 Good afternoon and welcome. My name is Leon Sndikwumana. I'm the chair of the economics department This is our big day where we celebrate our the achievements from our brilliant and Innovative entrepreneurial real undergrad students We have a number of events which are scheduled today One is this this debate, but there is also an exhibition for the service learning community service learning project next door Downstairs it is an economic undergraduate undergraduate research assistant Program where the students are showing off their research and then this evening we'll have Presentations for the on the corporatives enterprise program Where students are going to show what they have done. They'll send some of them will get their certificates and We'll have awards different awards scholarships for all kinds of achievements, which will be given in this room after the after the debate So I'm going to cut try to cut short my long speech No, I don't have a speech Except to welcoming you and thanking all those who have traveled from from far away Not far away to come to attend this this event But let me first thank Michael and his team for Michael the Director of the undergrad program and his team Sheila who I don't know what will happen in this house if she wasn't there then Valerie she found a graduate economic advisor and her team I see Leah I see And I'm not here and want to thank our dean for coming to John to watch Then I want to thank the judges who How do we how do you do a debate without judges? Thank you very much for taking your time to come James Steven and Bill Then thanks to the debaters For taking making it having the courage to come and actually convince to us that all the sides are correct. I Wish the judge would like to do judges. You have to find a winner Then let me just introduce the moderator Antonia Morini and she's going to tell us how the debate is going to go and the rules of the game. Thank you Oh, you know, I forgot the biggest part of the day The barbecue It's a 430. Hi, everybody. Thank you for coming. My name is Antonia Morini. I'm a senior here economic student The topic this year is should universal basic income be implemented in the United States? So the procedure is as follows. There's 15 minutes for opening statements for each side Five-minute break then 16 minutes of back-and-forth with two rounds of four minutes for each team Then another five-minute break Ten minutes for a Q&A from the judges and then five minutes each for closing statements Then the judges will deliberate and decide on the winner. Our judges are Bill Troy Stephen Clark and James Santucci We have the affirmative over here if you guys want to introduce yourselves really quick And the negative ready we can begin affirmative people want to start in 2016 40.6 million people in the United States lived in poverty in the same year 21.2 percent of all children or 15.3 million kids in the US lived in poverty. That's almost one in every five children 29.8 percent of the population or 95 million people live close to poverty with incomes less than two times that of their poverty Thresholds and what's worse is that 6.7 percent of the population or 21.3 million people live in deep poverty With incomes below 15 percent of their poverty thresholds Wealth and income inequality has been steadily increasing in the United States for the past five decades With the top 1% of income earners doubling their share of national income in that time span Today the top 1% of Americans make 39 times the income of the bottom 99 percent on average The economic growth of high-income countries is making the rich richer But having very little effect on the working classes the research of economist Emmanuel Sayez and Thomas Piketty showed that and I Quote the bottom half of earners went from making 20 percent of overall income in 1979 to just 13 percent in 2014 The top 1% on the other hand have gone from making 11 percent to 20 percent The pie has gotten vastly bigger and the richest families have read bigger and bigger pieces from it The hard truth is that people in this country are struggling to maintain a decent standard of living The United States currently has a wide range of welfare programs that are supposedly anti-poverty But let's take a look at the facts TANF is the temporary assistance for needy families program Only 23 percent of families living in poverty received temporary assistance for needy families cash assistance in the United States The earned income tax credit is a tax credit for families with at least one child For the tax year of 2018 a family of four in which couples are married and filing jointly must earn less than $51,492 a year to qualify Unfortunately almost one fourth of the payments are an error and there is an unknown fraudulent amount Lastly the great recession happened over a decade ago and though the massively wealthy made a swift recovery Many americans are still seeing the crippling effects of the crisis due to the failure of welfare programs Despite doubled unemployment rates during that time the number of families receiving assistance grew by only 13 percent So there is clearly a pattern of failures when it comes to these welfare programs As we see it there is one clear solution to end the inconsistency of poverty alleviation measures in this country And also help to overcome the extreme wealth disparities that exist within it. And that is the universal basic income or ubi Universal basic income is a form of social program that guarantees a certain amount of money to every citizen within a given governed population Without having to pass a test or fulfill a work requirement Every universal basic income plan can be different in terms of amount or design There's a plan to streamline the current social services programs like welfare and social security into one single cash payment Using the existing funding for those programs as well as other measures Like progressive taxes on the wealthy and increased taxes on corporations to fund a basic income Which raises the yearly earnings of low income americans Okay, hi So there are many reasons to adopt ubi as a measure in the united states of america First off ubi reduces bureaucratic costs with no strings attached coverage Determining who is eligible is far simpler and the cost of administering benefits is greatly reduced A simple cash payment would cut down on bureaucracy It would replace housing vouchers food stamps and other programs The simplicity of a program means it would also cost the government's less Conservative utah senator mike lee told the heritage foundation There is no reason the federal government should maintain 79 different means tested programs to elaborate According to an article by abc news in 1998 Nearly 60 percent of welfare spending was on cash benefits categorized as basic assistance By 2014 it was only about one quarter of temporary assistance for needy family spending As a bulk of the money went into administrative costs and spending towards the numerous other welfare programs to state issues Many of which are biased towards people without jobs Ubi increases bargaining power for workers because a guaranteed Unconditional income gives them leverage to say no to exploitative wages and abusive working conditions Employers can't push workers around as much this results in better mental health conditions for the recipients Because it reduces conditions of scarcity poverty and financial insecurity major sources of stress for millions of people Another big shift that the world has seen is the advent of globalization and with it increased technologies in automation and artificial intelligence This has shrunk the job market drastically resulting in rampant unemployment With advanced technology taking over more and more blue and light color jobs Ubi would act as a sort of security net for the millions of people who will be left jobless by the tech revolution Research shows that the longer you are unemployed the longer it takes you to find employment If the jobless had a small source of income to help them back on their feet They could find new jobs and start contributing to the economy sooner In 2018 facebook co-founder chris hues outlined his plan in his book fair shot He argues that u.s workers students and caregivers making $50,000 or less a year should receive a guaranteed income of $500 a month He said automation and globalization have destroyed the employment market It's created a lot of part-time contract and temporary jobs But these positions just aren't enough to provide a decent standard of living Cash is the best thing you can do to improve health outcomes education outcomes and lift people out of poverty hues said Hues's guaranteed income is financed by taxes on the top 1 It would work through a modernization of earned income tax credit To hues it's the only solution to an economy where a small group of people are getting very very wealthy While everyone else is struggling to make ends meet That segues into the second reason that ubi should be implemented It actually encourages people to find work contrary to what many