Jeff Cheatham/HCK2
Turning cash into change
It’s a natural extension of MrBeast’s brand to go from giving briefcases of cash to deserving strangers to handing money to people living on $1 or $2 a day.
“This is $1,000 in cash and if you suddenly came across this kind of money, no strings attached, what would you spend it on?” MrBeast teases at the start of the Uganda video.
But the social media star also addressed questions about whether direct cash payments would be spent wisely. He noted that flooding a community with money could be viewed as “extremely irresponsible,” and that he and his team were “somewhat skeptical about the idea of direct cash” before GiveDirectly showed them the benefits of the approach.
MrBeast shared three anecdotes about the villagers in Karamoja, Uganda, who received the money. Ruth used her cash to open a store and buy food and medicine for her children. Auma built a school that hosts seven teachers and more than 200 students.
Similarly, two residents named Tiyan and Lokure could buy land to grow their crops, purchase a grain mill to serve other locals, and open a store in their home and a refueling station in the village.
The examples suggest those who received MrBeast’s cash used it to not only provide basics for their families, but also to start businesses, invest in their local community, and establish revenue streams that could help them escape abject poverty for good.
To some, helping villagers will never be as entertaining as concocting absurd scenarios and watching random people navigate them in the hope of winning a life-changing amount of money. But it’s fascinating to see MrBeast’s evolution from a real-life Willy Wonka to a UBI believer.