> I have a hard time figuring out what the ideal grant amount is, but I'd want $15k as an absolute maximum, and more likely something like $10k-$12k.
That seems unrealistically low. Around here, 10k isn't even enough to pay rent on a studio in a low-income area populated largely by migrant day laborers. What is the point of a minimum income if it isn't even enough to keep a minimum roof over your head?
Who says everyone has the right to a private apartment in a high cost-of-living area?
There's no shame in having roommates, and there's no shame in living in Nebraska. My goals are (a) to make sure no one lacks the necessities of life and (b) to make us a richer society. Making it so that everyone can afford a studio in the Bay Area would be very low on my list of priorities, if it were even possible.
I'm not talking about the San Francisco Bay Area. I'm talking about a place so thickly populated by low-income Mexican migrant workers that there are actually more hispanic markets than normal American supermarkets. To characterize people who stand on street corners and wait to be picked up for construction projects as rich folk seems pretty odd to me.
I think 12k or 13k a year is realistic in America for a single person, although it would not be easy surviving on this amount (especially if one has a family). Not in NYC or San Fran, but again that's incentive to work if one wants to live in the most expensive areas.
That seems unrealistically low. Around here, 10k isn't even enough to pay rent on a studio in a low-income area populated largely by migrant day laborers. What is the point of a minimum income if it isn't even enough to keep a minimum roof over your head?