Michigan’s $55M experiment with guaranteed income begins with Flint moms | Bridge Michigan
www.bridgemi.com
Michigan will experiment with guaranteed income in Flint, one of its poorest cities, giving expectant and new moms $7,500 — no strings attached — to lift the stress of poverty from their newborns.

FLINT—Eight days after entering the world, Khi’Meir Taylor made another debut — this time in what could be a national spotlight.

Wednesday was the first day of a $55 million experiment to test whether cash payments can protect children from the toxic stress of poverty.

  • theprogressivist @lemmy.world
    2·
    10 months ago

    Again, I get the sentiment, but that form of system, especially seeing how you’re explaining it, seems to create more problems than solve. How would one account for what they have done? It also seems that a system like this would be ripe for abuse.

    • queermunist she/her
      12·
      10 months ago

      Abuse as in, someone being paid for work they didn’t do? That’s… literally what UBI is lol

      I will say that, while I prefer domestic and reproductive labor being compensated, I acknowledge it’s not a simple problem. It would work in a highly communal society where people have very little time to themselves, since we’d all just see each other doing a good job. It would also work in a mass surveillance society since we’d all be watched 24/7, but that’s not exactly good lol

      UBI is fine. I’m just grumpy because its not perfectly fair.

      • snooggums@kbin.social
        3·
        10 months ago

        UBI is perfectly fair. The benefits to the lowest incomes is massively higher than the benefit to the wealthy while being a simple system that does not require any complex overhead to make sure the ‘right’ people are receiving it. The same as with public parks, roads, schools, fire departments, and any other public thing available to everyone that is paid through taxes.

        • queermunist she/her
          12·
          10 months ago

          Public parks and roads and schools and fire departments all have overhead to make sure they’re being used correctly and being used by the people who should be using them. Letting someone who literally plays video games all day draw from UBI is like letting adults continue attending public school after they graduate, or the fire department blasting a house with water when it isn’t on fire. They don’t need it.

          • snooggums@kbin.social
            3·
            10 months ago

            Who is making sure the ‘right people’ use parks and public schools?

            Fire departments serve everyone when there is an emergency.

            • queermunist she/her
              12·
              10 months ago

              We don’t allow the whole community to attend social studies class, we don’t allow people to farm in the park., and the fire department doesn’t save people when there isn’t an emergency. Your libertine conception of UBI has no parallel in any public service. There’s always terms and conditions and stipulations and regulations and oversight and overhead.

                • queermunist she/her
                  13·
                  10 months ago

                  Honey, you and all UBIniks just frame “the fire department helps everyone” in a dishonest way to support y’all’s point.

                  In reality, the fire department doesn’t help you unless there is a fire. It’s there if you need it, there isn’t a firefighter in your house right now just waiting for a fire to happen. You don’t need one, so you don’t get one. They’ll come when you need them and not until then.

                  In fact, in most places you would get in trouble if you repeatedly lied to the fire department to get them to show up. Why is that?