An experiment in giving cash to recently homeless people [video]
This is great if you&#x27;re struggling for cash to pay rent – just declare yourself homeless and get $7,500 cash from the government. It reminds me a little how most people on welfare in my family pretend they (or their kids) have disabilities to get more money from the state.<p>I know I sound cruel, but sometimes I don&#x27;t think educated, middle-class people really understand how destructive these kinds of incentives are to poor people. The only way these kinds of programs work is when there is limited resources and a high threshold for who receives support. As it stands I almost guarantee this will cause more homelessness as poor people begin to abuse it.<p>I&#x27;m from a poor family and I was born in a poor neighbourhood of my city in the UK. I&#x27;m not exaggerating when I say around 80% of females in my family are single mothers living in council homes. The reason for this is obvious – if you&#x27;re from a working class background in the UK your best bet to move our of your parents home is to have a kid.<p>I love my sister, but she&#x27;s absolutely screwed her life up chasing welfare programs like this. She didn&#x27;t particularly want a kid, but she really wanted to move out of my parent&#x27;s home like her friends so she ended up having a one night stand with a guy she met in a bar. She then declared herself homeless and spent all her inheritance money on a BMW so she would be put to the top of the council house list – this was done on advice from some charity who helps people like my sister get the most out of welfare system, ethical or not.<p>Before I&#x27;m judged too harshly here I should say I&#x27;ve allowed a few homeless people to sleep in my home over the years. I probably should do more, but I do at least acknowledge that there are benefits to carefully selecting those who genuinely need help getting out of a difficult situation. But unfortunately there is no helping some (perhaps most) of them, and I say this as someone who has tried. Anyone who has actually spent any amount of time around homeless people would understand that giving them money is often the absolute worst thing you can do. 99% of the time these are not educated middle class people like you and I who will make good decisions with that money. One guy I knew for example received endless help from charities and the government, but the guy had a drug addiction and had absolutely no interest in getting clean or helping himself out of his homelessness. His life was an endless cycle of finding enough money for drugs from people thinking they&#x27;re helping him, then almost dying and ending up in hospital taking resources away from the NHS. A homeless person I was helping at the time said quite bluntly, &quot;I know this sounds bad, but it would be better for everyone if he overdosed tonight&quot;. But it was the truth. No amount of money or compassion could help him. We really did try.<p>I&#x27;m all for giving homeless people money, but I&#x27;m convinced it can&#x27;t be done by the government. It needs to be done by individuals with limited resources who can select those who they feel are likely to use that money to turn their lives around. Or even better, if you want to help someone who&#x27;s homeless and in need of help just offer them a spare room in your home.<p>These types of programs have awful incentives and are pushed in my experience by educated middle class people who have no idea why people end up in situations like this and so end up incentivising people to make awful life decisions through bad government welfare programs.