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> Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan this month urged the government to directly transfer cash to the poor instead of offering them public services
by sspiff 12y ago
> Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan this month urged the government to directly transfer cash to the poor instead of offering them public services
That sounds like a terrible idea. This opens up the door for further extortion, corruption and exploitation of the masses. Say the government hands out $15 per child for education, there way to prevent debt collectors to harass the poor into paying that money to them. Plus, the extorter knows he can collect at least $15 per child!
I think offering a service instead of "free money" is much more valuable.
- heydenberk 12y agoThis is what people tend to assume, but it based more on emotion than reason. Conditional cash transfers have been very successful in places like Brazil. There a few good articles about it in the Economist. Here's one: http://www.economist.com/node/16693323 http://www.economist.com/node/16693323
- sspiff 12y agoInteresting link, I can't read it right now, but I'll be sure to check it out later. Thanks!
- kashkhan 12y agoAre you saying that we shouldn't give money to the poor because if they had money they would be robbed? By that logic banks shouldn't have ATMs becuase people get mugged after going to ATMs. We should give money to the poor so they can not be poor. Even if 10% of them get robbed, even then 90% will be better off than before the money transfer. Services are nice but central planning of services provides worse allocation than well functioning markets. Even for the poor.