Session 7: Universal Basic Income? A Mathematical Approach? Skill Training? What's the best way to alleviate poverty?
Poverty alleviation has been a major point of discussion over the past few months. This is as Artificial Intelligence (AI) is expected to raise unemployment causing more people to plunge into poverty. Furthermore, various proponents of Universal Basic Income (UBI) have also changed their views on it after seeing the rise in AI.
With regard to this, SAYDF organized a discussion on various ways to reduce poverty. This is relevant given that global poverty reduction has now slowed to a standstill after India and China drastically decreased the number of people under the poverty line. Some of the ideas presented in this discussion were support for UBI, skill training, and eliminating extreme poverty. Proponents of UBI highlighted that it helps reduce poverty by providing a stable source of income that can be relied upon even in times of crisis. They stated that this helps address the root cause of poverty as people usually enter poverty due to the source of income being erratic. At the same time opponents of UBI highlighted how UBI places a very high burden on the government and that all the promised cash may not reach the beneficiaries due to corruption. Others stated that skill training workshops for the poor can help reduce poverty without this burden on the government. The government can provide vocational training and workshops focused on skills relevant in a world surrounded by AI. They argued that through this the government will have satisfied its duty to its citizens and now it is upon the citizens to use the skills taught to their advantage. However, a small group of students argued that people don’t always behave rationally, thus this tactic may not be successful in every case. They instead suggested that poverty alleviation be approached in a mathematical way. They stated that an analysis should be done to identify the distance between poor peoples income and the poverty line and that much money should be allotted to poverty alleviation programs. This way spending on poverty alleviation will be minimised while having maximum impact.
This discussion highlighted how there is no one right approach to simple issues like poverty alleviation, with each approach having its own set of challenges in addition to its pros and cons.
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