Lol no. It just helps quite a few things indirectly. The homelessness problem is about unaffordable housing in the places with high concentrations of good jobs, mental health not being handled at all, the criminal justice system being insanely punitive (I don’t know what % of the homeless are ex felons… but I do know that you have to be a pretty exceptional ex felon to make enough money to afford rent basically anywhere), and a bunch of other stuff. UBI helps some of it, but obviously not all of it.
The housing thing I think it helps the most. A lot of places become much more viable to live with everyone getting an extra 1k. I would expect to see an awful lot of the currently homeless leave the cities and move to lower cost of living places where they could afford housing. I don’t think many people are actually homeless by choice… and 1k a month can go a long way if you’re trying to stretch it.
There are an awful lot of people who would be super satisfied with making hand made wood furniture to sell on Etsy. There just isn’t enough money in it for the owner of the business to pay those employees, buy materials, and still sell it for a price that people will buy it for. There’s a lot of stuff like this where you can’t justify paying humans the cost of living but it would be a pleasant way to pass the time.
You know… every job done by sort of shitty rich kids now. One of the reasons jobs are so miserable now is the relentless pressure to produce enough to justify paying the cost of rent/food/etc.
I think there’s always going to be a small number of people sleeping in the street and eating out of trash cans. There will always be a % of the profoundly mentally ill that absolutely do not want help, and plan to spend every single dollar they come into contact with on whatever it is they like.
That small number is way smaller than the total homeless population now. Way smaller. Figuring out how to help them is pretty separate from UBI imo. I think assuming that all or even most homeless people are in this group is wrong though. I think most homeless today are just economically unviable. They aren’t capable of producing enough to justify holding a job that’s good enough to cover living expenses for some reason. Those people benefit from UBI more than just about anyone.
Would anybody in this thread volunteer more or give more to local charities and family members that are struggling if UBI was in place?
Imagine neighborhoods being injected with 1000 a month for every adult.
This is a bottom up solution.
It obviously wouldn’t solve everything. But it’s a good start to redistributing the wealth.
More trust in institutions is one of the recorded benefits of UBI as well. As soon as people see a program that actually benefits them they will start trusting the govt to improve other things too.
So I’m not aware of anyone wanting to get rid of homeless shelters or do less on mental healthcare. Mental healthcare in particular is something I think everyone ITT is for massively expanding public funding on.
If anything homelessness is a national problem that requires a national solution. I generally think that we can find more efficient ways to spend the $ than placing homeless people in major metros, but for me that’s really about being efficient with the $ (you can help way more people by relocating them to cheaper real estate basically, you can get a lot more places to live in Killeen than you can in Austin for the same amount of funding… and assuming these people aren’t going to be able to work good jobs in Austin anytime soon there’s just no good reason to displace someone who can and make them commute further).
I’d really like to see UBI high enough that a minimum wage is totally unnecessary and probably gone. That way you can have jobs that compete with each other on how pleasant they can be instead of how much money they can kick out.
Honestly because of the need to cover living expenses our minimum wage barely even exists now. Good luck finding a job that pays minimum wage anywhere but fast food anywhere in the US. No one can live on it so unless you’re one of the lucky poors who actually does have some kind of welfare you can’t afford to work for it.
You do get to choose where to locate the housing you place them in. If they want to sleep on the street you’re absolutely right they can be anywhere. If they come up with the money to afford a place that could theoretically commute to the downtown of a major metro in under an hour, by all means let them live there.
No you don’t? What?? Dude those are separate things lol. This is going to come as a big shock but the guy has more policies than just UBI. And you don’t opt out of anything but means tested cash equivalents to get UBI. He even back tracked on losing housing assistance.
So I totally get why this would be your viewpoint. You’re German. In your country the public service is professional, well respected, and can execute. In this country we’ve been systematically degrading them for decades, and it really shows.
Also in your country that young couple got educated for free, have cheap/free healthcare, and can get jobs in their field relatively easy. In this country they are carrying 100-200k in student loan debt, and pay out 60-70% of their total income for debt, health insurance, and rent. They’ll literally never be able to buy a home.
I’m sorry man but we literally can’t do what you’re saying we should do. There’s no magic wand and we can’t get it passed.
Jeez, how can he not have been a consultant for a war contractor? Like, who could turn down that offer? That’s just where you naturally go when you’re a Rhodes Scholar, geez.