I recent controlled study of 100 homeless people given 750/month for a year shows that they don’t spend on drugs as many basic income naysayer suggest, they get housing and clothing and food. I’ve covered this topic a number of times, with the most comprehensive look being Basic Income for Canadians which looked at hundreds of studies over decades which all had the same basic findings.

Much of homelessness is a scarcity issue. When homeless you reduce financial scarcity people are able to make better decisions about drug use, jobs, education, and pretty much every other area of their lives.

This leads me to believe that we don’t implement basic income for people as a form of cruelty the rich lawmakers inflict on poor people simply because it doesn’t fit their narrative of the world. The rich narrative being that they alone worked hard to get everything they have and no one handed them anything. Even if their parents were rich and they could afford to volunteer without pay, or their rich parents introduced them to future employers of a matching social class that paid well.

If they admitted that it was really money that gave them success, they’d have to acknowledge the silver spoon and just maybe extend support to others because you can’t do it all on your own.

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