RE: What Happened When Liberia Tested a Pilot Program of Unconditional Cash Transfers to the Extreme Poor?
Firstly any post with a reference to cats and dogs living together has my vote.
Secondly what a contrast between how these people used their money and the utility they extracted from it vs how a billionaire would use it.
Thirdly it kills me that I've spent a month posting on Steemit and some how made around $200 worth of Steem in that time. That would be a small fortune to people in Liberia.
Folks if you have spare cash sitting around you could loan some of it to a company like Kiva who will then loan it to folks who could really use that bit of extra spending power. You could argue it's nothing like as good as giving them the money. On the contrary some would say a loan is better because it stops them just wasting the money. However I think this study proves differently. Their needs are too great just to piss it away and they actually seem to make much smarter choices because if it.
Actually, check out givedirectly.org. They focus on unconditional cash grants in an extremely data-based way and the results are far superior to Kiva in poverty reductions and overall outcomes.
They've also already begun a 12 year experiment of universal basic income in Kenya in order to test it long-term in a way that's never been done before in history.
Thanks for the tip - I thought I had not heard of GiveDirectly.org before but I now realize they are mentioned on the Rationally Speaking podcast I listen to. I'll check them out.
I echo your comments about Kiva. My small loans have helped send kids to school, outfitted a school with materials, and enabled a woman to buy stuff for her business. A little goes a long way.