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Re:If Sociologists Had as Much Influence as Economists by cynicalkane on Saturday March 18, 2017 @09:06PM (#13904503)
Section 8 might not have the best outcomes, but I recall that economists have shown it to be preferable to public housing.

I don't know if there's any research demonstrating Section 8 is superior to letting people live in abject poverty, but I think it's reasonable to have strong priors about this hypothesis.

Re:If Sociologists Had as Much Influence as Economists by devinhelton on Saturday March 18, 2017 @09:44PM (#13904677)
Common sense would say that if you give someone money or vouchers, they would be immediately materially better off to the extent that you gave them money. I don't dispute that. Common sense also traditionally held that any public charity needed to be coupled with discipline and oversight to prevent a worsening of social ills.

The claim from mid-century academic sociology was that public housing (and later vouchers) in and of themselves would reduce crime and other social ills. You didn't need punitive work houses -- if you just gave the poor better housing they would start behaving better. I see no evidence that this was the case. And with regards to public housing especially, it seems to have contributed to worsening crime and social ills.

Re:If Sociologists Had as Much Influence as Economists by digitalzombie on Sunday March 19, 2017 @03:21AM (#13905785)
> Common sense would say that if you give someone money or vouchers, they would be immediately materially better off to the extent that you gave them money. I don't dispute that. Common sense also traditionally held that any public charity needed to be coupled with discipline and oversight to prevent a worsening of social ills.

Your definition of "common sense" is strange. You use commonsense and go straight into an elaborate concept.

Also your statement of failure of section 8 is without substance or source.

So I had to google it up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_8_(housing)#Studies

The studies was disputed.

> I see no evidence that this was the case.

You also don't provide evidence at all on either side.

You present your side of argument without any evidence and went on opinion. No sources.