anti ubi advocates believe Many current welfare programs take away benefits when recipients find work Sometimes leaving them financially worse off than before they were employed Ubi is for lower income adults regardless of employment status So recipients are free to seek additional income, which most everyone does The roosevelt institute found that a ubi would generate 4.6 million jobs and grow the economy by 12 continuously Ubi would be a catalyst for new jobs entrepreneurship and innovation In fact welfare isn't just a moral imperative to raise this living standards of the poor It is also a crucial investment in the health and future careers of low-income kids Today the average ubi student is estimated to graduate with an average of $30,000 in debt A result of this is that many students despite government welfare schemes such as the Pell Grant drop out of college before graduating A simple cash payment as per the proposal for ubi has the potential to significantly reduce this problem Take for example the striking finding from a new research paper From researchers at georgetown university in the university of chicago They analyzed a mexican program called prospera the world's first conditional cash transfer system Which provides money to poor families on the condition that they send their children to school and stay up to date on vaccinations and doctor's visits In 2016 prospera offered cash assistance to nearly 7 million mexican households In the paper researchers matched up data from prospera with data about households incomes to analyze for the first time the program's effect on children Several decades after they started receiving benefits The researchers found that the typical young person exposed to the program for seven years Ultimately completed three more years of education and was 37 percent more likely to be employed That's not all young prospera beneficiaries grew up to become adults who worked on average nine More hours each week than similarly poor children who weren't involved enrolled in the program They also earned higher hourly wages There are many other successful examples of systems that rely on direct cash payments to uplift those living under the poverty level These includes finland where in 2017 they began a two-year experiment It gave 2 000 unemployed people five hundred and sixty euros or around six hundred and twenty five dollars A month for two years even if they found work The recipients said it reduced stress It also gave them more incentive to find a good job or start their own business In 2010 the government of iran ran a ubi trial giving citizens Transfers of 29 of the medium income each month Poverty and inequality were reduced and there was no sign of large amounts of people leaving the labor market In fact people used it to invest in their businesses encouraging the growth of small enterprises A ubi trial in manitoba, canada showed a modest reduction in workers along with fewer hospitalizations and mental health diagnoses Close to the home are hawaii and alaska Alaska has had a guaranteed income program since 1982. It is called the alaska permanent fund dividend The preference for keeping the pfd was strongest among those with annual household incomes under $50,000 and those who describe their situations as barely surviving Even these respondents with household incomes Over a hundred thousand dollars tended to prefer that the income taxes be raised than the permanent dividend fund be terminated There is evidently great public support in the state of alaska for this program As it turns out the overall public support for ubi in the united states of america has also increased drastically over the last decade A poll conducted 10 years ago showed that public support of ubi was only at 12 A gallup poll conducted in 2017 showed that support for ubi is now up to 48 Meaning that support for ubi has quadrupled over the past decade Implementation of a ubi has countless possibilities Attacks on automation is one of the most beneficial and viable options Automation is increasing at an accelerating pace and threatening low-skill labor in 2017 price waterhouse cooper's estimated 38% of us jobs Will be in danger of being replaced by automation by 2030 Automations disruption will disproportionately affect low wage earners because of the routine nature of most of their labor Automation is extremely lucrative for many industries because it is operationally more efficient than labor and the cost of robotics and technology is decreasing The boston consulting group estimates the cost of robotics hardware and software has decreased about 40 over the past decade This is allowing organizations to substitute robotics for labor and reap considerable benefits It seems only just that these organizations benefiting from displacing these laborers offer some compensation to those suffering from structural unemployment One method of accomplishing this is through a sliding scale automation tax A sliding scale automation tax for tax organization at organizations at varying degrees depending on how many human workers The organization is employing compared to how many robots it has performing tasks humans would otherwise perform Another avenue for funding for a ubi would be a wealth tax There has been increasing wealth inequality in america As in 2019 inequality daughter reported jeff bezos bill gates and warren buffett combined owned significantly more than the bottom 50% of americans While these individuals and other high wage owners are certainly accomplished They benefited from the discoveries and advancements of generations before them as a result It seems only fair that these individuals and other wealthy americans returned some of their earnings to society Which helped them become who they are In a jacobin article u mass professor robert poland estimated a wealth tax of around 0.4% would raise about 2 billion 200 billion dollars This is a bit below some of the estimates for ubi costs But it is a modics tax that will not greatly affect those with such a high marginal utility such a low marginal utility of wealth Finally, this is this This redistribution this redistributes money from those who do not need it as much to those who need it more Another method of funding ubi for funding a ubi is through a tax on carbon in 2019 The united states had the second most carbon dioxide emissions globally only lagging china Additionally, it's 2007 per capita carbon dioxide emissions were also very high relative to other countries global carbon dioxide emissions increased from 2017 to 2018 and are expected to increase again from 2018 to 2019 The current rate of fossil fuel consumption is unsustainable and unless action is taken to reduce these carbon dioxide emissions The world may face irreversible consequences Since it appears industry and other fossil fuel motors are not motivated by the present climate crisis to adjust their behavior A carbon tax may provide the proper incentive for them to do so Since the environmental degradation is a negative externality shoulder by the entire globe It is reasonable for the proceeds from these taxes to be returned to the entire us population as a rebate This pegovian tax corrects the market failure by internalizing the cost of climate degradation With various actions, but it also benefits those in greatest need of additional funds Even if the tax is passed on the consumers initially as industries attempt to shift more sustain Shift to more sustainable practices the net benefit of the tax to those in the bottom 70 percent of the population Will be material according to scott santa's Essentially what these individuals pay and increase taxes will not offset the rebate received One final feasible means of funding a ubi to reduce spending on existing well social welfare programs This may appear counterproductive, but it will severely reduce many of the bureaucratic costs associated with operating in excessive programs Furthermore cash is the most liquid asset as these individuals will be able to spend it However, they believe it will benefit them best Social welfare programs will still exist with a ubi But beneficiaries of certain programs will see their benefits reduced by an amount equivalent to the income payments received through ubi All of these methods of funding a ubi are reasonable and do not directly counteract the original purpose of a ubi Good afternoon. I'm here to argue against the idea of universal basic income Universal basic income is an idea that exists in the most idealistic world But in reality, it's not a feasible option The idea of receiving free money from the government is something that sounds very appealing to most However, nothing in life is actually free Famed economist Milton Friedman once said there's no such thing as a free lunch And I think that phrase is very applicable to the idea of ubi The wealth gap in our country and the number of low-income individuals is very clearly an issue that needs to be resolved But ubi is not the way to do so Ubi is a cash payment to every citizen without any means testing program or work requirement