People support welfare policies, but not UBI
Barry et al 20 – [Colleen L. Barry PhD, MPP, Hahrie Han PhD, MA, Rachel Presskreischer MS, Kelly E. Anderson MPP, and Emma Elizabeth McGinty PhD, MS; 8/8/2020; Colleen L. Barry, Rachel Presskreischer, Kelly E. Anderson, and Emma Elizabeth McGinty are with the Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD. Hahrie Han is with SNF Agora Institute of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore.; American Journal of Public Health; "Public Support for Social Safety-Net Policies for COVID-19 in the United States, April 2020"; https://ajph-aphapublications-org.proxy.lib.umich.edu/doi/full/10.2105/AJPH.2020.305919; accessed: 7-22-2023; Lowell-JL]
Among the income support policies, a majority supported an increased federal minimum wage (58%), but fewer supported universal basic income (39%). All of the unemployment policies had majority support, including expanding unemployment insurance benefits (52%), tax credits for businesses to retain and hire workers (66%), employment education and training programs (68%), and public spending on construction projects (71%).
When asked to gauge the role of government in society, 34% of the respondents favored the government taking “active steps in every area it can” relative to only 24% of the respondents in the 2019 pre-COVID-19 Gallup survey4 that used identical question wording.