7 ms·

>> Any income that can sustain a household without any pressure to grow as people will probably hinder their progress more so than help them. I disagree. I bel

by aylmao 10y ago

>> Any income that can sustain a household without any pressure to grow as people will probably hinder their progress more so than help them. I disagree. I believe the better place where one should do this is where it's needed the most. People tend to believe that when given money, others will just sit back and get lazy doing nothing. Matter of fact is you need money to do anything; to give your children a better education, to buy tools to help you at your job, to buy appliances that free your time to have other projects, etc. Do you think these people are comfortable with their lifestyle? Handing them free money, IMO, more than being an excuse to "hinder progress", will be an investment that finally allow them to get over working to "just survive" and into the realm of working to actually ensure their kids are better off than they were. This is similar to how YC funds startups. Or in fact, how anyone funds startups. No one says "Oh, if we give you a nice economic cushion, that'll probably hinder your progress, you need to be under the constant stress and problem of having no money to really get clever and do cool things." Of course not, that's nuts. You invest money to make money.

geraltofrivia 10y ago
While I agree with you on the perks of a UBI, I think India is not yet in a place where UBI could work. As mentioned in the article, the pay would be a meagre Rs. 7000 per annum. To put it in perspective, I found it hard to keep my expenses per month to under Rs. 8000, living frugally as a student, with basically free housing and subsidized food. Sure there are millions of people who would appreciate this sum and might gain some benefits from them, but it would be inconsequential to about 70-75% of the population. That's a lot of money wasted. It might br better to have focused welfare programs which would put this money to better use. For instance, government sponsored vocational training programs. India has a vast network of NGOs, and many of them have such programs. Another venue to invest this money might be on rural education systems. A disturbing number of them are not functional, where both teachers and students infrequently visit a shabby one room building to have free mid-day meals (I don't have any woes with this program, btw). Better infrastructure, better teacher training programs, are all venues that would benefit from the money. Ofcourse these venues are riddled with a corrupt administration which would substantially diminish the returns, but UBI distribution too might have similar problems. Basically, in a country with this population, and with a huge wealth divide, I think UBI is a very ineffective welfare program.
- intended 10y ago
  What the?? 8k a month is good for a huge chunk of our country. The poverty line is in the mere tens of rupees per day when I last checked. 32 rs/day for rural india and 47 rs/day in cities. 32x30 is ~1000 rs. Additionally, 25% or so are below the poverty line. That's how bad it is. I think discussing welfare programs without knowing what the poverty line is resulted in misplaced goalposts.

by aylmao 10y ago

geraltofrivia 10y ago

While I agree with you on the perks of a UBI, I think India is not yet in a place where UBI could work. As mentioned in the article, the pay would be a meagre Rs. 7000 per annum. To put it in perspective, I found it hard to keep my expenses per month to under Rs. 8000, living frugally as a student, with basically free housing and subsidized food. Sure there are millions of people who would appreciate this sum and might gain some benefits from them, but it would be inconsequential to about 70-75% of the population. That's a lot of money wasted. It might br better to have focused welfare programs which would put this money to better use. For instance, government sponsored vocational training programs. India has a vast network of NGOs, and many of them have such programs. Another venue to invest this money might be on rural education systems. A disturbing number of them are not functional, where both teachers and students infrequently visit a shabby one room building to have free mid-day meals (I don't have any woes with this program, btw). Better infrastructure, better teacher training programs, are all venues that would benefit from the money. Ofcourse these venues are riddled with a corrupt administration which would substantially diminish the returns, but UBI distribution too might have similar problems. Basically, in a country with this population, and with a huge wealth divide, I think UBI is a very ineffective welfare program.

intended 10y ago
What the?? 8k a month is good for a huge chunk of our country. The poverty line is in the mere tens of rupees per day when I last checked. 32 rs/day for rural india and 47 rs/day in cities. 32x30 is ~1000 rs. Additionally, 25% or so are below the poverty line. That's how bad it is. I think discussing welfare programs without knowing what the poverty line is resulted in misplaced goalposts.