We should give free money to the homeless

[russ_watters]

I didn't make money, I worked on the farm for the fun of it. During the summer when I was there, I stayed at her house and ate her food, I certainly didn't expect to be paid for having fun, I had to beg to be allowed to work.

I got paid for working on my grandparents farm when I was a kid. My parents would dump me and my sister while they went on vacation. After subtracting room and board, my very first paycheck I ever got was $7.

 

[russ_watters]

I would agree with Greg; money is not the primary incentive for me. Doing something meaningful is. Money is, however, a necessary condition (if insufficient) as far as it is needed to survive.

I suppose it would depend on where you draw your line/frame the question. If it is a question of +- a few thousand dollars, one can pick other motivations. But versus having no job, the money is by far the biggest issue.

 

[OmCheeto]

Hmmmm!:)

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Here's another interesting article by the Economist
http://www.economist.com/news/inter...people-works-surprisingly-well-it-cannot-deal

 

[DivergentSpectrum]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_inequality_in_the_United_States
In america the bottom 40% of people own .2 percent of the wealth
the top 1% own 34.6 percent of the wealth

Its really scary. Its kinda hard to even fathom or put into context. i know we say were a democracy, but technically america is an oligarchy (where a small group of people runs the country).

However, there is good news:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equality
while america seems to be an aberation in the trend of developed countries, overall developed countries are far more equal in wealth, which means that as humanity continues to evolve as a whole, we will eventually reach a good equilibrium between opportunity and incentive

 

[aaa16797]

I actually think that giving homeless people jobs would be better. You are basically making them work for their money, so they can spend their time doing something productive to society

 

[Silicon Waffle]

Usually people doing charity will offer them an initial (pretty) large amount of money first and then introduce them open jobs they can do.
If I were one of them, I'd prefer to get the money anyway.

 

[Czcibor]

I'm not sure how relevant it is here, but:

But the biggest problem may be the way casino profits are sometimes disbursed. Per capita payments have grown as gaming revenues have risen. “These payments can be destructive because the more generous they become, the more people fall into the trap of not working,” says Ron Whitener, a law professor, tribal judge and a member of the Squaxin Island Tribe in Washington state. Of the 17 tribes in the study that handed casino profits directly to members, ten saw their poverty rates rise. Of the seven tribes that did not, only two saw such an increase (see chart).Per capita payments range from as little as a few hundred dollars a year to more than $100,000. In some tribes, members receive 18 years of per capita payments in a lump sum when they turn 18. “There are a lot of very successful car dealerships around reservations that make their money off 18-year- old,” adds Mr Whitener. -

One very small tribe in the study, Jamestown S’Klallam in northern Washington, has eliminated poverty entirely. That tribe does not issue any per capita payments and has used its casino profits to diversify into other businesses, such as harvesting huge molluscs for export to China. Squaxin Island, which reduced its poverty rate from 31.4% in 2000 to 12.4% in 2010, used casino profits to get into cigarette manufacturing about ten years ago. Leaders of the Siletz tribe, by contrast, allot 40% of the casino’s net revenues to per capita payments and only 17% towards economic development. Of the tribes surveyed, the Siletz has one of the highest poverty rates.

http://www.economist.com/news/unite...makes-native-americans-poorer-slots-and-slothYes, I know small sample and correlation instead of causative relationship. Nevertheless...

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Here is a recent opinion piece, but still interesting
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/18/what-happens-when-the-poor-receive-a-stipend/?_r=1

 

[houlahound]

I didn't realize there was already this thread on the UBI.

 

[OmCheeto]

I didn't realize there was already this thread on the UBI.

Being newly retired, and getting a UBI, and knowing what I've become(LAZY!), I'm starting to see the right wing side of the thought process.
As far as I can tell, right wingers got their money either by being not poor in the first place, or gaming the system.
In any event, they understood long before I did, what it meant to be "self lazy".

One of them really needs to start a thread, on how they overcame that affliction.

 

[houlahound]

I am certain that most people would not become lazy if their basic needs were provided. I think the opposite would happen.

Most people I know on retirement pension work harder than ever in volunteer clubs/committees/lobby groups...

Of course there is a percentage of people that really are just lazy.

I only imagine all the useless physics experiments I would be doing if I did not have to spend so much time on basic survival.

 

[Vanadium 50]

As far as I can tell, right wingers got their money either by being not poor in the first place, or gaming the system.

Or perhaps they hear this kind of comment, dripping with loathing, and decide to oppose your politics? Clay County, KY, which often tops the list of poorest US counties, went 9:1 for the Republican candidate this year.

 

[houlahound]

Or perhaps they hear this kind of comment, dripping with loathing, and decide to oppose your politics? Clay County, KY, which often tops the list of poorest US counties, went 9:1 for the Republican candidate this year.

I am not in the US or understand their politics but have seen places in the South that are like third world hell holes and the people support policies that help them the least ie opposition to healthcare when their health is poor, opposition to welfare when they depend in food stamps, opposition to peace when they are cannon fodder, opposition to overseas manufacturing but addicted to cheap consumer products, opposition to science...

What's up with that, the South is a hard logic to follow.

 

[OmCheeto]

I am certain that most people would not become lazy if their basic needs were provided.
...

See: Children

aka, You are correct.

 

[OmCheeto]

I am not in the US or understand their politics but have seen places in the South that are like third world hell holes and the people support policies that help them the least ie opposition to healthcare when their health is poor, opposition to welfare when they depend in food stamps, opposition to peace when they are cannon fodder, opposition to overseas manufacturing but addicted to cheap consumer products, opposition to science...

What's up with that, the South is a hard logic to follow.

I'm in the US, and don't understand it either.
hmmmm...

ps. "Loathing" is a funny word.

 

[houlahound]

I was in Gallatin (spelling) as a teenager for a while living with rich people on a horse stud farm - kind generous people but the poor areas I only can compare to SE Asia's poorest areas.

I could not believe such poverty existed in the US until I saw it.

The poor SE Asians were positive people with a zest for life, the poor white Southerners were violent and angry and were in a state of preparation for some vague apocalyptic war.

Just my personal experience, not generalising.

 

[Evo]

This thread is a necropost which no longer meets our guidelines, so it is closed.