News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Policies that make the poor less poor. Parent comment

Re:Policies that make the poor less poor by LunaSea on Monday June 21, 2021 @07:06AM (#27578057)
> Small-scale experiments have been quite successful though.

And are absolutely useless to study the very important effects that these kinds of systems have on a nation's economy.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Policies that make the poor less poor by DoreenMichele on Monday June 21, 2021 @07:11AM (#27578075)
I'm not a fan of UBI. I agree with you that the small scale experiments are worthless.

I've looked to history for examples of actual real world attempts to guarantee some minimum quality of life for all citizens of a particular group. They consistently do well for some self selected and committed initial group and then go badly when the doors get flung open to include everyone.

One result I recall hearing about is instituting policies like "You don't work, you don't eat" in order to prevent freeloaders from utterly killing the whole system and taking everyone down with them.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Policies that make the poor less poor by foogazi on Monday June 21, 2021 @10:46AM (#27579675)
>”You don’t work, you don’t eat”

Tale as old as time:

> For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule:“The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.”

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Thessalonia...

[ Parent | on HN ]