Jack Dorsey is giving Andrew Yang $5M to build the case for a basic income
As soon as I read the headline my first thought was "what can $5M tell you about the efficacy of UBI?" and the article quickly confirmed my suspicions: "nothing." From the article:<p>> Yang says Humanity Forward plans to immediately distribute Dorsey’s contribution in the form of small cash grants of $250 to nearly 20,000 people who’ve lost their jobs or taken an economic hit as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.<p>What is this supposed to prove? People who are in a terrible economic position will benefit from getting $250? We don't need to run an "experiment" to know that the answer is "yes." And this isn't even "experiment," as there is neither a response variable being measured, nor a control group.<p>What's happening right now is terrible, and it is good that Dorsey and Yang for making this donation. It is bad, however, that they are trying to spin this as a scientific investigation into the efficacy of UBI. I think that we need to start experimenting with UBI sooner rather than later. But when I see stuff like this, I worry that a lot of UBI advocates are less interested in raising the poverty line than they are in creating excuses to gut the welfare state.