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Because knowing what people need requires an expensive and error-prone system. Most people know what they need and will go buy it given the money to do so - the
by azernik 9y ago
Because knowing what people need requires an expensive and error-prone system. Most people know what they need and will go buy it given the money to do so - the joy of fungible assets!
- commandlinefan 9y agoI don't know, knowing what people need actually seems easier than knowing how much (variable value) money they'll need to buy it. A person's required caloric intake hasn't changed since 1970. Incomes have.
- azernik 9y agoThat's a relatively simple case, that a developed country's welfare system does indeed handle well. But what about transportation, housing, education, entertainment? The list is long.
- JumpCrisscross 9y ago> knowing what people need requires an expensive and error-prone system Unemployment provisioning in the United States is relatively inexpensive. I wonder if the administrative savings are being overstated, having been estimated before governments digitized such things.
- azernik 9y agoThat happens to be a case where it's easy to get an eligibility list (I think there are a lot of such cases). But the way in which aid is distributed is still just plain cash.
- dragonwriter 9y ago> Unemployment provisioning in the United States is relatively inexpensive. UI isn't about identifying very specific needs, it's about identifying a particular easy to assess monetary need and meeting some of it: people whose lifestyle is adapted to the income provided by their job, without it, need an income roughly comparable to the take-home income from their job. That's pretty much the easiest need assessment in public safety net programs.
- tabeth 9y agoIs it that error prone? Could people not just submit what their own opinion and then you aggregate it systematically?