This means that multi billionaires like bill gates or jeff bezos are going to be receiving the same ubi That an unemployed or minimum wage worker is set to receive. So how does that make make much sense? The universal aspect of ubi is also a major issue if we are so worried about the wealth gap Why are we just increasing it by giving the wealthy more and more money? Why why would we replace the current welfare programs in this country with ubi? When the welfare programs are specifically to cater to the lower income individuals? Think of a single mother who relies on her welfare benefits to assist her in rent food stamps healthcare She will actually be losing money when the ubi is implemented She will not be receiving nearly as much money that she needs to get by and help her in her day-to-day life The united states needs to keep their attention on Improving and maintaining welfare programs in order to improve the lives of these struggling lower income individuals Rather than spread money across all income levels, which doesn't really do much to boost the lower income out of the situations that they are in Now let's turn our attention to the financial aspect of this How are we going to pay for the ubi? ubi will be a very expensive undertaking for this country and the ubi proposal by Presidential candidate andre yang has made he stated that each citizen would would receive a thousand dollars a month That's twelve thousand dollars a year each and that would be totally 2.5 trillion dollars annually 2.5 trillion dollars is an astounding number and it's one eighth of our total GDP Now you may wonder where the money is going to be coming from and the answer is the taxpayers Taxes for everyone will increase substantially. This would lead to a regressive taxation because we not only be taxing the wealthy But it would also Tax the lower income individuals who can barely get by as it is Even with this tax increase. It's still not exactly enough money to play to pay for the ubi initiative Also a thousand dollars a month is not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things The basic standard of living prices vary from state to state and many states a thousand dollars is not enough to cover the cost of someone's rent When you think of people who are living in cities like boston a two bedroom apartment is well over a thousand dollars a month So the ubi doesn't really do much to help them Again think back on that single mother of three and how was she supposed to manage to pay her rent? Her groceries and meet the basic standards of needs that our children have with only a thousand dollars a month The finances of the ubi are not feasible in our country and even if we did find a way to raise the money It does not really benefit the lower income individuals who desperately need the government assistance in a more substantial way If the ubi was implemented the actual allocation of money is another major issue that you that needs to be tackled Um, the census is usually conducted to count the number of people living in this country Which is what would we use to see who's eligible for the ubi? However, the census is done Every 10 years and it tends to be inaccurate and doesn't actually account for everyone in this country Think of the number of homeless people and how are and how are they expected to get their cash from the ubi? When they're not even counted in the census most of the time the design of the ubi leaves a lot of room for error and this major error is Is that most vulnerable population? Will face the most barriers to receiving the month to cash each month I'll also the actual distribution of the money each month will be a costly process as it is And will hard to be Each by state. I think there's a lot of logistical issues here that most people don't think about when they hear about the ubi And they should be really taken into account more when it's being debated Overall the ubi is not the solution our country needs when it comes to solving the issue of wealth inequality and unemployment government programs Are safety nets that are meant to help people that need it the most People who have lost a job been laid off people with disabilities single mothers low-income households Or children of those households and the elderly A good safety net addresses the needs of these people and gives them financial help or services that they really need That's why as we've discussed one of the biggest flaws with a universal basic income is the universal aspect of it The united states already has programs that target these people to give them assistance in the things that they need These programs are far from perfect and could definitely use improvement But that doesn't mean that a universal basic income is the way to go about fixing them If we decide to exchange our current system for one that my opponents propose We would not only be diluting the funds that currently go towards those that need it But we would be getting rid of the systems that help people get back in the job market The ultimate goal of a safety net is to catch someone when they fall so they can get back up and become Self-sufficient yet again This way the people that are able to work can go back into the workforce and contribute back into the economy Means testing programs like unemployment insurance the earned income tax credit job training programs and Pell grants Give americans the ability to enter or re-enter the job market with a little bit of a cushion and possible training in a new field A universal basic income just doesn't do this to the extent that the welfare system can In the case that of a ubi a person who loses their job will still continue to receive their checks every month But that's all they're going to get In a system that is universal people get no additional assistance because of unfortunate circumstances There are no variations that meet people's needs In a macroeconomic sense ubi's are very rigid by nature and have a tough tough time responding to changes in the economy Any changes made to the benefits would have to go to everybody Making it very tough for the government to react during an event like a recession A paper called the great recession the social safety net recorded the response that our current welfare system had during the 2008 recession The author found that the the amount of spending that these programs conducted actually greatly increased during their session by about 500 billion dollars Most of the increased spending came from the natural reactions of the e itc unemployment insurance and food stamp programs took during the During due to the increase in eligibility of people Some of the boost however came from the legislation that eased restrictions and duration of support of unemployment insurance This goes to show how important safety nets are to quickly safety nets to How important it is for safety nets to be able to quickly adapt to changes And without systems we like the ones we have in place There would have been a lot more people that have not been able to recover like they did during the recession If a ubi was in place during those circumstances There would have been hardly any room for a good recovery that targeted the unemployed or the people falling into poverty In fact the universal aspect is at the heart of the ubi holds it back from being able to do what we would need it to do These means testing programs that i've been talking about do require a bit of oversight and can at times go a little bit too far But i'm not saying and i'm not saying that they're perfect. They could definitely use improvement But they are essential to make sure that the government can remain flexible target the groups that need it and In need the most a ubi may seem very appealing But it's not the solution that america needs or the people that need it the most That need financial support the most Okay, you now get um five minutes to deliberate your rebuttals and then after it goes Four minutes for you four minutes for you and then four minutes for you and four minutes for you goes back and forth Alrighty time is up you guys can start if you want There are a lot of problems with america's current welfare system People fall through its cracks. They have difficulty finding out which programs They're eligible for and experience shame and stigma for being on welfare Some programs even require participants to have essentially zero assets in order to qualify In effect these programs kick in when people have hit rock bottom Rather than trying to prevent them from getting there in the first place A universal basic income program would better assist low-income families by continuing to provide support Even after people find work or begin to rise above poverty level There are many proposed models of ubi Many target only citizens who are 18 plus and make under a certain amount of money Although in alaska the ubi has been successful since 1982 and has gone to everyone regardless of income Many anti ubi advocates question the impact that ubi would have on the economy The claim is that implementation of the ubi will