8 Years Ago Today, I Began 14 Months of Homelessness

[georgephillip]

2 April 2008 I left my small single apartment in the Pico-Union district of Los Angeles about 3:00AM, pushing a pilfered shopping cart that contained all my worldly possessions; it wasn't my first experience without shelter, but it would last longer than all the many previous episodes combined.

Is there a human right to subsistence?

Is there Freedom from Want?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_an_adequate_standard_of_living

"The right to an adequate standard of living is enshrined in Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.[2]

"The most significant inspiration for the inclusion of the right to an adequate standard of living in the UDHR was the Four Freedoms speech by US President Franklin Roosevelt, which declared amongst others the freedom from want.

"Fulfillment of the right to an adequate standard of living depends on a number of other economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to property, the right to work, the right to education and the right to social security.

"There have been a number of proposed policies to guarantee people a basic standard of living through the concept of offering a basic income guarantee essentially gifting all citizens a basic level of 'free money' in order to meet basic needs such as food and shelter."

 

[marvin martian]

2 April 2008 I left my small single apartment in the Pico-Union district of Los Angeles about 3:00AM, pushing a pilfered shopping cart that contained all my worldly possessions; it wasn't my first experience without shelter, but it would last longer than all the many previous episodes combined.

Is there a human right to subsistence?

Is there Freedom from Want?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_an_adequate_standard_of_living

"The right to an adequate standard of living is enshrined in Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.[2]

"The most significant inspiration for the inclusion of the right to an adequate standard of living in the UDHR was the Four Freedoms speech by US President Franklin Roosevelt, which declared amongst others the freedom from want.

"Fulfillment of the right to an adequate standard of living depends on a number of other economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to property, the right to work, the right to education and the right to social security.

"There have been a number of proposed policies to guarantee people a basic standard of living through the concept of offering a basic income guarantee essentially gifting all citizens a basic level of 'free money' in order to meet basic needs such as food and shelter."

Define the terms "adequate" and "basic" as they pertain to a standard of living, food, and shelter.

 

[georgephillip]

Define the terms "adequate" and "basic" as they pertain to a standard of living, food, and shelter.

Those terms would vary depending on cost of living and relative life expectancy. In general, I suspect an "adequate" monthly stipend would be approximately equal to the average SSA monthly benefit. Twenty years ago my SSA benefits would have covered my entire monthly living expenses; today they would not cover the market-based rent of the studio apartment I lived in at that time.

 

[marvin martian]

Those terms would vary depending on cost of living and relative life expectancy. In general, I suspect an "adequate" monthly stipend would be approximately equal to the average SSA monthly benefit. Twenty years ago my SSA benefits would have covered my entire monthly living expenses; today they would not cover the market-based rent of the studio apartment I lived in at that time.

So, you can't define it. Which is exactly why these childish Utopian fantasies don't work. See Cuba, Venezuela, the USSR, North Korea, East Germany, Romania under Ceausescu, etc., for examples.

 

[georgephillip]

So, you can't define it. Which is exactly why these childish Utopian fantasies don't work. See Cuba, Venezuela, the USSR, North Korea, East Germany, Romania under Ceausescu, etc., for examples.

I don't think we are talking about a one-size-fits-all stipend here. Some parts of the country are far more expensive than others to live in. I'm sure there's a states' rights aspect to basic income some conservatives could support?

"An unconditional basic income (also called basic income, basic income guarantee,universal basic income, universal demogrant,[1]or citizen’s income) is a form of social security system[2] in which all citizens or residents of a country regularly receive an unconditional sum of money, either from a government or some other public institution, in addition to any income received from elsewhere."