What a Social Worker Sees That Economists Walk Past
Recipients were two percentage points less likely to work — and critics called that the whole story. Dr. Elizabeth Rhodes ran the longest three-year unconditional cash experiment in U.S. history, gave 1,000 people $1,000 a month, and found something economists missed: below the poverty line, nobody worked less. Sam Altman helped fund it, but Rhodes had NIH and NSF backing with full scientific independence. Jerremy Alexander Newsome and Dave Conley dig into why it takes a social worker to see what labor data hides.
Timestamps:
- (00:00) A thousand strangers, a thousand dollars – the experiment that changed the debate
- (01:13) Economists got the mic – here's what they stopped hearing
- (04:03) A blog post from Sam Altman – how it launched a decade-long study
- (05:35) Keeping Silicon Valley money honest – NIH, NSF, and full independence
- (07:28) Richard Nixon backed this idea – fifty years nobody talks about
- (10:51) 14,000 screened, 3,000 enrolled – randomized to $1,000 or $50
- (12:05) Two percentage points less employed – what that number actually means
- (14:52) Below poverty, zero effect – the poorest participants kept working
Connect:
- Dr. Elizabeth Rhodes – Website
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