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by pingpongchef 1903 days ago
Sounds great but we should be worried about the cobra effect.

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

3 comments

If the amount given is low enough it probably won't attract scammers pretending to be homeless - but it may shift the number of homeless from cities that don't do the program to city that do it (assuming word of mouth spreads and homeless mobility allows it)
How would that apply in this case? They're not paying per bag of trash or anything.
It is $20 every other Wednesday. It has cost 10K over the course of a year. Not exactly a way to get a lot of cash.