I’m not convinced because all of these examples gave people a pittance. $1000 a month at most? Give me a break. If someone is drowning, you can’t give their arm a little tug and claim that as strong evidence that pulling them out of the water won’t save them.
Actually, the Denver Basic Income study cited did find a significant benefit for the $1000/mo payments (and even larger benefit for the lump sum). The author of the article misrepresents the actual findings, which are here:
It's 66% of the current Federal Poverty Level. That means that much of the poor people studied (in the US) were making less than that annually (they don't all lump up at the high end of poverty).
If giving someone a 66% or more bump in income doesn't change their situation, they didn't have money problems to begin with.
It's enough to get them over the hump if they're $1000/mo away from having something. Unfortunately a lot of people are further behind than that. Being poor is very expensive.
