It is true that the ‘poverty line’ is an arbitrary number that doesn’t necessarily equate to life experience not being ‘in poverty’ if you’re above it. It is also true that UBI puts every person, universally, over a certain amount of income. If you define poverty as people living under the poverty line, then a UBI reaching the poverty line would abolish poverty by definition.
Regarding the welfare system, almost everybody is in favor of dramatically reforming the welfare system because a lot of it right now is actually harmful to people. The one program most people approve of, social security, already functions (sort of) as a UBI for the elderly.
I struggle to see who, after looking at the numbers, would be against spending <10% of America’s budget ($539B) on a UBI that would pay for itself several times over & make it so the government can delete a ton of less effective welfare programs. Do you know that child poverty alone (only one small part of the damage of poverty) costs over $1.03 Trillion annually?
This is a fake, made-up number that massively overestimates the effects of child poverty by ignoring the huge genetic confounding that accounts for a very substantial part of the correlation between child poverty experience and worse adult outcomes.
Hold up. That $1T number originated from this peer-reviewed study that I cited. I’d be happy to see your strong evidence that the $1T number is overblown, or perhaps even off by 10X. The goal here is to be less wrong.
But this is the EA forum, my friend. You can’t just claim something’s “a fake, made-up number” without any evidence. Especially when that source is a peer-reviewed academic study.
ignoring the huge genetic confounding that accounts for a very substantial part of the correlation between child poverty experience and worse adult outcomes.
If anything, this seems to me like an extremely dubious claim. The idea that ‘genetic confounding’ has anything to do with why impoverished childhood experiences lead to worse adult outcomes absolutely needs a strong RTC Study cited. Actually, it would need several gold-standard studies and a meta-review.
At first glance, ‘genetic confounding’ (especially in the context of poverty) also seems like a slippery slope to the idea that poor people are poor because there is something wrong with them, ignoring the multitude of ways the cards are stacked against them.
However, I’d really like to give you the benefit of the doubt. What were you trying to get at?
It is true that the ‘poverty line’ is an arbitrary number that doesn’t necessarily equate to life experience not being ‘in poverty’ if you’re above it. It is also true that UBI puts every person, universally, over a certain amount of income. If you define poverty as people living under the poverty line, then a UBI reaching the poverty line would abolish poverty by definition.
Regarding the welfare system, almost everybody is in favor of dramatically reforming the welfare system because a lot of it right now is actually harmful to people. The one program most people approve of, social security, already functions (sort of) as a UBI for the elderly.
I struggle to see who, after looking at the numbers, would be against spending <10% of America’s budget ($539B) on a UBI that would pay for itself several times over & make it so the government can delete a ton of less effective welfare programs. Do you know that child poverty alone (only one small part of the damage of poverty) costs over $1.03 Trillion annually?
This is a fake, made-up number that massively overestimates the effects of child poverty by ignoring the huge genetic confounding that accounts for a very substantial part of the correlation between child poverty experience and worse adult outcomes.
Hold up. That $1T number originated from this peer-reviewed study that I cited. I’d be happy to see your strong evidence that the $1T number is overblown, or perhaps even off by 10X. The goal here is to be less wrong.
But this is the EA forum, my friend. You can’t just claim something’s “a fake, made-up number” without any evidence. Especially when that source is a peer-reviewed academic study.
If anything, this seems to me like an extremely dubious claim. The idea that ‘genetic confounding’ has anything to do with why impoverished childhood experiences lead to worse adult outcomes absolutely needs a strong RTC Study cited. Actually, it would need several gold-standard studies and a meta-review.
At first glance, ‘genetic confounding’ (especially in the context of poverty) also seems like a slippery slope to the idea that poor people are poor because there is something wrong with them, ignoring the multitude of ways the cards are stacked against them.
However, I’d really like to give you the benefit of the doubt. What were you trying to get at?
Cite your sources, this isn’t Twitter.
Approach disagreements with curiosity