There's a doctor who treats debilitating mental and health issues by doing exactly this. He "prescribed them income"[1]. That alone solved more problems for these people than any other approach.
> One of my concerns is that modern peoples are already very out of touch with what matters for the creation of things of real value. We already have bizarre ideas that money = value.
First off, I do absolutely agree with this.
The concern I have is that this is an orthogonal problem.
With basic income, there's a good chance that we can fix poverty today (as the data consistently illustrates). As for economic education, you can figure that out at the same time. They're independent problems. Well, sort of. If someone who "gets it" still can't fix "their bodily needs" and they have no access to a job, then their lives simply won't improve. Some will, of course. But others will still starve because creating real value is a moving target. Worse, eating is a short-term concern. Creating value can take much longer. It won't be able to feed you until you see some ROI. So people in poverty are forced into nearsighted thinking, which is a barrier when trying to create real value. A basic income allows people to eat, heal, etc. so that they can participate in the economy in meaningful ways. Going off of what you're saying, this would give more people the means to participate (and I'll add: to experiment, fail, and learn), and so you'll have more people with their ideas shaped.
iIRC, there is an island off the coast of Georgia where the wealthy white owner left it to his slaves. Decades later, the black inheritors were selling off their share as indivuduals and blowing the money on nice cars and what not. Whites were buying the land and turning it into an expensive vacation hotspot. Land value was going up. This was causing taxes to go up, forcing other blacks on the island to make hard choices, such as foregoing blood pressure medication in order to pay their taxes and not lose their house. Gifting the island to his slaves and freeing them did not make their descendents the equivalent of old money. It made them the equivalent of lottery winners.
My recollection is that Rosewood was a relatively wealthy black community burned to the ground by whites. No arrests were ever made. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosewood_massacre
I also once saw a story about someone who left (in their will) funds for medical care for blacks that went largely unused.
The minimum wage law was passed in order to bring wages in the deep south in line with other parts of the country. A major goal of the legislation was to end the Southern practice of paying blacks half what whites were paid for the same work. The initial result: Widespread black unemployment as many blacks were fired by whites unwilling to pay them a white man's wage.
Historically, trying to throw money at the problem of black poverty in the US has had little positive impact and any impact it had tend to be small scale and short lived. Fighting for black rights has a far better track record of raising them up out of poverty.
I see no reason why that principle shouldn't generalize. I have grave concerns that basic income will create a very permanent underclass and the haves will not care and will blame the underclass for their problems. When you look at the history of social programs, the amount they pay tends to rapidly decline in real terms due to inflation.
We need to find systemic solutions that focus on helping everyone effectively participate in the economy. I believe that is the only thing that will not lead to some nightmare dystopian future.
Thank you for your replies. It has been a pleasure.