<story><title> What Happens When the Poor Receive a Stipend?</title><url>http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/18/what-happens-when-the-poor-receive-a-stipend/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>JoeAltmaier</author><text>The researcher supposed that the reduced stressors in poor parents&amp;#x27; lives allowed them to be more nurturing, resulting in reduced problems with their children. Seems like a no-brainer to do, considering this analysis:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Bearing that in mind, Randall Akee, an economist at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a collaborator of Professor Costello’s, argues that the supplements actually save money in the long run. He calculates that 5 to 10 years after age 19, the savings incurred by the Cherokee income supplements surpass the initial costs — the payments to parents while the children were minors. That’s a conservative estimate, he says, based on reduced criminality, a reduced need for psychiatric care and savings gained from not repeating grades.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;That means, its not only a good idea, its free.</text></comment>
<story><title> What Happens When the Poor Receive a Stipend?</title><url>http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/18/what-happens-when-the-poor-receive-a-stipend/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>dahart</author><text>This idea was explored a bit more thoroughly in an episode of This American Life&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/08/16/212645252/episode-480-the-charity-that-just-gives-people-money&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.npr.org&amp;#x2F;blogs&amp;#x2F;money&amp;#x2F;2013&amp;#x2F;08&amp;#x2F;16&amp;#x2F;212645252&amp;#x2F;episode-...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;They discuss and question the validity of the very deeply held belief that if you &amp;quot;give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;While its very hard to argue with this logic, and it seems so true and obvious, it also implicitly assumes that the poor are poor due to lack of education, rather than due to lack of money.&lt;p&gt;I can&amp;#x27;t defend GiveDirectly or stand by any claims made on either side, but apparently the results they&amp;#x27;re achieving is some evidence that the poor really do just need some seed funding to launch from, much like startup companies need inital funding in order to launch.&lt;p&gt;One thing I&amp;#x27;m sure of, whether you&amp;#x27;re poor or trying to start a company is that its &lt;i&gt;very&lt;/i&gt; hard to start your virtuous growth cycle without a little money.</text></comment>