The (In)visible Crisis of Living in Late-Stage Capitalism: How Nationwide Guaranteed Income Could Bolster America's Social Safety Net

It would be of no surprise to most American citizens that the country is in a cost of living crisis. The crisis is exacerbated by the reduction in the already barebones social safety net within this country, with planned cuts to federal aid programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and SNAP. A possible solution to fill in some of the gaps left in governmental assistance is Guaranteed Income programs. This paper aims to analyze the design and the implementation of policy that emulates guaranteed income at different levels of government (federal, state, and local) in order to determine what elements should be included in a theoretical nationwide guaranteed income policy and how the various levels of government should interact with one another through the framework of cooperative federalism.