Baby bonds would give poorest children nearly thirty times more at age eighteen

Evidence

Two black members of Congress—New Jersey senator and former presidential hopeful Cory Booker and Massachusetts representative Ayanna Pressley—have introduced legislation proposing another solution to the wealth gap: baby bonds. Under their proposal, which was central to Senator Booker’s presidential campaign, the federal government would create a 1,000 trust fund for every child born in America. Every year, the federal government would contribute up to 2,000 to the account, depending on the parents’ income. By the time the child reached eighteen and gained access to the account to buy a home or to pay for higher education, the poorest children would have about 46,200, and children in the highest-income homes about 1,700, according to Booker’s analysis. Black and Latinx children are projected to collect almost twice what white children would, on average. — Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth, 486

Categorization

• SHARE: Spot the specific numbers — poorest child collects 46,200 vs 1,700 for the richest, a ~27x ratio — for a conversation about wealth-transfer policy mechanics.
• XREF: connects to: Baby bonds fail because income and wealth are not the same — Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth: How the Tax…, 487
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Baby bonds fail because income and wealth are not the same — Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth: How the Tax…, 487

Broader Connections

• Baby bonds fail because income and wealth are not the same #complicates (0.78) — Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth, 487