I just read an article that documents the far reaching positive economic impact of giving people money. It's well written and looks at context and details so perhaps you should just read it instead of taking my opinion. OK. You did? Great. Now here's my take: A nonprofit, GiveDirectly , has been experimenting with simply transferring a single sum of money to families in extreme poverty in certain villages in countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. The amounts of money are very large compared to the families' usual income, in the recent study around $1000 USD. The recent study looked at a village on the banks of Lake Victoria in Kenya and the recipients were everyone in the village whose house had a thatched roof (an indication of poverty since richer families have metal roofs). The results were less hunger, more investment in farming and small business, more ownership of livestock and increase in overall happiness. The effects also extended to people in the village who did no
The cost of health care in the US is higher than anywhere else in the world, and yet we are not healthier than our peer nations. In fact, in terms of such measures as infant mortality and life span, we don't measure up. Why is this? Many people involved in providing or receiving care have some pretty good ideas about what costs so much, and what we can do to reduce costs and improve quality. Sharing these stories is an important step in creating affordable universal health care.