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RE: What Happened When Liberia Tested a Pilot Program of Unconditional Cash Transfers to the Extreme Poor?
As a supporter of Basic Income, I was surprised by the results you have given. I thought the most we could expect was to be seeing people spend their money on consumer needs alone and thus support the economy just by strengthening the consumer base. But seeing that it also increases the entrepreneurial drive in test areas is very encouraging to say the least. Far more benefits here than I thought there would be. I agree, soon we will wonder why Basic Income was not a no-brainer right from the start!
Yeah, from everything I've seen, entrepreneurship and self-employment are an extremely common effect of unconditional cash. It appears to be widely perceived as venture capital for people.
I have even seen large surveys in the US where people are asked about what they would do with basic income, and those with the least existing access to capital (traditionally marginalized groups) are the most likely to want to use it as capital for a new small business venture.
This should have been an obvious projection based simply on results for the past 25 years with micro-loan programs.