• rkw_social@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      $12,000 / year * 600,000 homeless people in the USA =
      $7,200,000,000 / year

      Maybe let’s start small and help some homeless people get off the streets for the low low price of ~0.1% of the country’s annual spending.

      I assume that once you have a stable situation, the supreme gets cut off. As more homeless get off the streets, this number should decrease (but probably not disappear [my cynicism says that we’ll probably never completely solve homelessness]). As more homeless become taxably employed, federal government revenue will increase; spending should decrease as various programs can be throttled back. I’m sure some sociologist-economist can give you a calculated estimated ROI figure on this investment, but I feel that the numbers would probably balance pretty evenly with the added benefit of helping a bunch of people and communities.

      UBI would be great but I don’t expect that to occur without a tonne of baby steps

    • derpgon@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      I wonder how that would work by starting only in big cities, and expanding to less populated areas over time.

      More money income means people spent, means more taxes, means more money in the treasury, means more money to give away.

      By using the money to boost economy where it could be utilized could mean possibility to boost the economy elsewhere, without instantly enrolling everyone at the same time.

    • centof@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      numbers dont lie

      But assumptions do.

      There is no set rule, that a UBI has to be $1000/mo. Even at $100 dollars it would be a huge help to many of us.

      That would make it ~$1/3 trillion / yr.

      Which would be 5% of the FY 2022 US Budget.

      A UBI would not require that Federal taxes go up by a significant rate.