A brief follow-up here on MoCo’s ongoing “Boost” UBI (partly paid for by you, the hardworking taxpayer or you, the business owner, or you, the public school teacher) that caught my eye as I went back to the county’s MocoBoost.org website to see if new data or – gasp- an actual report on the efficacy of the programhad been posted yet. Remember that despite circulating money for over a year, no strings attached, to a lucky few program participants… a report on the efficacy of the program had been delayed by the think tank (left-leaning Urban Institute) that promised a deliverable this fall.
Well, nope, nothing had. But what caught my eye is that MoCo’s Collaboration Council (some nonprofit collaborating on this UBI program with the county government) has posted another “storytellers” video. We profiled the first one back in February, 2024. A young, able-bodied (and appearing of sound mind) man was praising the no-strings income because he could now “focus on his business”. We hold no grudge against this young person – they are suffering under the weight of government debt and inflated housing costs thanks to the MoCo County Council and their insane policies. We do begrudge CM Jawando and CM Glass and anybody else who supported throwing taxpayer money at this, in the first place.
Now, it appears that this newest one was posted about a month ago, in late July of 2024. See a screen cap here:
The video only has 40 views to-date but here’s hoping more people / concerned taxpayers pay attention to it. The entire video is in Spanish, with English subtitles. It does not, at least per this video, appear that Jose knows any English despite being in the county for 20 years. In it, Jose, a likeable older fellow, tells a bit about his life story and what brought him to MoCo some 20 years ago, and it ends with him explaining how he likes UBI “boost”.
Well, yeah, free, no-strings cash is popular with the people receiving it. This isn’t some kind of revelation in behavioral economics. Just like the “free cash” a few Tik Tok wannabes got while committing check fraud against JP Morgan Chase Bank was no doubt very welcome by them when they discovered the “glitch”. Of course, these people are now being correctly charged with check fraud and / or having large negative balances posted to their accounts.
Anyways, Jose says he “couldn’t survive comfortably, so I decided to emigrate.” Understandable. What is never explained, once, in this video, is whether he came to this area and nation legally, or via unlawful / illegal measures. See screen cap below.
If Jose didn’t come the correct, legal way, then this video is an affront to every taxpaying MoCo citizen. And lawful immigrant. And lawful refugee. Jose seems nice enough, and he’s brought his family to the area as well (chain migration) to clearly survive a tough situation back home (we are never told where home is / was). In no way should we pile on and in no way is this a public denouncement of Jose. Perhaps Jose is now legally in the county. Perhaps he always was (again, the video doesn’t say – is this an intentional ommision?) But there are literally millions of such people trying to escape bad public policy across this vast planet. Should every single one be able to get UBI from MoCo taxpayers?
Since the “UBI Boost” program strictly forbids itself from asking about immigration status from program participants, we literally have no idea how many of the people receiving this no-strings attached “money” (totaling over a million bucks) are in the country under actual legal status.
Is that too much to ask? That no-strings attached, direct welfare supported, partially, by taxpayers, only goes to verified United States citizens or lawful residents?
