Lots of good thoughtful analysis here. One thing that he writes about that has struck me before is that it can be the next generation that shows the benefits. That the current adults might be...
Lots of good thoughtful analysis here. One thing that he writes about that has struck me before is that it can be the next generation that shows the benefits.
mothers’ pensions, the precedent for today’s welfare program, had muted effects on the women receiving them from the 1910s to the 1930s, but significant effects on the lifetime earnings and educational attainment of their sons, decades later... It averaged about $500/mo to $750/mo in today’s dollars... male children of accepted applicants lived one year longer than those of rejected mothers and received one-third more years of schooling, were less likely to be underweight, and had 14% higher income in adulthood than children of rejected mothers.
That the current adults might be beyond help is a hard message, but their children can be set up for better lifetimes by giving money to the parents, and that is a good societal investment. I am grateful to the advocates continuing to spread the full picture of the science, and hope to live to see our social support system improve based on it.
I totally agree that fighting child poverty is one of the most important things governments can do. Child allowances and tax credits for families are incredible tools for supporting the next...
I totally agree that fighting child poverty is one of the most important things governments can do. Child allowances and tax credits for families are incredible tools for supporting the next generation.
There's some overlap with UBI, but I feel like it's a bit different? If the payments are minimally effective for most people, why not target families and people that benefit the most?
Political popularity? Money that everyone gets is money that's politically toxic to try to reduce or remove. SNAP can be cut because mostly voters aren't poor mothers or children, but if everyone...
Political popularity? Money that everyone gets is money that's politically toxic to try to reduce or remove. SNAP can be cut because mostly voters aren't poor mothers or children, but if everyone is getting the money it's a lot harder to walk back the benefit. Not impossible, given recent issues with the health care credits and Medicare, but difficult.
Pros of UBI are removing application barriers (both paperwork and stigma) that result in targeted programs leaving out big chuncks of people who should qualify, and saving money on the...
Pros of UBI are removing application barriers (both paperwork and stigma) that result in targeted programs leaving out big chuncks of people who should qualify, and saving money on the administrative costs of enforcing the "only people with x criteria" stuff.
If the cost of giving the program to everyone is significantly greater than the costs of adding barriers, it can make sense to add barriers. Most of the studies I've seen show that admin costs are...
If the cost of giving the program to everyone is significantly greater than the costs of adding barriers, it can make sense to add barriers. Most of the studies I've seen show that admin costs are cheaper than making some allowances universal.
One possible way of donating money efficiently is using crude criteria that don’t require anyone to apply for funding. For example, giving cash to all expectant mothers in a community apparently...
One possible way of donating money efficiently is using crude criteria that don’t require anyone to apply for funding. For example, giving cash to all expectant mothers in a community apparently works well in Flint, Michigan and even better in Kenya.
This is hardly universal, but it does seem to work.
Good look at UBI trials and how Covid interacted with recent ones. I’m a pretty big proponent of UBI, and I think it has some good arguments for and criticisms of the trial designs that we have...
Good look at UBI trials and how Covid interacted with recent ones. I’m a pretty big proponent of UBI, and I think it has some good arguments for and criticisms of the trial designs that we have seen so far. Really one of the more comprehensive articles on the subject that I’ve seen.
I don't see anything serious happening in the next decade at least, from a US perspective. Assuming we just collectively got our shit together tomorrow and worked hard at making things better we...
I don't see anything serious happening in the next decade at least, from a US perspective.
Assuming we just collectively got our shit together tomorrow and worked hard at making things better we STILL have a massive debt to handle. I know that things like UBI, on paper, will help with that in the long run and very likely might even do it in practice, but there's no way something like that is going to make it through when we can't even figure out how/if we're funding Social security.
Lots of good thoughtful analysis here. One thing that he writes about that has struck me before is that it can be the next generation that shows the benefits.
That the current adults might be beyond help is a hard message, but their children can be set up for better lifetimes by giving money to the parents, and that is a good societal investment. I am grateful to the advocates continuing to spread the full picture of the science, and hope to live to see our social support system improve based on it.
I totally agree that fighting child poverty is one of the most important things governments can do. Child allowances and tax credits for families are incredible tools for supporting the next generation.
There's some overlap with UBI, but I feel like it's a bit different? If the payments are minimally effective for most people, why not target families and people that benefit the most?
Political popularity? Money that everyone gets is money that's politically toxic to try to reduce or remove. SNAP can be cut because mostly voters aren't poor mothers or children, but if everyone is getting the money it's a lot harder to walk back the benefit. Not impossible, given recent issues with the health care credits and Medicare, but difficult.
Pros of UBI are removing application barriers (both paperwork and stigma) that result in targeted programs leaving out big chuncks of people who should qualify, and saving money on the administrative costs of enforcing the "only people with x criteria" stuff.
If the cost of giving the program to everyone is significantly greater than the costs of adding barriers, it can make sense to add barriers. Most of the studies I've seen show that admin costs are cheaper than making some allowances universal.
One possible way of donating money efficiently is using crude criteria that don’t require anyone to apply for funding. For example, giving cash to all expectant mothers in a community apparently works well in Flint, Michigan and even better in Kenya.
This is hardly universal, but it does seem to work.
Yeah, child tax credits are fantastic for this reason.
Good look at UBI trials and how Covid interacted with recent ones. I’m a pretty big proponent of UBI, and I think it has some good arguments for and criticisms of the trial designs that we have seen so far. Really one of the more comprehensive articles on the subject that I’ve seen.
I don't see anything serious happening in the next decade at least, from a US perspective.
Assuming we just collectively got our shit together tomorrow and worked hard at making things better we STILL have a massive debt to handle. I know that things like UBI, on paper, will help with that in the long run and very likely might even do it in practice, but there's no way something like that is going to make it through when we can't even figure out how/if we're funding Social security.