A UBI is better than targeted aid at reducing poverty; empirics in the US, Canada, Mexico, and others prove

There have been numerous experiments that show simply giving money to those living in poverty and letting them figure out what to do with it is more successful than giving them targeted aid. In the ’60s and ’70s, the US ran experiments in five different regions to see if people would quit working (they didn’t), while Canada experimented with a Mincome in Dauphin, Manitoba — for the five years the program existed in Dauphin, poverty was completely eliminated. In general, people’s motivation to work was not impacted, but when people did stop working outside the home, it was mostly women who were staying home with young children or teenagers who stayed in school longer. Mexico started giving impoverished people cash in the ’90s, to replace food subsidies, and found that people ate better and were healthier, and that children stayed in school longer. In 2008, Uganda’s Youth Opportunities Program offered cash to young rural applicants to learn a skilled trade. (Women in these programs fared particularly well because they were so much worse off to begin with.) In 2009, 13 long-term homeless London men (“rough sleepers”) were offered £3,000 each to help them move off the street, with logistical support from a project coordinator. Far more of them moved off the street than was originally expected. And in 2012, GiveDirectly, insipired by Mexico, gave impoverished Kenyan families $1,000 each to see what they would do. The Kenyans did things like upgrade their houses with better materials and start businesses. There have also been recent pilots in Namibia and India.