lead to inflation and have damaging effects on the economy However, according to a comprehensive study issued by the roosevelt institute Which used the levy institute macroeconomic model to issue its findings ubi is actually really beneficial to the economy Researchers from the roosevelt institute created three models for us implementation of ubi and found that under all scenarios ubi would grow the economy increasing output unemployment Prices increasing output employment prices and wages overall They find that the economy can not only withstand large increases in federal spending, but also Grow thanks to the stimulative effects of cash transfers on the economy The levy model and the results it offers us about the macroeconomic effect of a ubi Is situated in a larger world view that there is a lot of room to grow in our economy Crucially, this is a keensian view assuming that total spending is what determines economic output As such the model holds that policies would increase total spending like ubi would grow the economy The model takes two crucial things into account First unconditional cash transfers do not mean that people will stop working Which surveying extensive empirical evidence demonstrates Second the paper takes seriously the idea that when the government takes away an additional dollar of a rich Households income through taxes the household doesn't respond by dropping out of the labor force Instead each marginal dollar taxed away for reduces rich households Incentives to bargain for a larger share of the economic pie the belief about this Bargaining elasticity derives from the work by thomas pickety immanuel some as syaz and stephanie Dunsheva this means that high progressive tax rates could have a very positive effect on reducing inequality without harming growth Experiments with unconditional cash benefits around the world have proven to be one of the most successful ways of reducing poverty The fear that cash recipients would waste their money on drugs or alcohol Stop working or have more kids have been disproven by the world bank Many of these behaviors were actually reduced the guarantee of ubi Protects people from sluggish wage growth low wages and the lack of job security caused by the effects of the growing gig economy such as Uber lift driving short-term contracts and increased automation in the workplace Ubi is also enabled people to stay in school longer and participate in training to improve skills or learn a trade All in all we believe that ubi has the potential to significantly alter the lives of many low income households In this country affect our economy positively and also balance wealth inequality in an effective and feasible way Ubi could be shaped by u.s policy makers in order to be successful in our country This is essentially a discussion that has to be had because welfare programs are not operating properly currently So my opposing team brought up the roosevelt institute which used the levy economic or macro economic model This model only looks at aggregate demand output and it makes the assumption that aggregate demand output will increase employment Job numbers and personally on that level although it does not measure for it In these studies they admitted within the introduction in the paper that they do suffer from external validity within their data They're not measuring an a actual universal basic income They're just showing that Cash handouts do not discourage working which we don't argue with That is not what we are disagreeing with our um argument is based around the fact that universal basic income will not help Inequality The jump to conclusion that increase in aggregate demand isn't a decrease in inequality is a far reach Also the assumptions that that model makes are a little hard to believe the assumptions that That employment labor force participation price and wages will grow go up as aggregate demand grows up is Not found to be true And if we're only looking at aggregate demand as being the best Thank you indicator for our country. We see her in gdp our aggregate demand Our gdp has been going up for a while and we've had a um a bump in the road during the great recession But we've well recovered from that It does not address the inequality Now as they stated in their introduction One reason for implementing a universal basic income is a threat of automation And some people say that this is the time of the greatest technological advancement in history, which I don't believe it is I know we are gathering more um resources and Inventions faster and faster But that does not mean that we as people will cripple to robots so easily All throughout history when jobs have been replaced by machines. We have created new jobs And if we look We have not had a slowdown of job creation. There's still been an increase in jobs So the threat that automation will replace jobs is not um valid Also, there have been a lot of studies that show the history of automation and employment With the introduction of atms one would think that this automation of the teller would lead to a decrease In the number of bank tellers But it actually rose the number of tellers of people employers Because it became cheaper to operate those banks that they open more banks You see we're able to create jobs and evolve our situations and the ubi does not Is is a early solution to a threat that is not here nor does it really solve the problem of inequality Hi, okay. Um, thank you for the presentation. Um, we don't have a presentation But there are a couple of things that we're going to address. Um, first of all in your introduction Um, my or in their introduction my opponent said um that the money for a system like ubi would come from taxing everyone Most ubi proposals do not include taxations for everyone Progressive taxation here is the key. Um, and I also noticed that you meant mentioned Milton Friedman But uh, he is actually very famously pro ubi in his book capitalism and freedom He very famously said that negative income tax is the way to implement ubi And um, he's always been in favor of that. The other thing that you brought up was Andrew Yang's proposal Andrew Yang not only um advocates for ubi. He also Outlines a very comprehensive proposal for the same so In answer to the argument that ubi is universal and that means that even the rich are going to be getting money The reason that we are giving ubi to everyone is um, I'll read out from Andrew Yang's proposal. Um, it says that by giving everyone ubi the stigma for accepting cash transfers from the government disappears Additionally, and this is key here It removes the incentive for anyone to remain within certain income brackets to receive benefits Which is exactly what the welfare plans right now are doing If it's paid for by a value added tax as Andrew Yang advocates for a wealthy person will likely pay more into the system Than he or she gets out to it. So, um Yes, um ubi like there are many proposals for ubi, but some of the proposals that you outlined yourself are actually very comprehensive in their approach Into how to pay for it and why it's important that everyone gets a share of the pie because we are seeing increasing levels of wealth inequality I also noticed that in your presentation you used um gdp I think that one of the one of the biggest flaws with using gdp as a measure to actually You know or use using gdp to measure welfare is flawed in itself because um, like this is Personal experience my the first thing that I was taught in my macroeconomics class is that gdp cannot act as an adequate measure for welfare And that's for a couple of reasons. It does not account for Distributional inequalities. It does not account for negative externalities. It's a very linear measure that That does not account for a lot of different things And the fact is that yes employment has steadily risen But despite there being a steady rise in employment, there is still There are still certain groups and communities in our society who are not able to have access to this and To this employment, which only further Points to the fact that there is structural inequality and structural employment traps Where we are so while I acknowledge that there has been a steady increase at the same time There are people without jobs and that's something that must be addressed And that's not something that the current welfare programs are able to address Thank you So as far as uh, Andrew Yang's plan goes He's arguing for as you said a value added tax So while it may be true that a higher income earners will be paying more with this kind of tax I think it's more important to think about what a percentage of their income They'll be paying which Really which with that kind of tax will actually put more of a burden on lower income earners There's a lot of arguments against our current welfare system and it's true that The system has problems, but ubi really isn't the solution to those problems You know, it's uh the simplicity that comes with ubi that might make it so appealing It's kind of where it has issues, you know Why are we giving money to