On distribution day for the Marshall Islands’ universal Enra payment, the sun-bleached shops, offices and 101-bed hospital on the main atoll of Majuro were empty. Rust-spotted cars and barefoot people queue outside the national gymnasium for their US$200 cheques, instead.
This new quarterly payment may not sound like much, but it’s being made to every one of the 41,000 resident men, women and children on the Pacific archipelago, in what is believed to be the first national roll-out of a universal basic income.
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