https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2019/summary/
Their research suggested that giving money to poor people does not discourage people from working, but their studies show that it makes them slightly more likely to work.
What a concept! Giving a basic income to poor people can overcome poverty. Who would have thunk it?
Andrew Yang, probably, for one.
From the above link:
“This year’s Laureates have introduced a new approach to obtaining reliable answers about the best ways to fight global poverty. In brief, it involves dividing this issue into smaller, more manageable, questions – for example, the most effective interventions for improving educational outcomes or child health. They have shown that these smaller, more precise, questions are often best answered via carefully designed experiments among the people who are most affected.”
So we could use carefully designed experiments to help us know the best approaches to help the poor.
Or we could just, look down our noses at the desperately poor, assuming that they have character deficits that they could overcome if they would just pull themselves up by their bootstraps. (Even if they have no boots. Maybe no feet in some cases.)