On: Moving Forward on Basic Income

[xienze]

Well the money is generally earmarked. Your Section 8 voucher goes towards housing, food stamps go towards food, etc. That creates a limit on how the money can be spent.

[mikeash → xienze]

Social Security isn't earmarked. Food stamps have pretty trivial workarounds for converting them into cash.

[vasilipupkin → mikeash]

the problem would be exacerbated. Food stamps do have workarounds, but the fact that it's not cash makes the problem much less severe

[mikeash → vasilipupkin]

That's fair. I guess part of the question is whether it's unacceptable to have any way people can fall through the cracks, or whether it's about relative improvement. The original comment felt more like the former, but that's just what I got from it.