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:> 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.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.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.