Bill Gates and to jeff bezos and like the Our welfare programs don't have to be universal and they don't have to Be going to everyone I think the argument that it's going to Reduce the stigma or that against getting cash from the government that feels weak to me I don't think people Not want to get benefits from the government just because you know Super rich people don't also get them One thing that hasn't been addressed is how This system is actually going to be implemented Um, it's a huge logistical challenge to Decide to give everyone in the country $1,000 a month. How are we going to actually deliver these services? um for example, uh, it's estimated that the uh upcoming 2020 census is going to cost 15.9 billion dollars um, basically what this means or basically the reason for this is because Finding and counting everyone in the country is a very difficult thing to do It's going to be equally difficult to find and give everyone These universal benefits and often these people who are hardest to find and hardest to get in contact with Are going to be the people who need these benefits the most So either this is going to mean the system is very costly Or it's going to mean that the people who need our help the most are the ones who aren't going to get it um We pointed out the alaska program and The alaska the alaska ubi program is paid for by all revenues. Um, that's just not available to everyone We won't be able to we're going to have to find other ways to pay for it. Um Some some of which you proposed uh One proposal for paying for it that you came up with was carbon taxes um We would argue that carbon tax revenues should really go to Helping solve the challenge of climate change. Um, rather than paying for this totally separate, uh program uh Finally, uh one thing you mentioned it's an engine yanks plan and uh, you guys also mentioned it was that we were going to Keep the current programs At that, you know, it's so that way if you're currently receiving benefits you get to choose um between keeping these benefits or Or switching to ubi which this uh If we're keeping these programs then still we're still going to have to pay for the bureaucracy that is in place to run these programs and uh We're not going to get the savings of replacing programs with ubi It's just going to be redundant and it's going to be very costly Alrighty now. We have 10 minutes for qna followed by five minutes each for closing statements starting with the affirmative Uh, so the first question is for the negative side um You've made a lot out of The case for reforming existing welfare programs instead uh In the past what has success meant for welfare program reform and what are some examples of successful reforms? Well, I don't really have any super specifics on welfare reforms But I do want to say that welfare is a lot more flexible Like I talked about before is that it's it has the ability to increase its spending and increase the amount of people that I can extend to or the amount that they're getting um and My main argument is basically that instead of increasing spending on giving money to everybody if we want to increase spending and reform of it we could increase that spending and give it to the people that need it the most and use it towards the programs that are targeted towards people like single parents who would Uh, the single mothers who would end up being way worse off in a system like ubi So, uh during the great depression and afterwards the new deal came about and that was a huge um government initiative to hire people for jobs to hire the people directly and not just give them money But give them work to do to build um to improve the country and I think that's a huge, uh Example of like welfare reform because under like a ubi. They're just giving money and not a job um, there's no There's no other added um protection against depressions or recessions in financial hardship times because If people don't have a job, but they just have money Um, then their life, you know, is little meaning day today. Thank you Good afternoon. So I have one question for the affirmative side You cited several examples from your research about places where Universal basic income has been deployed either on a pilot basis or in the case of alaska on a permanent basis Be interested to know if there are other examples of Places where ubi has has been in place that you've learned about if you could share some more information about about that Thank you One example is finland. Um, I don't believe we we either mentioned it and didn't elaborate or didn't elaborate at all in 2017 finland began a two-year experiment it gave 2000 unemployed people 560 euros a month for two years Even if they found work Um, the recipients said it reduced stress It also gave them more incentive to find a good job and to start their own business. Um, and the finnish government Was supposed to extend the trial until 2018 But um, that's that's not happened yet However, the time that finland actually saw the effects of ubi. It was very successful And there are I think multiple other reasons that it's gotten stuck in the process of getting implemented again another Example is um, hawaii Again in 2017 the hawaii state legislator passed a bill declaring that everyone is entitled to basic financial security It directed the government to develop a solution and um, speculation right now Based on recent sources is that this probably includes a guaranteed income plan that would look very similar to ubi And then there is also kenya universal basic income grants are being tested in a poor sector of kenya and welfare critics have long argued that the administrative costs Are huge and provide limited positive results For the existing welfare programs in kenya too, and it also discourages people from finding jobs In response leaders across the political spectrum have latched on to the idea of ubi for kenya And Yeah, um, should we find some more or Oh, okay Um, so we did before mention alaska, but we didn't quite go into the specifics, which I thought would be good to do So it's had a guaranteed income program since 1982 and has been giving their citizens a universal basic income since then It pays each resident an average of $1,200 a month from oil revenues And most save them for save their money for emergencies Has had very good outcomes Received a lot of support from the people who receive it The economic security project was launched to investigate Ubi in alaska and found that 79 percent of alaskans agreed that the permanent fund dividend checks Which is what the program is called permanent fund dividend Are an important source of income for people in their community 72 support the fact that everyone who is basically a full-time resident of alaska should receive the benefits Um, and a very major and important thing is that a majority of alaskans said that they would prefer the institution of a ubi Or they would prefer the institution of a state income tax Over the termination of ubi So they would rather pay taxes than have ubi be terminated because I thought that it was that beneficial And the preference for keeping the pdf in response to our opponent's claims that it doesn't actually help low-income people The preference for keeping it was actually strongest among those with annual household incomes under $500,000 And those who describe their situation as and I quote barely surviving And yes, that is what I'd like to say about that. Oh, and also india is proposing to launch a ubi by 2022 So my question is going to be for the affirmative team You're living right at the nexus of where politics media economics. So I just want to Excuse me. Oh, I'm sorry. You hello So so here's my question We've talked a lot about the federal government My question is about localities in particular two s two aspects one Is it going to be a flat income amount per? residents of the united states Will it differ by geography understanding living conditions and things like that are vastly different The second thing is you've proposed that a lot of the savings will be from other programs Won't that simply shift the cost burden to the states and the cities around the country Who feel still feel the need to provide that kind of service? That may be money dedicated money as it goes away. They're going to want to fill that gap One response to the well, we don't claim to be experts in formulating policies for ubi Which is why we were constantly drawing from different proposals But one approach that we think could be adopted is actually we were just talking about alaska alaska implemented their own ubi program within the state so maybe the federal government could work with the state governments to Establish parameters within which the ubi structure would be implemented. So that would essentially mean The state governments coming up with their own individual Systems of how they think ubi could possibly work because havai was doing that Alaska is has been successfully doing it for so long. So that could be a possible solution to thinking about politics at the more local level as opposed to the