on purpose, is that fixating on opposition propaganda is a sure path to defeat. As a matter of fact, this pride flag campaign, and the countless others that have inspired it, is purposely designed to defeat your will and morale. Here’s a revelation: Big brother is you watching! By injecting a symbol presentation tactic into the chat, you’re shifting focus away from a productive agenda. Anything that distracts from the formation and implementation of a cohesive plan is a waste of time… Read more »
Just to hammer this home, debtsor is most likely practicing a simple propaganda tactic that employs a foreground and background. In the foreground, he’s all for fighting against wokeism, but in the background, he relentlessly boasts of opposition strengths, opposition unity, and oppositional power. It’s not much different than a magician focusing your attention on one hand while the other hand stuffs a rabbit in his hat for the next trick. If I made a post about the giant dog turd I saw neglected in front of City Hall last week, debtsor would most likely swoop in and respond with… Read more »
Hahaha you’ve just not paying attention. Or misunderstanding what is happening beneath your very nose. Which is how we all got into this mess in the first place.
Here’s some info on wokism and the end of history.
https://anthropoetics.ucla.edu/views/747/
MMFF – MORE MONEY FOR FREE Legacy of Johnson’s War on Poverty has been a disaster which failed to lift low-income families into middle-class social norms, and destroyed two-parent homes for several generations of children. We now have generations of one-parent households that beget one-parent households, with nary a responsible legitimate wage-earning household-supporting father in sight. Those welfare programs have also spawned a feral gangsta-lifestyle of rap, guns, and random violence that kills-off many young black men. This BIG free-money program, with no constraints on household spending or prerequisite obligations, likely pays for more incidental frivolous spending, rather than legitimately… Read more »
“ Another example of this approach was the CTU’s demand for affordable housing for all of Chicago’s 20,000 homeless students during our 2019 strike”
If CTU doesn’t ask for this with Johnson in office, that means CTU never cared about that issue. If they ask and Johnson denies, that means Johnson never cared.
“Unrestricted cash assistance means that we trust people…”
Except when it comes to school vouchers.
OMG!
Whoever you are…you nailed it!
The fear is they may actually get an education if the money follows the student and an educated public is dangerous to the status quo.
Well, with UBI, those parents can choose to spend that $500 a month on a private education or continue to send their kids to public school and spend the money on something they believe is a better choice. Sounds like UBI gives them more choices than a voucher system.
I’m not a fan of either of these welfare programs but one clearly provides more choice.
Every plan these people have come up with, except this one, is based on the presupposition that individuals are incapable of making decisions in their best interest. It should make you think.
Get real. The five hundo is going towards more fast food, entertainment and bling. That’s how people that qualify for it live and what keeps them where they are. Constant self- gratification immediately is their mantra.
So they would rather choose fast food, entertainment, and bling over private school. Life is filled with choices but either way we can stop pretending that they don’t have the ability to send their kids to private school with this money.
$500 a month doesn’t buy private schools for these kids. So no, it doesn’t, and let’s stop pretending it does. $500 doesn’t even buy daycare for their 4 year old without the rest being subsidized by the state. I don’t think the money will be going to vices for most people. The homeless bums, sure, but the single mom with kids, no way. What $500 a month does for someone getting the UBI is help them make ends meet a little easier. Yes, they’ll probably eat more fast food with it, and by entertainment, it will help pay for the… Read more »