Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by jaibot 3162 days ago
Nothing is free - someone is paying for it. When you give people specific things instead of money, you're taking choices away from them, insisting that you know what they need better than they do.

If you give people money, they can decide what they need most and go do that. Maybe I don't need housing because I can live with relatives and use my money for education. If you insist on free housing instead, you take that option away from me.

1 comments

What if you decide to fund a self-destructive addiction? Or send the money to a foreign country? Is that in the public interest?
Letting people make mistakes is important. Letting people be altruistic is important.

More specifically: I'm 0% worried about sending money overseas, since I expect that the few people who do so that will be making the world a better place on net.

In both cases real wealth is lost from the economy.

State sponsored destruction of property.

The first case is handled by socialized healthcare and the second by the nsa.
100%