Re:Moving Forward on Basic Income
by joelrunyon on Tuesday May 31, 2016 @07:30PM
(#11811097)
> A lot of the people who are going to be on BI in the next ten years are adults who are in good mental health and perfectly capable of spending within a budget.
I would like to know the current % of people who live within a budget. The avg. cc debt is currently 15k - https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/credit-card-data/average-cre... - I don't think BI automatically grants financial literacy.
These people should be allowed to make the trade-off between using their BI to live in the city and use public transit, or to live in a cheaper, more rural town and having a car. Similarly, they could choose between eating chicken for dinner every night, or eating ramen all week and splurging on a box wine on the weekend. BI lets adults do this. It's embarrassing to stand behind someone at the grocery store trying to buy a bottle of wine with EBT.
It's worth noting that BI does not, by itself, solve mental illness, drug addiction, medical emergencies, or fraud. However, a homeless person that receives BI could rent themselves a small apartment somewhere -- which could reduce the number of 911 calls that person causes as a homeless person, and in turn free up cost savings for e.g. a social worker visiting them at their new apartment.