A fascinating (Dutch, use google translate) article

[Plu]

On perhaps the most un-American way to solve the poverty problem... giving everyone free money.
It sounds really weird, but apparently it actually works. I hope it translates well... otherwise I will try to summarize it tonight.

https://decorrespondent.nl/10/waarom-we ... eten-geven

[SGOS]

Sounds like trickle down economics, but you're giving the free money to a different group of people, which makes it more of a bubble up, rather than trickle down, but both infuse money into the economy, it's just that the wealthy aren't the first ones to get their hands on it.

[Poison Tree]

I get some kind of a non-English log-in page when I follow the link.

Some time under Bush, the government decided to try stimulating the economy by mailing out special checks/refunds (of $200, if I remember right).  But it was decided that only responsible middle-class and above people should get them--no rewarding people for choosing to be poor. As should have been expected, the responsible people largely saved the extra money or used it to pay down debt instead of spending it and stimulating the economy. My argument at the time, and still today, was that they should have given the money to college students and sat back and watched as the economy was boosted by beer and pizza sales.

[Solitary]

This should help:


A crowd-funding world record in journalism


De Correspondent is author- rather than beat-centered, ad-free, and crowd-funded. It was launched in September 2013 after raising more than 1 Million Euros from 15,000 donors in just eight days time, setting a crowd-funding world record in journalism. In addition to offering high quality content, De Correspondent also aims to contribute, through experiment and experience, to journalism's transition into the 21st Century ecology of news.

De Correspondent was founded by Rob Wijnberg, former editor-in-chief of nrc.next, a nationally distributed daily newspaper in the Netherlands, with backing from such renowned journalists as Joris Luyendijk, of The Guardian; early praise from Alain de Botton and Jay Rosen; and in cooperation with Momkai, an Amsterdam-based, digital design agency that counts Nike, Red Bull and G-Star among its clients. De Correspondent currently has an editorial staff of eleven full-time contributing, assistant, and photo/graphic editors; a network of fifteen contributing correspondents; a subscriber base of 20,200 and counting; and a physical home in the offices of A-Lab, a former Shell laboratory on the shores of the river IJ, in Amsterdam.




 


Core principles


At the heart of the crowd-funding campaign, which was launched and successfully completed in March of 2013, lies a founding document – a manifesto of sorts – that outlines the ten core principles around which De Correspondent is organized. These principles are:


Daily, but going beyond 'today's latest'

De Correspondent will publish fresh stories on a daily basis, but it aims to uncover, explain and highlight deep-lying structures and long-term developments that powerfully shape our world, rather than speculating about the latest hype, scare, or breaking news story.


From 'news' to 'new'

De Correspondent prioritizes relevance over recentness; looks for alternative ways of doing journalism; is transparent about its journalistic choices and dilemmas; values thorough fact-checking; and takes the ways in which news media shape our perceptions of events into account in its own reporting.


Ideals over ideology

De Correspondent recognizes and values the fact that its authors are no objective automatons who are out there recording 'the truth'; rather, they are subjective beings, rooted in and motivated by ideas and ideals. While correspondents will be expected to be factual, accurate, and fair in their reporting, they are not expected to hide the surprise, hope, anger, or enthusiasm that gave rise to this reporting in the first place.


Themes and connections

Believing that traditional divisions of news into such categories as 'national,' 'international,' 'politics,' 'business,' etc., no longer make sense in an increasingly globalized and networked world, De Correspondent aims for its authors to report on themes that transcend such classic beats – including, for instance, energy, privacy, or the economy of the future.


Journalism before profit

De Correspondent is a commercial, for-profit enterprise, but its business model focuses on selling content to readers, rather than selling readers to advertisers. Subscription fees and donations are its main source of income, and at least twenty per cent of revenue will be invested in further developing the platform. The ultimate goal is to improve journalism, not to fill the pockets of shareholders.


From Readers to Participants

De Correspondent wants to establish a lasting and meaningful relationship with its readers. Conceived of as 'members' rather than 'subscribers,' readers will be asked for their opinion regarding the investment of new funds, as well as to contribute their expertise on specific topics. While vigilant about its editorial independence, De Correspondent believes that a unidirectional, one-to-many relationship between a news medium and its readership is wholly of the past, and that active audience involvement is crucial for maintaining a healthy, thriving platform.


Partners, not advertisers

To prevent becoming 'advertiser-oriented,' De Correspondent has the subscription fees paid by readers – currently € 60 a year – as its main source of income. De Correspondent is open to entering into partnerships with third parties, like universities or research institutes, but these partners will have no stake in the profitability of De Correspondent, and De Correspondent will be fully transparent about the nature and terms of such partnerships.


Like-minded people, not target audiences

Being ad-free, De Correspondent doesn't have to think about a 'target audience' and tailor its content accordingly, focusing, for instance, on topics that might interest 25-to-40-year olds with lots of money. Instead, anyone who believes in the vision and mission of De Correspondent is welcome to join; De Correspondent sees its readers as curious individuals who cannot be reduced to a set of categories.


Ambitious in ideals, modest in claims

De Correspondent does not pretend to constitute a substitute for existing, 'old' or 'mainstream' media; rather, it intends to supplement those media, filling a gap in the current news landscape by looking beyond, above and behind the daily news grind. Being an addition rather than a replacement, De Correspondent will happily collaborate with other outlets if such collaboration seems fruitful and worthwhile.


Fully digital

De Correspondent is a digital medium available on desktop, tablet and smartphone; in time, it will also offer apps for Android, iOS and other operating systems. Sharing articles with non-members will be possible to a limited extent. The precise form and technicalities of the platform take shape through ongoing experimentation, as De Correspondent, together with design agency Momkai, searches for those formats and technical specifications that suit online journalism in the very best way.

[Colanth]

Giving everyone, say, $1,000 free, will cause prices to go up almost immediately.  But the cost of living would go up more than the $1,000, so the net effect would be to harm everyone but the wealthy.

There are bookish economic rules and there are real-world economic rules, and the former only work in books, not in the real world, in which people are basically greedy.

[Plu]

Giving everyone, say, $1,000 free, will cause prices to go up almost immediately.  But the cost of living would go up more than the $1,000, so the net effect would be to harm everyone but the wealthy.

There are bookish economic rules and there are real-world economic rules, and the former only work in books, not in the real world, in which people are basically greedy.

And yet putting this in practice showed none of that, and instead showed all sorts of positive results. As much as I'd like to follow the theory, apparently the practice is different.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

I'll be more than happy to solve our economic woes. Everyone send me $1000 right away.


Don't forget. It's for your own good and the world at large. It's all about me so don't worry. You're money, soon to be mine will trickle back up. :)


There, that didn't hurt one little bit now did it? For those who refuse prepare for the economic pain soon to follow and SHAME ON YOU!