> A wealth of data [1] now supports the idea that one-time cash transfers can permanently transform a local economy. Given a sudden windfall, people invest in their future. They go back to school, obtain transportation, pay for childcare, pay down debilitating debts, and do any number of things to improve their career prospects and financial future<p>This was interesting to me. It's in the section on the wealth of the 400 wealthiest Americans (who own about 3 trillion dollars). They look at what you can do with a 1-time 5% wealth tax. And most of it is stuff like preventing hundreds of thousands of children dying from malaria each year, which immediately raises the question "what do we do 20 ish years from now?". But you can permanently lift 38 million Americans out of poverty to no longer worry if they'll have a roof over their head tomorrow (or ever), or if they can feed their children. And from the spending patterns of the poor, this money will go straight back into the economy rather than being hoarded.<p>This is not a structural change, but a one-time miniscule tax on 400 people in the US, and it'd have a lasting positive impact on society.<p>It is an absolute positive, but it will not happen because the media and politicians (both sides) have been completely captured by billionaires to the point of not even acknowledging it when one of them does two Hitler salutes on stage.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.givedirectly.org/research-on-cash-transfers/" rel="nofollow">https://www.givedirectly.org/research-on-cash-transfers/</a>