Hacker News Reader

A few hundred to $1K seems too little to have much impact.

Going from 0-$1k/mo or $1K to $2k/mo means you're still broke.

You can definitely afford some food or necessities that were harder before, but fundamentally, you still need to hustle to change the fundamental financial situation.

View on HN

I would still have expected that going from 0-1K to 1-2K would allow a lot more people to bootstrap themselves out of poverty. At least under the hypothesis that Poverty is a symptom of a persons circumstances, with most notably a lack of a financial buffer allowing for smart moves (e.g. the Sam Vimes theory of boots, or not being able to get a job because you cannot afford transportation).

In that case, that extra money should likely cause quite a few people to get out of those self-reinforcing poverty traps, and let them escape.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com