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In effect we somewhat have this kind of system with Food Stamps and housing vouchers -- "currencies" that are restricted to certain types of expenditures. Also of course there are advocates for education vouchers. Etc.

Unfortunately these targeted systems have been studied and results seem to be better if we just give people unrestricted grants. Slicing and dicing the money ahead of time seems less effective than letting the recipients decide.

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Vouchers and food stamps are similar to what I was proposing, but not the same thing. One aspect is that they are not digital currency. Another aspect is that there are particular constraints on reception and difficulty applying for them. Another one is that there is no comprehensive resource tracking such as housing availability. Additionally the amounts are very minimal. They are a very low-tech nod in that direction, but have not in any way disproven the concept.

I'm all for things like universal basic income also. But again, the old-fashioned monetary system we have now and poor resource tracking do not permit universal basic income. Because for one thing it doesn't work properly unless its truly universal and there is not sufficient government revenue to support it.

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