The researchers Stacia Martin-West of the University of Tennessee and Amy Castro Baker of the University of Pennsylvania collected and analyzed data from individuals who received $500 a month and from individuals who did not. Some of their findings are obvious. The cash transfer reduced income volatility, for one: Households getting the cash saw their month-to-month earnings fluctuate 46 percent, versus the control group's 68 percent. The families receiving the $500 a month tended to spend the money on essentials, including food, home goods, utilities, and gas. (Less than 1 percent went to cigarettes and alcohol.) The cash also doubled the households' capacity to pay unexpected bills, and allowed recipient families to pay down their debts. Individuals getting the cash were also better able to help their families and friends, providing financial stability to the broader community.  

"It let me pay off some credit cards that I had been living off of, because my household income wasn't large enough," one recipient named Laura Kidd-Plummer told me. "It helped me to be able to take care of my groceries without having to run to the food bank three times a month. That was very helpful." During the study, Laura also experienced a spell of homelessness when the apartment building she was living in had a fire. The Stockton cash helped her secure a new apartment, ensuring that she could afford movers and a security deposit.

The researchers also found that the guaranteed income did not dissuade participants from working--adding to a large body of evidence showing that cash benefits do not dramatically shrink the labor force and in some cases help people work by giving them the stability they need to find and take a new job. In the Stockton study, the share of participants with a full-time job rose 12 percentage points, versus five percentage points in the control group. In an interview, Martin-West and Castro Baker suggested that the money created capacity for goal setting, risk taking, and personal investment.

"The big change was how it helped me see myself," Tomas Vargas, another recipient, told me. "It was dead positive: I am an entrepreneur, I think of business ideas, I make business choices, I want to be financially stable." When the program started, he worked in logistics. Now, in addition to nurturing his side projects, he is a case manager for individuals on parole.  

He noted that receiving the money had made him more civically and politically engaged, if also more infuriated at the country's scorn toward low-income households. "It's like it's a big game," he said. "These people are living with a silver spoon, talking--but how about you walk this life? Have you ever even seen it?"

Finally, the cash recipients were healthier, happier, and less anxious than their counterparts in the control group. "Cash is a better way to cure some forms of depression and anxiety than Prozac," says Michael Tubbs, a former mayor of Stockton, who spearheaded the project. "So many of the illnesses we see in our community are a result of toxic stress and elevated cortisol levels and anxiety, directly attributed to income volatility and not having enough to cover your basic necessities. That's true in the public-health crisis we're in now."

More work, less destitution, more family stability, less strained social networks, less stress, fewer incidences of homelessness, fewer skipped meals: This is what welfare could give the country.