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posted by janrinok on Monday September 12 2016, @03:31AM   Printer-friendly
from the here,-take-my-money dept.

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.
...
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.


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  • (Score: 0, Redundant) by khallow on Monday September 12 2016, @02:34PM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday September 12 2016, @02:34PM (#400725) Journal

    Its all about a hundred people owning all the money and wealth and swiping it from each other and generally being useless parasites.

    So what are you again going to do with that bunch of money and wealth, most which is in a form that is useless to you? Credit default swaps? Put options on a penny stock? Some weird energy derivative? You'd sell it to one of the "hundred" and buy something useful.

    I think what makes these complaints rather pointless is the worthlessness of the money and wealth you are complaining about. There's plenty of ephemeral money and wealth out there. Yet for the cynical manipulators out there, it's still wealth inequality even when we don't value that wealth.

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