A UBI For Teens? What A Terrible Idea! Wait, It Went Great?
A UBI For Teens? What A Terrible Idea! Wait, It Went Great?
Kids spent their money on responsible things and did better in school!
It seems pretty likely that when a guaranteed $50-a-week income for teenagers was first proposed in New Orleans, at least some people thought it would be a waste of money — that the kids would spend it on nonsense. Perhaps the same kind of nonsense some of us spent our own money on as teenagers, or even now. Because let’s be real, if I have a little extra money to spend it’s either going to booze or it’s going to Sephora.
As it turns out, however, the kids are alright.
Via Nola.com:
Students in phase one of the study, which took place from 2022 to 2023, only used about half of cash assistance. About 47% of the money remains in the students’ bank accounts, suggesting many are saving.
Of the money they did spend, about 50% went towards food and groceries, 30% to goods and services, 12% to transportation, 3% to healthcare and the rest to other expenses.
That’s pretty impressive!
One of the program’s participants, Deja Grimes, shared what she personally spent her money on with Nola.com:
Most weeks she gave the card to her mom, who put it towards the water or electric bill. Occasionally she used it to go to the movies or the mall with her friends, or to pay for school expenses, including the recent purchase of a black polo shirt with the G. W. Carver school logo embroidered on the breast, a privilege reserved for seniors.
“It helped my family a lot,” Grimes said. “It really made life easier.”
That’s kind of amazing, really. It’s also actually quite nice that, in addition to spending the money on necessities, she also spent it on going out with her friends. It’s important for kids to be able to get out and socialize, in person, off of their computers and phones — and in most cases that involves money of some kind, even if it’s just gas money. It’s a way of taking care of their emotional and social health, in addition to their financial health.
We’ve all seen how the stress of poverty can impact kids, and giving them some money that is specifically within their control can do a lot to reduce that.
Now, the city has invested $1 million to expand the program to 1600 high school seniors. In addition to being a great boost for these kids, it will also allow experts to study the program to really see how it impacts things like GPA and school attendance.
I’d be willing to bet some money (at least $50) that it will.
PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!:
They need to compare the girls vs. the boys. I worked for years in a summer jobs program for low income teens. From talking to the teens over the years, I saw the girls giving money to their moms for food or utilities and buying school clothes and toiletries. The boys, however, spent their money on alcohol, drugs, concerts, cars, and gasoline for those cars. It was a rare boy who helped his family, although some of the younger ones did. I became disillusioned with the program's benefits for the boys, especially when so much of the money went to alcohol and marijuana. I also saw parents snatch their child's paycheck and force their child to endorse it over to the parents. That was usually with girls. Of course, this effort is digital, so parents might have a harder time taking the money. I just hope that financial literacy and some monitoring goes along with it.
Nice Times!