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In the national consciousness, Stockton has had a run of bad associations. It suffered as an epicenter of the foreclosure crisis, and was a prime exhibit of how a city can plunge into bankruptcy.

Now Stockton is becoming a laboratory for an idea capturing attention worldwide as a potential means of making life more economically secure for all. It is readying plans to begin a trial of so-called Universal Basic Income, handing out cash grants to several hundred local families, no strings attached.

Finland has tested the idea. Trials have been underway in Oakland and in Canada. But Stockton is set to become the first American city to embrace the idea from City Hall itself.

That a city in California has made itself a venue for the idea seems no accident. The state has long tried fresh approaches to governance. Ahead of the state’s political primaries on Tuesday, much of the conversation has centered on concerns about economic inequality.