The idea of giving people free money is so radical, even some recipients think it's too good to be true.
Later this year, roughly 6,000 people in Kenya will receive regular monthly payments of about a dollar a day, no strings attached, as part of a policy experiment commonly known as basic income.
People will get to use the money for whatever they want: food, clothing, shelter, gambling, alcohol — anything — all in an effort to reduce poverty.
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But instead of accepting the cash transfers with open arms, many Kenyans have recently been saying "No, thank you." It's a legitimate concern: As GiveDirectly moves into its larger basic income experiment, the last thing it wants is for people to turn down the money.
Basic Income is a concept often mentioned on SN, and this is an experiment to do exactly that. Many potential recipients of the basic income are skeptical about the goals of the experiment, though, and rumors have arisen that it's tied to a cult or devil worship.
Opponents of such wealth transfers argue they lead to indolence, while another school of thought believes they would reduce poverty and directly produce economic stimulus because the poor would immediately spend the money.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 12 2016, @09:03AM
Actually, nobody ever tried to implement communism, not even the "communist" states. What they officially implemented was socialism. And of course, Marx didn't actually claim that socialism would not eventually fail. Indeed, he predicted that it would eventually fail, and there would be a revolution to end it. However he predicted that this revolution would then lead to communism, where finally everything would be great. He considered socialism as necessary step towards communism, just as he considered capitalism a necessary step towards socialism.
Note that I don't argue that communism would work (I don't think it would), I just argue against the claim that it actually had been tried. It hasn't.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 12 2016, @10:07AM
[Marx] considered capitalism a necessary step towards socialism
Nope. He acknowledged its existence.
He never conceded that the greed and exploitation of Capitalism was necessary.
He considered socialism as necessary step towards communism
That part you got right.
[Marx] predicted that [Socialism] would eventually fail
Nope. He predicted that it would -succeed- and result in a condition where governance was no longer necessary.
He called that condition "Communism".
and there would be a revolution to end [Socialism]
Nope. The revolution was The Workers replacing exploitation and concentrated wealth (Capitalism) with a community-based system (Socialism).
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