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What is the desired outcome of the experiment? Why is YC doing it and where does the money come from? These and other basic questions make me suspicious of the

by reedlaw 10y ago

What is the desired outcome of the experiment? Why is YC doing it and where does the money come from? These and other basic questions make me suspicious of the whole thing. It doesn't seen sustainable for YC to be giving away money without expecting anything in return. I don't want to read too much into it but my suspicion is that this is part of an effort to lobby governments. If that's so, won't the researchers be motivated to make it appear successful?

kinkdr 10y ago
Call me naive, but maybe they believe that "Basic income" is the future, and good for society, and maybe the only way they think that they can convince the governments about it is by gathering hard data proving it can work?
ncallaway 10y ago
> I don't want to read too much into it but my suspicion is that this is part of an effort to lobby governments. I assume it is part of a long-term effort to move governments towards a Basic Income. But a more useful campaign to make BI a reality is not to juice the early experiments to make them look more appealing. A much better strategy is to do good research and find which aspects of BI would really work and which aspects don't actually hold up. The main problem around BI is there's a massive lack of data available for how people actually behave. All of the conversations around BI end up as circles of speculation around how people would react and others saying: "boy, it sure would be nice to have some real data around the topic". So, to answer the first question: the desired outcome is a better understanding of how people in the real world react to a BI, and a better understanding of which BI mechanisms work well and which BI mechanisms fall apart under real-world conditions.
venomsnake 10y ago
>What is the desired outcome of the experiment? Preventing a new october revolution in its infancy seems to be high on the list.

by reedlaw 10y ago

kinkdr 10y ago

Call me naive, but maybe they believe that "Basic income" is the future, and good for society, and maybe the only way they think that they can convince the governments about it is by gathering hard data proving it can work?

ncallaway 10y ago

> I don't want to read too much into it but my suspicion is that this is part of an effort to lobby governments. I assume it is part of a long-term effort to move governments towards a Basic Income. But a more useful campaign to make BI a reality is not to juice the early experiments to make them look more appealing. A much better strategy is to do good research and find which aspects of BI would really work and which aspects don't actually hold up. The main problem around BI is there's a massive lack of data available for how people actually behave. All of the conversations around BI end up as circles of speculation around how people would react and others saying: "boy, it sure would be nice to have some real data around the topic". So, to answer the first question: the desired outcome is a better understanding of how people in the real world react to a BI, and a better understanding of which BI mechanisms work well and which BI mechanisms fall apart under real-world conditions.

venomsnake 10y ago

>What is the desired outcome of the experiment? Preventing a new october revolution in its infancy seems to be high on the list.