{"id":345146,"date":"2021-10-11T21:39:22","date_gmt":"2021-10-11T21:39:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basicincometoday.com\/?p=11955"},"modified":"2021-10-11T21:39:22","modified_gmt":"2021-10-11T21:39:22","slug":"the-best-antidote-to-poverty-could-be-cold-hard-cash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/10\/11\/the-best-antidote-to-poverty-could-be-cold-hard-cash\/","title":{"rendered":"The best antidote to poverty could be cold, hard cash"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
By Bryan Walsh<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Experts in philanthropy are gradually coming around to the idea that simply giving poor people cash \u2014 rather than services or in-kind benefits \u2014 is the most efficient way to make progress on severe poverty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The big picture: <\/strong>The divergent economic experiences between rich and poor countries during the pandemic has shown the value of directly giving money to those in need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n What’s happening:\u00a0<\/strong>GiveDirectly \u2014 a charity that pioneered the practice of sending money to people in poverty, no strings attached \u2014 recently\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0it sent $1,000 each to more than 178,000 U.S. households in need during the pandemic, with plans to reach another 20,000 over the next few months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Between the lines:\u00a0<\/strong>GiveDirectly’s program, as successful as it was, is a drop in the bucket compared to the billions in direct stimulus checks and expanded jobless benefits from the federal government that have flowed to Americans during the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n What they’re saying: “<\/strong>It was really exciting to see the U.S. embrace cash as a first solution for the financial security problems people are facing through the pandemic,” Nawar says.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n By the numbers:\u00a0<\/strong>Poverty declined in the U.S. during the pandemic but not in the poorest countries in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n How it works:\u00a0<\/strong>During the pandemic, GiveDirectly worked with the government of Togo \u2014 where\u00a0half the citizens<\/a>\u00a0live below the poverty line \u2014 to\u00a0identify and distribute<\/a>\u00a0millions of dollars in cash aid to those in need.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Details:\u00a0<\/strong>A\u00a02018 review of 165 studies<\/a>\u00a0of cash-giving programs found it tends to increase spending on food and other goods \u2014 dispelling the idea that much of the aid would be wasted by recipients \u2014 while not reducing recipients’ willingness to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The other side:\u00a0<\/strong>“Cash can’t buy everything,” as Drake University economist Heath Henderson\u00a0wrote this year<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The bottom line:\u00a0<\/strong>Even if money isn’t a cure-all, when it comes to tackling poverty as quickly as possible, “it can be as simple as expanding cash,” says Nawar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Original article: https:\/\/www.axios.com\/givedirectly-cash-aid-poverty-pandemic-5806c1e6-aaff-4b41-bc17-98514d4e2431.html<\/a><\/p>\n The post The best antidote to poverty could be cold, hard cash<\/a> appeared first on Basic Income Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n This post was originally published on Basic Income Today<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Bryan Walsh Experts in philanthropy are gradually coming around to the idea that simply giving poor people cash \u2014 rather than services or in-kind benefits \u2014 is the most efficient way to make progress on severe poverty. The big picture:\u00a0The divergent economic experiences between rich and poor countries during the pandemic has shown the [\u2026]<\/p>\n The post The best antidote to poverty could be cold, hard cash<\/a> appeared first on Basic Income Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8641,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5257,36786,36179,5554],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345146"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8641"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345146"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":345147,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345146\/revisions\/345147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}