The Magpie's Nest

I'm trying to back up things worth saving from social media to some place I'll actually be able to find it again and I thought this thread I made on Blue Sky was worth posting here. Please forgive me for just copying & pasting instead of turning into a proper essay:

UBI is the best way I've seen to address the way poverty obeys the Laws of Holes: 1st law: if you are in a hole stop digging. A larger initial payment & knowing other payments are coming means people can put money on debts w/interest &/or fees so the situation quits getting worse. 1/🧵

2nd law: when you stop digging, you are still in a hole. Keep the payments coming because stopping the spiral making things worse every month is not the same as getting out of debt or addressing what led to getting in debt in the first place 2/🧵

3rd law of holes: If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging, come out of it, and then fill it in to keep it from becoming a hazard. Be clear how long the payments are coming so they know they can invest in education, equipment, etc, so they can stop falling into debt 3/🧵

The 4th Law of Holes — If you don’t know that you are in a hole, ask someone who isn’t covered with mud and standing in the shade. A bit of a stretch but bear with me: they need help from someone who isn't in the hole themselves and which doesn't shame them for not already being out of it 4/🧵

I know there is something about how obvious it is that makes it hard for people to accept that the best way to address poverty is to give people judgment free money and keep giving it reliably, but it really is that simple. 5/🧵

Being as clear and reliable about the payments as possible so the recipients know they can make plans around how much is coming, when, and for how long; is what shifts it from a windfall to a real investment. Windfalls are great, but they can't risk a big long-term change on a 1 time thing. 6/🧵

The theory has been worked out thoroughly; the pilots have been run to great success over & over; at some point we need to quit treating it as a novel idea and just give people money that they can count on, without a bunch of hoops or restrictions. End/🧵

PS: the rules of holes have been passed around the internet so other than the 1st two rules, they vary in order wording, etc so I can't give you just 1 source, as I picked from a number of pages but https://meandray.com/2019/03/07/the-laws-of-holes/ is one of the main pages I used