Re:Stockton extends its monthly $500 UBI payment experiment
by toomuchtodo on Tuesday June 02, 2020 @03:36PM
(#23395325)
Takes time to win hearts and minds, and for the electorate to shift on issues [1]. No different than when Social Security and Medicare were radical ideas. Yang wasn't wrong, he was just early. Direct cash transfers have been shown to improve quality of life and pull people out of poverty. [2]
Spain got something close [3] (but not exactly UBI) recently. I would not be surprised to see this trend continue, either voluntarily or because nation states exhaust all other options.
[1] https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/03/20/a-wider-par...
[2] https://www.google.com/search?q=direct+cash+transfers+povert...
[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23351708 (HN: Spain approves national minimum income scheme)
> Why would you target productivity over quality of life?
I'm not sure that I do that, but the general public absolutely will. The taxpaying public will absolutely not tolerate a UBI that just funnels money into drug cartels, etc. You need to show that the UBI is useful or helpful somehow, not just that it makes people happy.