Speaking about the Gypsies, here is a problem that frequently happens:
There is a group of people, culturally and otherwise related, who have a strong preference for living close to each other. Also, most people in the group are unemployed. What happens?
The costs of living are different in different places. Usually the proximity of good job opportunities drives the prices up. So, if you are unemployed and almost all your friends and relatives are unemployed, it makes economically a lot of sense to move -- together -- to a location without job opportunities. You can sell your old small appartment and buy a new larger house, and you will still have some money left. The problem is, now you are effectively locked in the unemployment.
Even worse, your children are also locked. Even if they would like to get a job, they can't. They live in a location without job opportunities. And they won't move to a better place, because they are part of a culture that has a strong preference for living close to each other, and all their friends and relatives live in a place without job opportunities. Even if a few of them leave, most of the group will stay where they are, and the problem remains for generations.
The lesson for the basic income is the following... if you allow too many people to live without having jobs... so we would not be talking about unemployed individuals, but about whole communities where unemployment is a norm, then their children who might want to have a job could have a problem finding one simply because there is none in the area.
The same mechanism is at work in many American Indian communities.
The problem is exacerbated by ongoing evaporative cooling: people (mostly young) with energy, talent, motivation all leave. What's left behind in the community is usually not pretty.
This thread is for asking any questions that might seem obvious, tangential, silly or what-have-you. Don't be shy, everyone has holes in their knowledge, though the fewer and the smaller we can make them, the better.
Please be respectful of other people's admitting ignorance and don't mock them for it, as they're doing a noble thing.
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