federal level and Support for ubi has just been increasing over The past like decade. I think and I think we talked about that a little bit before and I'm assuming a lot of the support also comes from the political spheres So that's for the first question One of the things that we think is great about ubi and about federalism is that it allows states to create their own Experiments for ubi based on the needs of their people and not we're not recommending that the united states all of a sudden globally or sorry not globally Implement a ubi because we think that that is unrealistic, but we do think that states, you know state by state Should create programs for their constituencies That would be catered specifically to the people living in that state and as far as Taking money away from other programs The main thing that we are advocating for is not taking away money from programs Like social welfare programs, but rather putting taxes More heavily on wealthy people and corporations who have been benefiting and profiting from the exploitation of workers And also the automation the rise of automation Also, the reason that we had mentioned taking away money from the existing social welfare programs is Like we think that so this is another clarification for the team as well. We do not Wout for andrew yang's proposal. We were just using that as a template to talk about a few things because you brought it up in your introduction, but Andrew yang's proposal says that People can have a choice between the existing welfare programs or switching to ubi Personally and as a team we do believe that maybe that's not the best approach to just Giving people the option of doing that, but we also think that as you mentioned completely Dispantling all the systems all of a sudden may lead to a backlash of sorts. So I think it would be Finding an effective transition from maybe establishing like a two-year period where we're testing both ubi In like specific regions at the same time having a couple of welfare programs going to a transition just to ubi to decrease The cost of the program. So it would essentially be A type of transition that would be a balance between the existing welfare programs and implementing ubi and as Sophie mentioned the money For ubi is not just coming from the dismantling of the system. It's coming from a lot of other sources and according to The findings by the roosevelt institute there we have more than enough money to finance something like this and That finding has been taken up by a candidate like andrew yang. So Thank you okay, so before I begin I would just like to clarify that We believe that A Ubi implementation would be easier As far as distribution of the money than welfare programs. I don't think that I'm giving money to everyone would be more difficult than finding specifically Impoverished people to give money to and also as far as who qualifies and that sort of thing The concept of universal basic income Has been supported worldwide not just now but historically too Thomas paint outlined his idea for a basic income as early as 19 or 1797 Martin Luther king jr. Said that I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective The solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure the guaranteed income Rutger bregman expressed his support by saying that basic income would give people the most important freedom the freedom of deciding for themselves What they want to do with their lives The idea of the american dream isn't really fulfilled until each and every person in this country has access To a means that can help them realize their ambitions It is unjust that some people have the ability to dream big while others find themselves struggling to Provide for themselves and their families The idea of establishing a universal basic income in the united states is no longer a utopian dream It's a political reality Of course today's political destabilization produces deep anxiety and indecisions And poor decisions on the part of our current political leadership has caused real suffering in the lives of real people But in one respect our political era is liberating These are all real conversations today And they are all radical ideas that embrace the concept that we as a society are able to solve big problems Well, its opponents may say that ubi in the united states is not feasible both economically and politically It is important to remember that it has worked in the united states before Alaska's permanent fund dividend has worked to give monthly cash stipends to alaskans since the early 1980s And it has continuously received praise from alaskan citizens and its ability to provide low income adults who are barely surviving With an important source of income Additionally research conducted by university of chicago professor damon jones and university of pennsylvania professor iowana marinescu has shown that the public fund dividend has not had a negative impact on unemployment In alaska and has helped to keep income inequality in alaska among the lowest in the country Studies by the rooseville institute have shown that the increased spending caused by the implementation of a ubi would have a positive effect on the economy Creating 4.6 million jobs and growing the economy by 12 percent continuously Additionally in the united states as a whole Implementing ubi is becoming more and more popular One clarification that we would also like to offer is i think i believe that you said that it is a weak argument to say that it removes the um That giving ubi to everyone removes the incentive for certain people to live in certain income backgrounds that essentially means that That that by saying that you're essentially saying that it is okay For people to live in lower income brackets because what giving ubi to everyone means Is that they can move up in the social spectrum and in their income bracket and still receive a payment until they're able to keep themselves on their feet And another clarification is that you said that carbon tax money should go to climate change The fact is that because of the structural inequalities that we are talking about there are specific communities and groups of people who are more negatively impacted by global climate change and Or global warming And giving these people a universal basic income gives them the access to actually Give themselves a little bit more privilege to move out of the of this trap where they are more negatively impacted than other people in the community So In the united states as a whole implementing a universal basic income is becoming more and more popular with public support for ubi Quadrupling over the past decade as americans see the effect of stagnant wages and rising income inequality Today the united states is the 30th percentile of income inequality globally With the top 0.1 percent making 188 times the income of the bottom 99 percent 40.6 million people live in poverty and 95 million live close to poverty Ubi equalizing the playing field equalizes the playing field and it does so by placing higher taxes on corporations And the massively wealthy who have created the conditions for the levels of poverty that we see in the country today Ubi gives low income mothers the ability to stay home with their newborn baby Instead of having to immediately return to work an option today that is only affordable to middle and upper class women It helps veterans who are struggling to integrate back into their lives after returning from combat It helps new college graduates enter into the job market and cope with their burgeoning student loan debt The opposition Raises issues that must be taken into account while deliberating these issues Because we must have mechanisms that are fair and practical at the end of the day We all want to live in a country that is economically Equally liberating for all and to achieve that goal universal basic income is the safety net for the future that we need. Thank you So I would like to thank everybody for coming out and being here to see our participation in the debate And for lasting this long and staying with us So to begin the assumptions that the believers of ubi are certain to be true In order to make their claim are simply not facts Not only are the foundation foundational assumptions wrong But every other stage of this idea collapses due to idealized beliefs There is no practical implementation for a society shift of this scale We all want a greater world. We all want citizens to be happy and healthy It's just not a reasonable solution Universal basic income will not improve america's political or social economy because of insufficient means of implementation and insufficient means of cost Welfare provided by the state does not have to be universal There are many citizens who have the means to provide for themselves and their family without government assistance There are many people who are well above the line of needing assistance and an extra thousand dollars a month Does little to them But that thousand dollars might not be enough for some people who are in need of assistance Any of