[Peace-discuss] Interesting article from Lee Camp on UBI

[J.B. Nicholson]

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/546146-ending-poverty-universal-income/
https://scheerpost.com/2022/01/11/lee-camp-we-know-the-silver-bullet-to-ending-poverty-and-destitution-but-choose-not-to-use-it/

This article begins:

> Here’s how the world should operate in simple terms: A certain country or region
> or city or township or Hobbit hole tries something in order to help their society
> or group or hovel – if it works, other places then do it. If it doesn’t work,
> other places don’t do it. It’s like when you were a kid and you saw your brother
> slide down the banister and rack himself on the newel post – You then thought,
> “Maybe that activity is not for me.” But if he didn’t nail himself in the jewels,
> you probably thought, “I think I’ll try that.”
> 
> That’s how the United States government should work, but it doesn’t. For-profit
> healthcare, corporate personhood, the drug war, funding terrorists overseas that
> we call “moderate rebels,” etc. – all of these things have been tried, they
> fu***n’ suck every time, and we keep doing them. The U.S. continually racks itself
> on the newel post all day long and then responds, “I think I’ll try that again.”
> 
> But the reverse should be true also – if a city or country anywhere in the world
> tries something and it works great, we should do it. Pandemic reversing
> improvements in wealth inequality, World Bank says Pandemic reversing improvements
> in wealth inequality, World Bank says READ MORE: Pandemic reversing improvements
> in wealth inequality, World Bank says
> 
> This brings me to Universal Basic Income: everybody receiving money from a
> government simply for being a citizen, no questions asked. It’s high time we try
> it in the US and see whether it works. Oh wait, I just remembered – it’s been
> tried countless times and worked every damn time[1]. How do I know that? …Reading[2].
> 
> As Rutger Bregman details in his book “Utopia For Realists[3],” UBI has been tried
> many times — in Canada, Alaska, Africa, the US, Europe, and more. Even backwards
> lawless lands like North Carolina have experimented with it.
> 
> There was a study[4] in Britain where 13 men who had lived on the streets for years
> were given £3,000 each (about $4,500 at the time). Did they use it for hundreds of
> pricey almond milk lattes, or giant bags of crack, or maybe just wad it up into
> balls and wipe themselves with them? Nope, turns out they didn’t do any of those
> things. Eighteen months after receiving the money, over half were no longer
> homeless, and all of them had improved their lives significantly.
> 
> As Bregman noted, “Even The Economist had to conclude that ‘the most efficient way
> to spend money on the homeless might be to give it to them.’”

[1] 
https://www.fastcompany.com/90706938/what-happened-when-people-in-this-upstate-new-york-town-started-getting-monthly-500-checks?partner=rss&utm_campaign=rss+fastcompany&utm_content=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_source=rss
[2] 
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/21/how-one-universal-basic-income-experiment-is-helping-the-homeless.html
[3] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40876575-utopia-for-realists
[4] 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/free-money-might-be-the-best-way-to-end-poverty/2013/12/29/679c8344-5ec8-11e3-95c2-13623eb2b0e1_story.html
[5] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40876575-utopia-for-realists
[6] https://www.economist.com/britain/2010/11/04/cutting-out-the-middle-men