I wish I had time to finish this article and respond longer. This is a great idea in theory - but I don't think you've spent enough time with poor people to understand how and why this breaks.

1 - many of the poor are emotionally, mentally, or psychologically challenged and lack the ability to wisely spend what they get. That's a major part of why they are in the position they're in. Give them $10, $100, or even $100,000 and they will fritter it away into nothing meaningful and they will be back at the office asking for an advance on their next check.

2 - greed. at every level, greed ruins this. In the utopia where we truly have enough of everything to go around - it will take generations to get it through people's heads. In some ways we have everything we need today - but greed keeps it from being distributed to those in need.

Hopefully I'll have time tonight to finish the article and perhaps the author will enlighten my darkened mind. I'd love to see this happen - but I'm a little too close to the reality of poverty to see this as the fix.