I really want to know how the conversation went with the folks in the control group. "Hey, we're doing a study where we give money to a bunch of people... Not you, though." Ha!
They just get Monopoly money ;)
YC set to launch one-year minimum income pilot project to figure out logistics
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Re: YC set to launch one-year minimum income pilot project to figure out logistics
#142Can I make a suggestion? I have several acquaintances who work in the trades (carpentry, house framing, fence building, concrete driveways/sidewalks/porches building, window/door installers, painters, etc.). Buying and rehabbing real estate over the past several years, I've met a lot of these folks. Most of their ability to earn a living wage has been decimated by unchecked immigration. So I suggest we start there --…
Its not the immigration its the illegal pay and lack of benefits that they are given. The construction industry is based on underpaying migrants. If you have been rehabing homes then you certainly took advantage of this too. Look in the mirror.
Actually, I cannot possibly 'take advantage' of illegal labor -- maybe the people who I hire to do the work do that.
If you're rehabbing properties in this area (Silicon Valley) you cannot give work to people unless they have a Contractor's license, which you can verify here:
There are many reasons for only hiring licensed contractors:
1) your homeowners or commercial insurance will not be able to 'weasel out' of covering a loss if the contractor has an in-effect license (who got injured or who caused injury or any type of loss, really)
2) you can check their fixed address so that if you need to serve them (for small claims, or a lawsuit, etc.) -- you know you can find them
3) no language barrier, so it's possible to 100% eliminate any possible misunderstanding of the outcome that the hired work needs to achieve
In 2005 a buddy of mine hired a presumptive illegal from the Home Depot parking lot. I alerted my friend "not sure if you've seen this yet, but the guy is using a hand saw to cut and hang your sheetrock"
Anyone dumb enough to hire an illegal probably deserves a guy who cuts and hangs sheetrock with a hand saw
Mein gott.
Re: YC set to launch one-year minimum income pilot project to figure out logistics
#143Is this a minimum so that the 2k number is whatever the net would be, so that people who currently have jobs would have their income supplemented?
I was very interested in Even as a company designed to approach challenges like these. I can't imagine how difficult it is to take on a study like this, I'm rooting for them to be successful and hope they share the resulting data. It should always be close to our thoughts - lack of a living wage causing long commutes from soon-to-be gentrified neighborhoods, all in the shadow of Chomsky's Responsibility of Intellectuals.
Re: YC set to launch one-year minimum income pilot project to figure out logistics
#144I'm confused. Isn't this already being done various places around the world already? (e.g. Alaska, Puerto Rico) Why not study people in those places? Better yet, nearly everybody in those places is getting the benefit, so the experiment isn't poisoned by the culture (you're the only one in your neighborhood getting a benefit - others treat you differently)
I don't mean this flippantly, but perhaps, at least unconsciously, for reputation or glory or whatever. If you just give a chunk of cash to an existing study you don't get, say, glowing articles written about you.
Re: YC set to launch one-year minimum income pilot project to figure out logistics
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
Right, because you know my life well enough to make that kind of judgement. It's a nice, clever cop out but ultimately a cop out. Bicyclist gets hit by a car. Loses his legs. Did he make poor life choices? I wouldn't say so. Say that same bicyclist has built a career as a great door to door sales man. Now he's on hard times. Did he still make poor life choices? Should we, then, all avoid bicycles and work in door to…
Are you kidding? Riding a bicycle in the street is the very definition of a poor life choice. Haha I got downvoted, probably by people who ride bikes. Hey I love bikes, bikes need their own lane. When I grew up the government told me I could not ride my bike on the sidewalk anymore, so I stopped riding bikes. People who ride bikes in the street get hit by cars all the time. You accept the risks of the activities you…
You're getting downvoted, but your perspective about the bike is correct (not sure about the other sentiments)
The logic is as follows: if I'm riding a bike on a sidewalk, the damage I can do to a pedestrian is an order of magnitude less than the car can do in damage to me in the street.
Hence bicycles should be riding with the pedestrians (on a wider sidewalk), in a dedicated bike lane separated from the cars, or should be banned entirely (for the convenience of motorists).
Forcing bikes onto the street with the US driving etiquette is the equivalent to throwing someone in a piranha tank.
Re: YC set to launch one-year minimum income pilot project to figure out logistics
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd take your bet. There are studies showing otherwise. "This study documented large, positive, and sustainable impacts across a wide range of outcomes including assets, earnings, food security, mental health, and domestic violence. It found no evidence of impacts on alcohol or tobacco use, crime, or inflation." [1] But that was in Kenya so maybe it would be different somewhere else? [1] https://www.givedirectly.org/…
I concede, under different economic conditions a program like this might be very successful, but in America it will attract lazy people like flies to shit.
You've already posted many uncivil and/or unsubstantive comments to HN. That's not what this site is for, so please don't do that. Instead, please read the site guidelines and post civilly and substantively, or not at all.
Re: YC set to launch one-year minimum income pilot project to figure out logistics
#147"If you're low on income and have a family to support" then you made poor life choices and natural selection comes into play. Like it or not it is a force of nature.
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11976748 and marked it off-topic.
Re: YC set to launch one-year minimum income pilot project to figure out logistics
#148I'd bet money that most of the people will spend their free dollars on drugs and alcohol.
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11977054 and marked it off-topic.
Re: YC set to launch one-year minimum income pilot project to figure out logistics
#149They'll do nothing and buy drugs and alcohol. People have been doing that with free money since forever. You can't package the free money in a different way and expect different results.
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11976433 and marked it off-topic.
Re: YC set to launch one-year minimum income pilot project to figure out logistics
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm just hoping someone wins a $1 bet - the usual amount - at the end of this experiment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjkdynBFHuQ and actually, I've always, always loved this scene since I was a kid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLySXTIBS3c - takes some thinking to learn how the markets were cornered and how they made all that money shorting OJ commodities. But your point here is well taken - are these rich folks placing bets and toying with poor folks? Hmm.
Just too many good scenes in the movie...