4 ms·

Universal basic income requires elimination of food stamps, rent subsidies, welfare, unemployment, etc.... None of these places are doing that. The entire arg

Universal basic income requires elimination of food stamps, rent subsidies, welfare, unemployment, etc.... None of these places are doing that. The entire argument is that you can get rid of administration and people can spend money on what they need. That said, after seeing how many people listen to Dave Ramsey's Snowball method + anti vaxxers, I'm personally convinced UBI will not work. The people that need it the most cannot make rational decisions.

balefrost 6y ago
I think part of the goal too is to remove the stigma associated with those programs. I know some people look down on those who use food stamps, or suspect that people use food stamps to buy lobster and filet mignon, or barter their food stamp purchases for things that you can't buy with food stamps. With UBI, everybody's using cash.
- chooseaname 6y ago
  "...or suspect that people use food stamps to buy lobster and filet mignon, or barter their food stamp purchases for things that you can't buy with food stamps." Rare, but it happens. The people who think this is more than a rare occurrence are not well educated on the needs of the poor.
  - sethammons 6y ago
    Having grown up with and around welfare recipients, back when it was not an EBT card but paper bills, it was exceptionally common to see it traded at a loss for real money.
wenc 6y ago
Why do you think the snowball method is irrational? Like any method it has its flaws, but studies from Northwestern and Harvard indicate positive results [1] which moves the argument closer to evidence than pure assertion. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt-snowball_method https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt-snowball_method
kwhitefoot 6y ago
> food stamps Which countries use those, apart from the US obviously?
chillacy 6y ago
> The people that need it the most cannot make rational decisions. I think it's pretty hard to argue against cash... if anything you do have to be a bit more economically knowledgable to disagree with the idea. But then at the extreme end you have economists at the top of their fields in favor with the approach.

balefrost 6y ago

I think part of the goal too is to remove the stigma associated with those programs. I know some people look down on those who use food stamps, or suspect that people use food stamps to buy lobster and filet mignon, or barter their food stamp purchases for things that you can't buy with food stamps. With UBI, everybody's using cash.

chooseaname 6y ago
"...or suspect that people use food stamps to buy lobster and filet mignon, or barter their food stamp purchases for things that you can't buy with food stamps." Rare, but it happens. The people who think this is more than a rare occurrence are not well educated on the needs of the poor.
- sethammons 6y ago
  Having grown up with and around welfare recipients, back when it was not an EBT card but paper bills, it was exceptionally common to see it traded at a loss for real money.

wenc 6y ago

Why do you think the snowball method is irrational? Like any method it has its flaws, but studies from Northwestern and Harvard indicate positive results [1] which moves the argument closer to evidence than pure assertion. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt-snowball_method https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt-snowball_method

kwhitefoot 6y ago

> food stamps Which countries use those, apart from the US obviously?

chillacy 6y ago

> The people that need it the most cannot make rational decisions. I think it's pretty hard to argue against cash... if anything you do have to be a bit more economically knowledgable to disagree with the idea. But then at the extreme end you have economists at the top of their fields in favor with the approach.