Money means more when you are poor. Give $20,000 to a rich person, and all they do is buy an ostrich jacket. Give $20,000 to a poor person and suddenly, holy shit, that's their cost of housing! Now they can BUY FOOD. AND CLOTHING FOR THEIR KIDS. Every dollar goes to the economy.
And, yes, I know that the bespoke ostrich jacket artisan is also part of the economy. But that's a pretty niche part of the economy.
Give $20,000 to a poor person and every dollar grinds into their local economy. Food. Housing. Clothing. Education. It's all local.
Give $20,000 to a poor person and every dollar grinds into their local economy. Food. Housing. Clothing. Education. It's all local.
And I'm sure an economist somewhere could also put a dollar amount on what it would emotionally mean to a poor person to *know* that they could pay for their housing for a year, and that would be SO MUCH MORE than what $20,00 would mean to a rich person.
So why do our elected officials hate giving money to the poor, but fall over themselves to give money to the rich? They do it constantly. They love nothing more than a tax break for the rich, or a refund. WHY? For the ostrich jacket artisans? For the mega-yacht industry?
I am *sure* that if you gave $20,000 in basic income to 50,000 people (cost: 1,000,000,000 -- still a fucking deal compared to the self-inflicted wound of the Trump tax cut) you would have one person who sat on the couch and drank for a year. And I'm fine with that.
Clutch your pearls all you want over the "undeserving" and "lazy" poor. I don't care. It would be well worth it for what the majority would do with that money. Housing. Food. Clothing. Education. Doing more for the general economy than fucking buying back company shares.
This reminds me of all those articles I've seen about Ben Carson whining about how he wants to break the cycle of poverty. That's great. I'd love to see that. Want to know how you do it?
- Provide safe and reliable housing for all the current poor children
- Provide safe and reliable housing for all the current poor children
- Then provide all the poor children with nutritious and reliable food, so none of them are going to school hungry. Ever.
- Provide health care to all those poor children. Free and reliable, so they can grow into healthy adults. (eye and dental care too, Ben.)
- Provide health care to all those poor children. Free and reliable, so they can grow into healthy adults. (eye and dental care too, Ben.)
- Offer optional extended school days for all the poor children whose parents work long or unreliable hours. 6am - 8pm. Provide good & tasty breakfast & dinner, offer tutoring, sports programs, art programs, all the things. Yes, you will have to pay teachers, BEN.
- Offer optional extended summer school for all the poor children whose parents work long hours and have trouble affording safe childcare in the summer. All summer long. 6am - 8pm. Three good meals, tutoring on what was learned during school year + sports + art. Pay the teachers.
- Provide funding so that every school can have dedicated staff who monitor, mentor, and follow their poor students. Someone who has a list of all of them and whose job it is to go to their home if the student starts missing classes or exhibiting worrying behavior.
- That's through Grade 12. Now make sure that every poor student is offered a full ride scholarship (tuition, fees, books, transportation, + housing) to their local community college. Get that child an associate's degree in the field of their choice -- no debt.
- Some can do an associate's degree in 2 years, if offered enough financial support. It might take longer -- especially if someone (BEN) gets stingy about covering necessities like food, housing, and books and the student has to hold down one or more jobs.
- In fairness, I would offer the students the full financial coverage for up to four full-time years at community college. Some will get an associate's in 2. Some might take on duel programs. Some would fail. All should be given the chance.
- Oh, and that free health care should've been continuing, BEN. Eye & dental as well. And you know what *really* fucking needed to be covered? Birth control. Safe, reliable, and long-lasting. The implant should be one of the greatest weapons against generational poverty.
- End of all of this, you would ideally have a large group of 20-year-olds coming from generational poverty who now have associate's degrees that should help them get solid jobs. Cover housing & food for another year for each new graduate so they can save some money to start.
- Some might want to pursue a bachelor's degree. Offer very low-interest student loans that cover housing + food + transportation + books + tuition. Set up debt forgiveness programs (military service, community service, etc.) that actually work.
- But, yes, this is what it would take to start breaking the cycle of generational poverty. It takes support and hard work -- NOT raising rents on their parents, who are already struggling. In fact, a lot of these things would probably help their parents, too. IMAGINE THAT, BEN.