the plans mentioned by the affirmative team did not mention family care assistance people with Young children will need more money to raise them The welfare system in place today and universal basic income are not mutually exclusive. It is not one or the other Milton freesman's negative tax income tax that was mentioned by the Affirmative is another example of a basic income But it is not universal. That is what we are One of our main arguments that it does not have to be a universal income Any of the pilot programs mentioned by the affirmative are also poor examples of ubi None of the study has had a true universal income In alaska the money given out to the the citizens was from oil revenues Now that's something that's not applicable to all states Florida doesn't have any oil to to make money to give to their citizens And nor will will it have in the future with the changing ideas about energy The affirmative team had three main arguments tonight or this afternoon That universal income will be paid for by tax changes that will not be detrimental to society That ubi will help people get jobs and close the inequality gap and that programs in place today are more of a hassle than a benefit The first is false because not everyone in this country believes in increasing the federal debt The affirmative said that they are not taking away programs necessarily because they did not outline a single one However, many of the ubi programs do advocate for taking away all welfare programs And adding the income so if we did keep both programs the universal basic income and welfare programs That would just double the cost of welfare and we would have to pay an exponentially amount of taxes The second is false because while we are not debating the morality of people Getting the benefits and if they're spending money wisely and look for work There is no guarantee of an employment If automation of unskilled labor is taking over then there should be more defined training programs If a ubi gets rid of some programs then there will be a greater power vacuum that would allow private companies To take over that space Medicare job training groceries and agriculture And the third may be true. We're not saying that our welfare system today is perfect Universal basic income can be thought of in two different ways as a model and as a policy When looking at it as a model the assumptions that need to be made are that the government has a reliable way to reach every person That people are rational actors and that consumption behaviors do not change due to increases in taxes From these assumptions it is easy to come to the conclusion that a ubi would result in an increase in aggregate demand and expand the economy And um That we think is the best thing to happen to our country Employment labor forces participation in prices will go up due to the increase in the demand And now that is all true if you follow a post neo or new kainzian idea of thought which i know many do in this room Ubi might be a vision of how our society should look, but it is not a tool to get us there. Thank you First of all we've been doing this. I think for 10 or 12 years and it's always outstanding to come back as an alum and see such well Well-prepared and interested students. It's great You know having been a debater for the university back 2000 years ago I do appreciate the disciplines required and putting this on top of other academic activities Both sides made some very cogent arguments. I thought Both summaries we thought both summaries were both very good and strong And so good work and I'd like to just round of applause for both teams That said in the final analysis and it was a very close call We feel the affirmative made a slightly stronger case and so they are the winner of the debate Congratulations. Hello. Good afternoon. Welcome. Uh, welcome to the second phase of the um Of our undergraduate economics undergraduate celebration. Let me remind you if you haven't had a chance to look There's a poster session in the atrium of gordon hall of this building Where you can see the work that the economics undergraduate research assistants have been engaged in working closely with faculty members Over the past semester that will be on display until the end of the evening Uh, we've just completed the undergraduate economics club sponsored debate and um This is the award ceremony which will be followed by dinner So it's my pleasure to welcome you. Um We're going to honor students who have done extraordinary work over their time here at the university of massachusetts amherst I think before we get started, perhaps we can have a round of applause for the many parents friends supporters and family who have Made possible your your achievements and we'll do that again So I will uh read uh, I will read the name of the uh the award I will announce the award winner. Please come up and you'll receive a uh certificate and uh, we'll get a picture of you So um for awards where there's more than one winner will bring you up, uh one at a time So we can do that The first award, uh, it's my pleasure to present is the economics alumni award for distinguished service The economics alumni advisory board, which is well represented here by our by our judges Is a group of alumni who have uh, shown special dedication to the department and offer their Time and insight and experience to making the experience to making the experience that our students have A richer one a more fulfilling one and one that connects them rapidly to the world beyond umass We're very grateful to the alumni award to the alumni board The alumni advisory board, uh, gives the uh, alum alumni award for distinguished service to students who have contributed extensively To the umass amherstek and uh community particularly to the community in the department of economics And it is my pleasure to uh to announce the first of two awards. Michael Carvalho is the uh award winner the second The second award economics alumni award for distinguished service goes to antonia marini Who did a wonderful job? moderating the debate The next award is also given by the economics alumni advisory board It is the economics alumni award for outstanding achievement. This is granted by the Advisory board to a student who has demonstrated outstanding achievement both academically and for service to the university or the community And it's my pleasure to uh to announce the economics alumni award for outstanding achievement. Uh, it is for denis mcalloth Stennis here The next award is the economics writing award This award is presented to the student who has written the best paper in economics in the past in in recent in recent years Um, the uh the writing award is nominated by faculty and it's my pleasure to recognize first the faculty nominator of this year's award It's my colleague carol haim who is with us here and the And the award for a really exceptional paper, which the uh award committee had an opportunity to read Was on hajun chang's kicking out kicking out pulling up the ladder um Extremely well-written essay and john jonathan john bloom was the author of that so The ew eldridge junior memorial endowment was established in 1966 for the purpose of awarding scholarships to worthy and exceptional Economics students is my pleasure to announce the ew eldridge junior memorial scholarship winner For 2019 is brad palombo The finnegan family scholarship was established for economics majors with strong academic standing It was made possible by the generous donation of debaugh finnegan Who's the chief operating officer at hamlin capital management? She is also the mother of economics graduate steven hunterfin again who graduated in 2016 So, um, this is a a new and very generous award And it's my pleasure to announce the winner is nil patel Who is my student in the fall? Yes, that's right So a very important part of the undergraduate experience at umas is engaging in co curricular extracurricular activity That helps build build students as as citizens as thinkers As help some build careers and that is often done through internships and not all internships are paid There's a there's a saying interns built the pyramids, which some of you may have heard So but many internships do impart valuable skills Even if they are unpaid and we want to make it possible for all students regardless of background To um to to to undertake uh to undertake uh internships So we're we're grateful to f ward mccarthy class of 73 for endowing the f ward mccarthy scholarship for interns Is presented to two students who who have or will be completing an unpaid internship during this calendar year And we're we're deeply grateful for that kind of support that makes it possible to to expand horizons through Through taking an internship, which while unpaid may be of enormous value to the student going forward So we have um we have two uh F ward mccarthy scholars. It's my pleasure to introduce them. The first is junia mamud. Is junia here, please The second f ward mccarthy scholarship winner is ryan sol is ryan here, please The next award is the highest academic