Ben Parkinson said:

Well the counter argument is correct, but two wrongs don't make a right. Aid is not the same as investment and I feel strongly that fear of competition is causing overseas funders to focus on non-sustainable projects, like AIDS awareness, vastly more than sustainable activity, i.e. social enterprise. Problem is, boredom, lack of work and industry actually creates an "environment" for the spread of AIDS.

Funny, when I saw the Basic Income Grants scheme I saw it as investment not aid although I suppose it is a combination of the two. I saw it as investing in each individual to see what they would make of it rather than aid, like a supply of food, which would just keep them going to the next day. Of course the scheme has not been going long enough or being tried on a large enough scale to test if BIG's are the right move.