Every time I read explorations into basic income or cash transfers, I look for any signs that recipients' models of how money or wealth work are changing, and I don't see it. Thus, it seems to me like an evergreen source of naivete where the directors of cash expect the structural problems from not understanding those concepts to erode, but never do.

I wonder about the possibility of a graduated financial literacy scale for participants that studies can use.

For example, I have too many connections to the financially struggling to not ask for the receipts when they complain to me. Well, they demur, the cost of living is expensive. Okay, but can I see your spending? Typically never, but when I do, it's bad loans, unrestrained taxis-for-your-burritos and impulse purchases that fritter their income away $5-50 at a time indefinitely. There is no saving. There is no wealth. Only impulsivity. Nor is there change or recognition. New or bigger income sources only change one variable of their equation while their spending behaviors are fixed, and the outcomes are the same.