achievement award This award is this award is presented to a to a junior or senior with a top gpa within the major It's my pleasure to introduce to welcome welcome up trace dodge Who also is the first to note that I sent the wrong date for this? I sent around um, I got thursday, right? But I said um, I said april 23rd and trace wrote back instantly saying I think you mean the 25th, so i'm grateful A keen eye is the path to Congratulations Is now my pleasure to announce uh the hubby scholarships This scholarship was established for economics majors with strong academic standing And it was made possible by the generous donation of john and debra hubby John hubby class of 84 is a partner at kpmg in new york city So we'll have nine hubby awardees I think it would be nice if you each came up here and then we took a picture We'll award each of you and then we'll get a picture of all of you which I think would would would be very nice so um Let me introduce the uh the awardees one at a time Asongan ye amin mensei is the first uh hubby award winner who wrote to me and said that she will not be able to be here So we can Matthew berry emily brunelli brice coal So Carmine fatsi Robert hack to who wrote to me who's not able to be here jack howard brian new yen And sydney turnulo Is it me here? So we can grab a group shot The jacklyn dorfman scholarship supports students studying economics who have a strong academic standing It was made possible by the generous donation of jacklyn dorfman class of 1982 And the awardee is selena kwan honored colleague The james kindle award. This is this is jim kindle Um Who had retired before I arrived and passed not long after I uh, I joined UMass. Um, I think he passed in 2003. Is it Is that right? I think 2003 This prize is awarded to an economic student with a commitment to social issues or public policy concerns strong writing skills or a record of excellence in economic history These are all things that were important to professor james kindle whom the prize honors Professor kindle taught in the economics department from 1967 until 1998 when he retired in addition to teaching jim served as department chair for three years and his undergraduate program director for many years Professor kindle passed away in 2003 and this award was established in his memory And it's my honor to announce the 2019 kindle award winner is yasmin idemi is yasmin here We will hold we will hold the certificate the Lisa b and john c deforge scholarship Um was created in memory of keith r freedman who is the brother of lisa deforge I let me remark that lisa deforge was very active on the economics alum board She was class of 87 and a terrific terrific supporter of the department in many many ways This scholarship not least among those but but someone who is who is really a wonderful supporter of the department The award is an honor is in memory of her brother Who had a strong lifelong interest in the arts? And so the scholarship is designed to support an economics major with strong economic standing and also has a demonstrate interest in the arts So that's a pretty interesting pretty interesting Union and and some some good things will come out of that the lisa b and john c deforge Scholarship awardee this year is gretta gaffin. Let's get it here The rosemary hussy wear it scholarships were made possible by the generous donation of rosemary hussy wear it class of 1962 who traveled the world in her careers as journalist and economic analyst This scholarship was established for economics majors with strong academic standing Especially those studying international economics and the role of women in the global economy Uh, it is my pleasure to introduce. There are two, uh, there are two, uh, rosemary hussy wear it scholarships The first is awarded to bianca yam. Is bianca here? And the second i i i received an email so i know that she is not here She's studied studying abroad studying international economics is is isabel timino is uh is the other The sherry barber memorial scholarships are supported by a fund Established in honor of sherry barber it provides tuition support to economics students sherry barber graduated from the economics department in 1943 and helped to establish minimum wages across the country So you can see that work remains important to this day while earning a master's degree in economics from harvard and a law degree from boston college So, um, it's my pleasure to introduce the sherry barber memorial scholarship awardees There are four and I hope we can take a a group picture. The first is victoria abram chuck victoria The second is george armstrong The third sherry barber memorial scholarship winner this year is michael carvalho And the fourth is peter gow. Is peter. Congratulations So if we could take a picture of our um, okay We will now um, we're so we will now bring up, uh, I think some groups So, um, so we are now going to have several So that that ends our award of scholarships We're now going to have some recognition of high achievement in the department I think we'll bring you up in groups and take take group pictures So the next so the department would like to recognize the department has a very important partnership With the neighboring food co-op association and the valley alliance of worker cooperatives We offer one of very few Trainings in the united states for undergraduates on operating cooperative enterprises Understanding the economic challenges that face a different mode of organizing Productive a productive enterprise is neither a nonprofit Nor is it government nor is it a Nor is it a Proprietor or shareholder corporation. It is a cooperative enterprise that is both owned That's owned and were and and and operated by its worker by his worker owners In order to train people we've developed an undergraduate certificate in applied economic research on cooperative enterprise We do this in collaboration with the two organizations. I mentioned The neighboring food co-op association and valk the valley alliance of worker cooperatives There's a very rigorous certificate program that require that includes a very demanding internship Where students rotate through a number of cooperative enterprises as a worker Experiencing what it means to work in a co-op and then in the classroom learn to analyze. What are the challenges facing facing facing cooperatives, so I'd like to bring up the uh the uh those who are receiving the certificate this year Um, and I will read their names and let us recognize them sancha kakar is one jacob latora mark maran nicolas monica antonia morini emily celesty and kyle stifonides let me so Let me also mention that you can learn more about the work done by uh done by these enterprise enterprising young people um in about an In about one hour, um, is that In about one hour, uh, there will be presentations of their experience in the cooperative enterprise program um that will be held In crotty hall in crotty 209 and crotty 209 So I'd like to congratulate all of you for participating in this word. I'd like to take a picture with you So the economics department is home to many uh to many outstanding students uh on campus Some of whom have been elected to uh honor to to uh honor societies So I'd like to recognize those students who have been elected to phi beta kappa and to phi kappa phi Which are two of the most prominent National or international academic honors honor societies, so I'll again ask you to come up I will read a list of names and we'll take a picture together the first so the phi beta kappa induct inductees are jennifer agar Connor bond denis mcalliff grad palombo And ryan sol We would now like to recognize those students We'd like to commend the following students for their uh extraordinary work in the honors program over their years at umas so um So so this this is congratulations for our uh for our primary and secondary majors in economics Who um have been working in the honors college and uh are on their way on their way to honors So I again, I will call the names if you'll please come up. Um, we will uh recognize you as as a group so kevin chambers jack cone john doran jona greenfield cooper hylman adrian hooping james jedriss rakel kiddo ethan lasar danica manalo denis mcalliff brad palombo eric sandock john sqaill We will also please say we will also recognize our secondary majors in our secondary majors in economics who are on their way to honors maxwell ball james barvick Please hold applause i'll i'll read the names and uh we can john blatchford jack kongdon ryan dolgren akshay delady jackallan haze brandon kline robert komarowski jonathan massiel zachary mclean nicholas monica asiri muril lidar taylor odell arie silver fine olivia sparks alexander stassis rowan stear steven ullich renae vartibedian mckenzie webb and alexander zuharis so we have uh Thanks, and again these achievements would not be possible without the uh enormous and generous support of um many families friends supporters Uh, and so I hope that we can once again recognize those who have made possible the achievements of of our outstanding students