The Case for Unconditional Cash Transfers with Jiaying Zhao

Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast

NBCNews

News, Nbcnews, Why Is This Happening?, The Chris Hayes Podcast, Chris Hayes, Politics, Government, Society & Culture, Msnbc, Withpod

4.6 • 8.9K Ratings

🗓️ 3 October 2023

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

You’d probably guess that a major factor contributing to homelessness is a lack of money. Yet, very few programs provide unconditional and lump sum cash to unhoused individuals as a solution. There are a number of barriers that have impeded the broad implementation of this type of assistance, which include the lack of policymaker support and public mistrust in homeless people’s ability to manage money. Our guest this week found that direct cash transfers actually result in net societal savings over time. Jiaying Zhao is an associate professor, Canada research chair and a Sauder distinguished scholar at the University of British Columbia. She co-authored “Unconditional cash transfers reduce homelessness,” which was published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal. Zhao, who has personally experienced housing insecurity in the past, joins WITHpod to discuss the cognitive taxes of poverty, rethinking the homogenous narrative about who homeless people are, the most surprising findings from the study, intended policy changes and more.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey with pod listeners, before we get into today's episode, a reminder that we are taking
0:11.8	with pod on the road again.
0:14.0	Tickets are going fast, so buyers today at msnbc.com slash with pod tour.
0:19.0	I hope to see you in our live audience this fall.
0:26.5	From what I've heard, the perception is changing very slowly, but we do see a lot of pushback
0:34.3	from people of a different party, especially the conservative party in Canada.
0:41.8	We do get a lot of pushback on deservingness on how they spend the money and whether
0:47.0	it's a worthy investment and how do we pay for this program.
0:51.4	And we're obviously working and cooperating with them to nail out these details.
0:57.3	But as you said, Chris, at the beginning, this is a rational approach.
1:00.2	This saves money at the end.
1:03.2	And I just think it's no brainer.
1:05.8	If we are rational about this, then I hope that policy makers and the public will eventually
1:11.9	get on board with a policy change.
1:14.9	Hello and welcome to Wise is happening with me, your host, Chris Hayes.
1:20.7	You know, a few years ago, Pope Francis was talking about giving money to the poor, giving
1:29.9	the money to charity, giving money to folks that are on house that you may encounter
1:33.0	on the street.
1:34.0	Some months we call panhandlers and he, an interviewer asked, but if I give a money to a homeless
1:40.3	man, he goes out and spends it on a glass of wine.
1:43.4	And Pope Francis said, you know, that's okay.
1:45.8	How about you ask, if a glass of wine is the only happiness he has in life, that's
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NBCNews, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NBCNews and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.