Social Experiment:
If the long term unemployed who were in poverty (living on the breadline) who were fit to work but just couldn’t find a job for whatever reason… i.e. single mum with lots of kids, can’t find work. If we gave these people their annual benefits upfront in exchange for them signing off, what % of people or families do you think would come off benefits for good?
Let’s say the annual amount if £26k or US$40k.
I’m going to be in this situation soon.
Trick question. I think a large majority would take the money (I won’t venture to put a percentage, but greater than 50%), and after a few years there will be enough sob stories that the government will put them back on the rolls. So, most will take the money but none will actually come off the rolls for good.
^ this. Even looking at it on an annual basis, if you gave people their annual benefits on Jan 1 and told to not come back until Jan 1, I’d bet the majority would run out of money in the interim.
Much like vacant houses in derelict neighborhoods, the best course of action is to probably have them destroyed.
People on the rolls are usually there due to poor choices they made leading up to that point. What makes you think that all of a sudden they would make the “right” decision?
Well this has been trialed in poor indian communities where they get a small amount of money and see what they do with it. It turns out that a lot of them are able to start a business and get themselves out.
There is also an experiement in the UK on a crappy channel where they have given 3 families £26k each. The first few weeks they went out and got drunk, had a wash and bought a vaccum cleaner. Now they’re all trying to start businesses…
I have a feeling none of them are going to succeed without a very strong mentor. It’s the first time some of these people have seen a water bill or rent payment being made!! Most of the time the local council covers it all for them…
^Poor Indian communities where many people are poor by nature of hardship and lack of not the same as major first world countries where people are largely poor due to self selection. You’re going to have disadvantaged people in both subsets that make it with a large payout, but by and large the group in the US is homogenously unmotivated where the group in India is thrifty and savvy.
I was watching a documentary the other day about a young Indian boy who grew up on the streets and eventually won a trivia gameshow and used the opportunity to win back his childhood girlfriend, it really opened my eyes to the situation in India.
How ironic
It was a joke, RE the initial fervor over SDM because Americans would view it as a documentary, tarnish their view of India, etc etc. So technically it’s more satire than irony, easily missed when the region’s pinnacle of comedic entertainment is Russell Peters.
I think the irony was how many kids got blinded in SDM yet it opened your eyes.
I believe you got whooshed.
^ I got that it was a joke. My comment was in regard to the intentional blinding of kids shown in the movie and how the movie “opened your eyes”.
I am deeply dissapointed in myself.