It's hard to react fairly to the analogy, because I know you're not literally suggesting that David's literal roof is any way anyone's problem except David's. (In the 1% of cases where you're literally arguing that, my response isn't much longer than "that's 100% David's problem". The house-owning David is so far ahead of the average American and few would reasonably suggest that free roof repair is a basic human right or governmentally subsidized/funded activity.)
If the analogy instead is meant to apply to general basic income topics, provided we're willing to remove more than 95% of the other enormous governmental support programs (replace, not augment), then I'm inclined to give cash and let the Davids figure it out.
I believe it's more wasteful to society and intrusive/insulting to the Davids to propose that "we know better than you" and erect even more governmental "choosing for the population" administrations. Is ketchup a vegetable? Is eating meat morally wrong? Is eating meat calorically efficient? Yes, there are Davids out there who will make poor choices with the money, but I believe there's more value in letting the individual decide than in me deciding for them (directly or via proxy).
> There's a LOT of factors that going into making the "right" decision, if there even is one.
100% agree and the second-order application of that is exactly why I favor giving cash. Because what's "right" for David-1234567 is different from David-1234568 and I'd much rather have them decide, even if it means that David-1234569 makes choices that he later regrets. (If he doesn't regret it, but we regret it on his behalf, then there is no problem other than our own over-reaching and over-controlling of others tendencies.)
If the analogy instead is meant to apply to general basic income topics, provided we're willing to remove more than 95% of the other enormous governmental support programs (replace, not augment), then I'm inclined to give cash and let the Davids figure it out.
I believe it's more wasteful to society and intrusive/insulting to the Davids to propose that "we know better than you" and erect even more governmental "choosing for the population" administrations. Is ketchup a vegetable? Is eating meat morally wrong? Is eating meat calorically efficient? Yes, there are Davids out there who will make poor choices with the money, but I believe there's more value in letting the individual decide than in me deciding for them (directly or via proxy).
> There's a LOT of factors that going into making the "right" decision, if there even is one.
100% agree and the second-order application of that is exactly why I favor giving cash. Because what's "right" for David-1234567 is different from David-1234568 and I'd much rather have them decide, even if it means that David-1234569 makes choices that he later regrets. (If he doesn't regret it, but we regret it on his behalf, then there is no problem other than our own over-reaching and over-controlling of others tendencies.)