Pierre Omidyar, founder and chairman of eBay, is up on his biggest effort by far with the charity GiveDirectly. As of now, GiveDirectly is operating a small service in just a few Kenyan villages. However, once this experiment launches after a few months, it will be the biggest basic income research. And because of this, more than 26,000 people will receive free money in the different timeframe, some are for 12 years and some are for just a couple of months.
An Investment To An Experiment Giving Away Free Money
The philanthropic investment arm Omidyar Network, which is started by the eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, has invested an amount of $493,000 for this experiment giving people in Kenya free money. According to Business Insider, all the people involved in the experiment or the people under the basic income receive an amount of money on a regular basis to cover their everyday expenses such as their rent, food, and clothing. Studies on basic income that have been performed not long ago suggested that only good comes from helping poor people meet their financial needs.
The stress of the people goes down and their self-sufficiency goes up. Because of the experiment, people have started businesses, sent their children to school and even made vital home repairs. Some research says that drug and alcohol use also declines as people have fewer reasons to be stressed. "Omidyar Network's foundational belief that empowering people frees them to better themselves, their families, and their communities has great evidence in the growing literature on the benefits of cash transfers," manager Tracy Williams and partner Mike Kubzansky wrote in the blog post announcing Omidyar's investment.
GiveDirectly Helps Poor People In Their Financial Needs
GiveDirectly has raised a total of $23.7 million with its targeted amount of $30 million. A spokesperson from the charity said that the new investment does not change the timeline of the overall experiment. As reported by TF Live, GiveDirectly good comes from helping the poor people in their financial needs. As per what was done in the research by the officials, it said that people’s tend to control their financial more accurately when they are not stressed.
Omidyar is a French-born Iranian-American entrepreneur and philanthropist and is known for being charitable. Omidyar has expressed his optimism that once the experiment begins, it will produce many fruitful insights. A spokesperson from the GiveDirectly charity said, “unlike those of any past study and provide evidence-based arguments to shed light on the conversations around the future of work and poverty alleviation policies.”
