What would happen if we randomly gave $1,000 to poor families? Now we know.

[Sean Hayden]

What happens to one of the world’s poorest places if you randomly pick more than 10,000 poor families out of an eligible pool and give them $1,000 each, no strings attached?

It sounds like a plan some mad scientist might hatch, but no: It was actually a group of researchers from the University of California at Berkeley, Princeton and the University of California at San Diego who came up with it. They have just unveiled the results of a sprawling, first-of-its-kind study that ought to put to bed some enduring myths about the effects of giving cash directly to the very poor in rural Africa.

...

Every $100 given directly to the poorest households was generating between $250 and $270 in GDP. That’s a fiscal multiplier in the range of 2.5 to 2.7 18 months after the money was spent — a huge number by global standards.

....

One by one, the prejudices against direct cash transfers to the very poor have fallen, as research shows the myths about the indolent poor are just that: myths. As the doubts clear, more and more actors in international development need to come around to the insight that the simplest, cleanest intervention often has the greatest effect.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... ket-newtab

[Seabass]

I recently read this book, which discusses UBI and several trials that have been done in the past. Apparently, it always works. Republicans will never go for it though, because, you know, "free stuff" is bad, and for them, ideology always trumps facts/data/reality/results/etc...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopia_for_Realists
Written by that Dutch guy that made Tucker Carlson blow a gasket...

[pErvinalia]

Yeahbut people getting something for nothing is bad.

[laklak]

Something for nothng is fine with me as long nothing comes out of my something.

That's fair, innit?

[Scot Dutchy]

The article is behind a semi-paywall.

[PsychoSerenity]

The article is behind a semi-paywall.

Yup. You can't let people read an article like that for free. The might start getting ideas.

[Scot Dutchy]

The shift in social consciousness and understanding would be in certain countries impossible.
There is a trial going on just now in Utrecht with certain families just to see how they would react.

[NineBerry]

Something for nothng is fine with me as long nothing comes out of my something.

That's fair, innit?

Property is a fiction invented by humans just as gods and demons are.

[Scot Dutchy]

Something for nothng is fine with me as long nothing comes out of my something.

That's fair, innit?

Property is a fiction invented by humans just as gods and demons are.

Never a truer word and one I gladly endorse. Communism was not completely wrong but our present day society could never accept anything else. The right wing were onto a good thing when they encouraged everyone into home ownership. It was the 70's in many countries that this happened. The UK had Thatcher selling off council houses. Here it was the VVD coming into power that changed it. The government gave subsidies to Housing Associations to build "Premie A en B woningen" (Premium A and B housing). Both had income requirements. Premie A were very cheap but were only considered a wrung on the 'Housing Ladder'; the greatest created illusion of all time IMHO. Premie A houses do not even exist anymore physically as they were cheap because of a reason.

UBI is the only solution to what is going to be the biggest problem ever in the future; the lack of income.

[Brian Peacock]

Yeahbut people getting something for nothing is bad.

It promotes a dependency culture.

[Scot Dutchy]

Dont we have that already? I depend on so many things and without them I would not be alive.

[laklak]

I depend on my horse, my Winchester, and my wits.

[Sean Hayden]

I depend on my horse, my Winchester, and my wits.

[Sean Hayden]

Something for nothng is fine with me as long nothing comes out of my something.

That's fair, innit?

Property is a fiction invented by humans just as gods and demons are.

I file this kind of error under the failure to appreciate human creativity. It's a common failing, whereby that which is distinctly human is made out to be less than those things with more permanence. At the extreme end of this erroneous thinking you may encounter people more impressed by a giant ball of gas, than with what's between their ears.

[Svartalf]

Something for nothng is fine with me as long nothing comes out of my something.

That's fair, innit?

Property is a fiction invented by humans just as gods and demons are.

Then I will start assuming that imaginary friends are worth fighting for/over, because, social construct or not, what's mine is mine and you don't meddle with it, or else.