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Is giving people cash working? What six months of Denver's Basic Income Project tell us (denverite.com)

submitted 1 year ago by yenahmik@beehaw.org to c/socialism@beehaw.org

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[–] thefartographer@lemm.ee 69 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't make a lot of money, but I make enough to feel rather comfortable. If I were told "we're going to give away free money to people without homes and jobs, but you don't get any because you already have both," I'd be cool with that.

If I were told "we're going to increase your taxes, but the return on that would be knowing that no one would ever have to worry about affording medicine instead of food again. No one will ever need to beg for money again and income will no longer be coupled to social status," I'd be fucking stoked.

I'm one of the lucky few who loves their job and would do it for free if I could afford to, but I'd love to see people be able to abandon their horrible work environments to pursue societal contributions that mean something to them.

[–] gregorum@lemm.ee 33 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Well, see, here’s the thing: you’re a decent person. Too few people are.

[–] psudo@beehaw.org 11 points 1 year ago

I don't even think that it's so much a lack of decency in most people, so much as the capitalist society we live in that falsely promotes the idea that it's a zero sum game and that inherently drives people into a crab mentality.

[–] thefartographer@lemm.ee 9 points 1 year ago

I remember as a child asking my parents to give to the homeless and they'd say that if they gave to one, they'd have to give to all and then we'd have nothing and we'd all be homeless. Then they'd give our old torn-up clothes to charities and tell us they were going to "the poor children." None of their but did you bring enough gum for everyone logic ever made sense to me, but it was so ingrained that it wasn't until I was in college that I started giving to the homeless because I was scared that giving to one would make all of them come out of the woodworks telling me I had to share.

Btw, I once did bring enough gum for the entire class, not to fuck with the teacher, but to brighten everyone's day. I figured the teacher would be like, "FINALLY!!! I've been so sad telling everyone no for all these years!" Instead, I got sent to the principal for being a smartass. It was never about not having enough resources to share, it was about making sure the have-nots were punished.

[–] Gaywallet@beehaw.org 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Actually I think most people are decent. The problem is that those who are in power are not.

[–] prd@beehaw.org 5 points 1 year ago

Similarly, I think there is a correlation between how not-decent a person is and how loud they are.

[–] Gaywallet@beehaw.org 32 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's so awesome to see so many of these taking off across the country. Can't wait to see it start to become more and more normalized and replace legacy welfare that comes with a bunch of red tape and overhead.

[–] PupBiru@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago

it’ll definitely be replicated in a cargo cult way in every conservative area

or maybe that doesn’t count as cargo cult because they’d understand the reasons it works and specifically not do it that way to “prove” that it doesn’t work

[–] PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

I can see it replacing some forms of welfare but a lot of it is based on specific needs like services

[–] HappyMeatbag@beehaw.org 14 points 1 year ago

Thank you, OP! I had almost forgotten about this. I was wondering how things were going!

[–] IcedCoffeeBitch@beehaw.org 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I really wonder why mental health decreased.

With that said this echoes other universal income projects: it definitely works.

[–] ConstableJelly@beehaw.org 8 points 1 year ago

I caught this too, very strange. I could speculate that it's due to the finite timeline on the program itself and the anxiety about what comes next, but who knows. Interested to see the final results next year.

[–] Original@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’m typically very skeptical of UBI due to the economics on a grand scale, but I am super impressed that the group who received an up front payment went from the lowest demographic who owned or rented to the highest. I am in favor of the approach, but need convinced it wouldn’t be disproportionately taken advantage of.

[–] Nebula0578@beehaw.org 4 points 1 year ago

Isn’t the whole point of UBI that there isn’t anything to “take advantage of”?