That's a difficult question to weigh at the best of times. Among other things, you have to consider questions like the relative efficacy of small business grant

That's a difficult question to weigh at the best of times. Among other things, you have to consider questions like the relative efficacy of small business grants versus ongoing cash transfers. There's also questions of policy preferences in non-financial terms. The list items to be considered is considerable and I won't pretend to know what's all on the list. Anyway. I don't think it's an easily evaluated question, in large part because there are good ways to fight poverty (as a government) and ones that are no better than cash-fuelled bonfires. It's difficult to evaluate a kinda-sorta-semi-vaguely-known (change in private spending from higher taxes) against a total unknown (result of hypothetical anti-poverty programs), though. Which is a long-winded way of saying you're right about it being a quantitative question, but I don't think it's a readily answerable one.