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posted by on Wednesday January 04 2017, @10:48AM   Printer-friendly
from the now-we-wait-and-watch dept.

Basic Income is a subject that regularly surfaces in Soylent discussions, so here's a story about Finland's impending experiment with it:

Finland has become the first country in Europe to pay its unemployed citizens a basic monthly income, amounting to 560 euros ($587 US), in a unique social experiment which is hoped to cut government red tape, reduce poverty and boost employment.

Olli Kangas from the Finnish government agency KELA, which is responsible for the country's social benefits, said Monday that the two-year trial with the 2,000 randomly picked citizens who receive unemployment benefits kicked off Jan. 1.

Those chosen will receive 560 euros every month, with no reporting requirements on how they spend it. The amount will be deducted from any benefits they already receive.

The average private sector income in Finland is 3,500 euros per month, according to official data.

Also at The Guardian and swissinfo.ch.


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  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday January 04 2017, @02:15PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday January 04 2017, @02:15PM (#449354)

    Also, freedom. Big brother says I can't have more than two roommates while getting housing assistance and I can't afford community college with my existing one roommate, but if big brother would F off I could have a little frat house here and get my degree in the profitable field of underwater basket weaving so I can later get a job as a barista and get off welfare, times like a million Millennial kids.

    There will be problems. A lot of government handouts are based on targeting "lower IQ segments" as beneficiaries while making the application process so incredibly complicated that only "higher IQ segments" can correctly apply when ironically they are likely already successful anyway and are going to be successful no matter if they're helped or not. I've seen this with some government contract handouts and small business administration programs where you can't get the program unless you have a degree and full time job in SBA studies, but if you have a degree and full time job in SBA studies your business will auto-fail, unless you're a regular Einstein in which case your business will likely succeed anyway regardless if it gets help or not (something like you'd get more revenue running your business 20 hours per week rather than interfacing with the SBA for 20 hours per week). Obviously this specific example varies greatly with department, level of govt, and over decades of time.

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