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A simple idea for eliminating poverty is garnering greater attention in recent weeks: automatically have the government give every adult a basic income.
The Atlantic's Matt Bruenig and Elizabeth Stoker brought up the idea a few weeks ago when they contemplated cutting poverty in half, and Annie Lowrey revisited it in today's issue of the New York Times Magazine.
Sales of beer, twinkies, and scratch-off lottery tickets would go through the roof.
I do admit it as a note of Darwinism that I can appreciate.
Man/woman spends all money on drugs, booze, smokes or lottery tickets instead of feeding themselves using EBT. Gets hungry, tries to rob house for more money. Shot dead by homeowner. Problem solved. Problem staying solved.
Maybe we shouldn't jump to conclusions. This idea has legs.
A guaranteed income program is based on the false assumption people will use the money wisely if the intent is to eliminate poverty which is a legal definition. Obama for instance, if not trying to purchase votes, would simply redefine 'poverty' to eliminate it.
This is like eliminating heart disease by surgically removing the heart... the patient dies.
A culture of begging squirrels, sea gulls in a parking lot waiting for MacDs french fries, pigeons in a park..... will be created and annoy the heck out of everyone.
Social justice will have to create a new marketing program to 'respect the people who live by guaranteed income'. They will be mocked and derided and employers loathe to hire them. A new class division, a new segmnent to add to the federal protected species list.
Most of all it removes the incentive to contribute to society.
I'm a liberal and think thats a pretty dumb idea,, wheres the motivation to even get out of bed in the morning let alone go out and work, I'm all for Social programs to help those who fall on hard times or for whatever reason cant work but to guarantee the whole country a basic income is an absurd idea.
I would rather see that money go towards free higher education and trade school education.
Giving everyone a basic income won't eliminate poverty, it will merely move the bar. Despite our War on Poverty and the billions, now trillions, of dollars we have thrown at it, it's percent of the population hasn't changed. It has achieved two things, it has encouraged an increased number of out-of-wedlock births and created a sense of entitlement. We have also managed to change the demographics of the impoverished, there are far fewer elderly in the mix and more children.
By the way, the variable that is the single biggest indicator of whether a child will grow up in poverty is whether or not his parents are married. If we want to eliminate poverty, particularly in children, maybe we ought to start working on decreasing out-of-wedlock births instead of continuing to do things that encourages it.
Sure, give all the citizens a basic income and then we don't have to work.
That will free up all those jobs for the illegals, H1-B, and other Visa workers.
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