A study by USC and a San Francisco-based nonprofit has found that a $750 monthly stipend improves the lives of homeless people.

If 100 homeless people were given $750 per month for a year, no questions asked, what would they spend it on?

That question was at the core of a controlled study conducted by a San Francisco-based nonprofit and the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work.

The results were so promising that the researchers decided to publish results after only six months. The answer: food, 36.6%; housing, 19.5%; transportation, 12.7%; clothing, 11.5%; and healthcare, 6.2%, leaving only 13.6% uncategorized.

Those who got the stipend were less likely to be unsheltered after six months and able to meet more of their basic needs than a control group that got no money, and half as likely as the control group to have an episode of being unsheltered.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20231221131158/https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-12-19/750-a-month-no-questions-asked-improved-the-lives-of-homeless-people

    • Pratai
      226·
      11 months ago

      Multiply that by 653,000, and then ask how much you’re willing to chip in to that.

      EDIT: people don’t seem to like reality sprinkled on top of their fantasy world where mere suggestions of how things SHOULD be automatically makes them so.

      Sure, it would be nice to gut the defense budget to care for Americans in need. But you know we’re not doing that. So that leaves us to accept the reality of it:

      It’s going to fall on taxpayers. And we’re strapped enough as it is.

      So I ask again:

      How much of that $5.8BN are all of you willing to chip in, k owing that we’re not selling aircraft carriers or raiding the defense budget coffers.

      • EngiNerd@lemmy.world
        17·
        11 months ago

        That’s 0.7% of the 2023 US defence budget ($857.9B). I’d much rather have my taxes going to help people in need.

        • Pratai
          111·
          11 months ago

          Right, but we live in the real world where things like that are irrelevant because no one is going to challenge it. So I task you to come up with a solution where we can solve this without having to rely on people to do the right thing.

          I’ll save you some time.

          There isn’t one. Taxpayers are a renewable source of income. Were the Soylent green. As long as they can make us pay for it/ there’s no need to fix anything.

          And $5.8BN is a lot to come out of our taxes.

      • Tbird83ii@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        15·
        11 months ago

        That is $489M. There are 160M tax payers in the US.

        Everyone gives and extra $5/mo, and we can raise it to $1000/mo UBI. Then incorporate more people as the tax base increases.

        • Pratai
          26·
          11 months ago

          That’s $5.85 billion dude.

            • Pratai
              1·
              11 months ago

              $9,000/yr multiplied by 653,000 is $5.8BN per year. Try and keep up.

              • Tbird83ii@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
                11·
                11 months ago

                Do basic math. If we are talking about $5/mo per person, that means you got $60/yr per person. 60*160M=$9.6B.

                When taking taxes, 1 $10B isn’t a ton of money, let alone half that. And that’s just taking total tax payers at a flat rate. If you graduate it according to income, you could easily make this manageable for all persons. $5.89B is .13% of the total US tax revenue. So an additional .13% of tax revenue to help out .17% of the US population.

                Keep up.

        • Pratai
          15·
          11 months ago

          Also, I’m broke as fuck. So, I AM the stupid poor. I just understand how the real world works. You can’t solve this problem without dipping into fantasy suggestions.

          $8.5BN is a lot of money. Just so you know.

        • Pratai
          16·
          11 months ago

          lol… it’s always easy when it’s other people’s money.

        • Pratai
          13·
          11 months ago

          Right. So without resorting to fantasy, what’s a realistic suggestion.

          • corbin@infosec.pub
            3·
            11 months ago

            If you want a serious answer, there are a lot of options. Closing tax loopholes for corporations, higher taxes for the wealthy, a freeze on additional military spending, stop outsourcing so much to contracted companies that blow through money for nothing (e.g. the reason why most people think government services are bad), etc. Those could all allow UBI to exist without raising taxes on the lower and middle class.

            • Pratai
              14·
              11 months ago

              Again, I said- without resorting to fantasy. None of those things are even remotely possible.

              • corbin@infosec.pub
                41·
                11 months ago

                Okay? It sounds like you just don’t want an answer. Many of those changes are actually very possible if more young people start voting in elections instead of just being apathetic or having that defeatist/“realist” attitude. If you think nothing can get better ever then yeah, every solution is “fantasy.”

                • Pratai
                  1·
                  11 months ago

                  They’re possible, but not remotely probable. And I’d love an answer. Just one that has a remote chance of actually happening. My head isn’t in the clouds banking on wishful thinking. I’m down here on the ground, trying to keep my expectations based on reality.

                  I realize this is an unpopular opinion, but as the saying goes:

                  A pessimist is a well-informed optimist.