I haven’t seen the results from these particular studies, but the general consensus in modern monetary policy is that if you give really poor people cash, it tends to bring their quality of life up significantly without inflation concerns as long as there is enough labor around.
Inflation is such a shit excuse. The government bails out banks to the tune of hundreds of billions in fresh dollar dollars and not a even a muffled stuttering whisp of inflation is heard. We ask they shave a few billion off the DoD budget, who still can’t account for where all their money goes, and it’s like we’ve invited Satan to rape them for eternity.
Wouldn’t it be substantially more than a few billion for most UBI concepts?
Maybe, but if that means the military industrial complex might have to spend a fraction of a second contemplating smaller contracts so that society can pay for people to live healthier and more productive lives, just stop right there. That’s not allowed in America.
Depends how much, how often and the income cutoffs. Let’s say you just start with the homeless and we’ll assume everyone who is homeless qualifies income wise.
A quick and dirty search says there are ~582,462 homeless individuals in America. And a random number I’ve heard for maximum UBI monthly payments is $1,500. Keep in mind this amount would be on a sliding scale based on income and not all homeless are jobless but for our sake all of them qualify for the maximum.
So, we have 582,462 homeless and each qualify for $1,500/mo which comes to an annual cost of $10,484,316,000. And the annual DoD budget is ~$800billion. So less than a 10% cut to the DoD budget could provide all the homeless $1,500/mo to help lift those people out of homelessness.
And the idea wouldn’t be that all of them receive the $1,500/mo forever but for long enough to get into stable housing. Maybe that’s moving, going to trade school, a new job etc but that extra money makes doing those things possible where before it just wasn’t.
There would need to be a whole system of checks and balances created with UBI just like with SSID, Medicaid, welfare and food stamps. So this is really quick, really dirty and stupid simple.
Edit: And UBI is really just a single stitch to begin closing a gaping wound in the US. It should be implemented as a first step in a multi-step set of programs that ensures at least a minimum standard of living for everyone.
What you’re describing doesn’t sound like UBI at all.
UBI is universal. There’s no criteria for eligibility besides maybe residency and being alive.
A homeless person would receive the same UBI that a doctor would. Anything else is a form of aid.
