if poor children had access to better food, better housing, and parent’s with more free time and energy?
It’s going to end up being an empirical question if any real UBI implementation does those things. Presuming it replaces, rather than supplements, current low-income government programs, it’s likely neutral or even negative to the disabled and non-working poor. It could be a noticeable boost to the working poor, and it remains to be seen whether it leads to healthier food and lifestyle choices, or “just” more pleasant lives. Or as payments to warlords (in a capitalist system, that’s mostly drugs and black-market purchases, not direct violence).
I support large-scale trials (major metro areas or smaller US States), and I have hopes that it could make things somewhat better. But it’s not guarantees, and it’s not a panacea.
I agree, of course there are no guarantees. Well, I expect it’s essentially a guarantee that there will be some of all of the above, and only the balance is in question.
I guess my response to that is… so what? Once we ensure people get enough support, for long enough, that their decisions are actually free choices unforced by desperate circumstances, I’m much more willing to let them bear the consequences of their own decisions. It removes a lot of the moral grey area. Granted I could be convinced the relevant time frame for that kind of shift might be anywhere from “a couple of years” to “multiple generations.”
It’s going to end up being an empirical question if any real UBI implementation does those things. Presuming it replaces, rather than supplements, current low-income government programs, it’s likely neutral or even negative to the disabled and non-working poor. It could be a noticeable boost to the working poor, and it remains to be seen whether it leads to healthier food and lifestyle choices, or “just” more pleasant lives. Or as payments to warlords (in a capitalist system, that’s mostly drugs and black-market purchases, not direct violence).
I support large-scale trials (major metro areas or smaller US States), and I have hopes that it could make things somewhat better. But it’s not guarantees, and it’s not a panacea.
I agree, of course there are no guarantees. Well, I expect it’s essentially a guarantee that there will be some of all of the above, and only the balance is in question.
I guess my response to that is… so what? Once we ensure people get enough support, for long enough, that their decisions are actually free choices unforced by desperate circumstances, I’m much more willing to let them bear the consequences of their own decisions. It removes a lot of the moral grey area. Granted I could be convinced the relevant time frame for that kind of shift might be anywhere from “a couple of years” to “multiple generations.”