When a shock falls hardest on the poor, hand out cash rather than hold the price down.

Added to korrents 7 Sept 2026 · How quotes work · Something wrong? Tell us

Where this collides

• In tension with

  Universal basic income is at most a small part of the answer to AI-driven job loss.

  Cochrane’s rule is that if a shock falls unfairly, hand out cash and leave prices alone. Hansson and Amodei both hold that unconditional cash is at most a small part of the answer to AI-driven job loss. Different shocks, and the same question about whether money can substitute for the thing that was lost.

Shared subject first, then similar wording. They may agree or disagree.

• The case for giving poor people cash is not that it is a cure, but that it is less bad than most of what aid already does. CBChris Blattman27 Jun 2013
• Handing out cheques during Covid and accepting the inflation was less damaging than price controls and rationing would have been. JCJohn H. Cochrane20 Aug 2024
• Many aid programmes will beat cash on cost-effectiveness, and the ones that do will be those that fix a market failure or a supply problem. CBChris Blattman14 Mar 2014
• Cash helps a poor person whose only obstacle is a lack of capital, and does little for anyone whose obstacle is something else. CBChris Blattman27 Jun 2013
• There is a significant risk that successive inflation shocks will become entrenched in expectations, necessitating a recession to reduce inflation. PKPaul Krugman15 Oct 2026

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