SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the handouts-instead-of-gov't-jobs-or-worker-owned-cooperatives dept.
Common Dreams reports
As a way to improve living standards and boosts its economy, the nation of Finland is moving closer towards offering[1] all of its adult citizens a basic permanent income of approximately 800 euros per month.
[...] The monthly allotment would replace other existing social benefits, but is an idea long advocated for by progressive-minded social scientists and economists as a solution--counter-intuitive as it may first appear at first--that actually decreases government expenditures while boosting both productivity, quality of life, and unemployment.
[...] The basic income proposal, put forth by the Finnish Social Insurance Institution, known as KELA, would see every adult citizen "receive 800 euros ($876) a month, tax free, that would replace existing benefits. Full implementation would be preceded by a pilot stage, during which the basic income payout would be 550 euros and some benefits would remain."
[...] Under the current welfare system, a person gets less in benefits if they take up temporary, low-paying or part-time work--which can result in an overall loss of income.
[...] As Quartz reports, previous experiments with a basic income have shown promising results:
Everyone in the Canadian town of Dauphin was given a stipend from 1974 to 1979, and though there was a drop in working hours,[PDF] this was mainly because men spent more time in school and women took longer maternity leaves. Meanwhile, when thousands of unemployed people in Uganda were given unsupervised grants of twice their monthly income, working hours increased by 17% and earnings increased by 38%.
[1] Link to The Independent in TFA was redundant IMO.
...and, before anyone shouts SOCIALISM!, this is actually Liberal Democracy (of the Bernie Sanders type).
An actual move toward Socialism would subsidize the formation of worker-owned cooperatives. An initiative to do that was floated in 1980. 5 percent of taxes would have gone into a pool (kinda like USA's Social Security fund). The Finns rejected it. Source: Prof. Richard Wolff
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 08 2015, @10:26PM
More of the Thatcherite "There is no such thing as society" bullshit.
Just try to make money without gov-t-provided infrastructure: roads, bridges, clean water systems, sewers, a postal system.
...then there's gov't-provided right of way for power lines, telephone lines, fiber, regulated spectrum.
Add safe and effective medicines, food that isn't poison, cops to handle situations, courts to regulate behavior.
It all needs to be paid for and the folks who benefit the most should be paying the most--not the least.
...and during the administration of that well-known PINKO, Dwight Eisenhower, the marginal tax rate on what would be billionaires today was 91 percent.
Without that, you get Sheldon Adelson and the Koch brothers buying off the gov't.
Somebody needs to take a trip to Somalia or Honduras and see how Libertarianism actually works out.
-- gewg_
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday December 08 2015, @10:52PM
I paid every cent asked of me for all those things you seem to think I'm taking for granted. I have every right to use them and owe nobody a thing for such. I am not, and will never be, in "society"'s debt for so much as a nickle.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 08 2015, @11:31PM
Fess up. You're really Joe "the plumber". Right?
Y'know, the guy who wasn't actually a plumber; he was a low-grade apprentice who never completed the training program.
He was never anywhere near the $quarter-million/annum that would have put him in the bracket he was bitching about.
Your M.O. is very similar.
Would you now like to discuss people who actually do draw massively on the system in the process of acquiring giant piles of dough but who squirrel away their wealth offshore without ponying up?
...or maybe about the folks who amass giant piles of cash by using public infrastructure then use that to bribe^W contribute to gov't officials?
...or maybe about the Reactionary judges who think that money is the same as speech?
-- gewg_
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday December 09 2015, @12:02AM
Who I am doesn't matter unless you're trying to set up an ad hominem attack.
As for the rest, nobody following the law with however much wealth they can legally acquire owes you or anyone else anything. Not a thin dime. They have not one iota of debt to you either financial or moral. You have done nothing for them to be in such a debt. Unless you have and you'd like to point it out? Did you build a road and not get paid for it? Did you ever have your hands on any of the infrastructure you claim they owe for and not get compensated for it?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.