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Unexpected News that nobody could have foreseen.
Since the beginning of last year, 2000 Finns are getting money from the government each month – and they are not expected to do anything in return. The participants, aged 25–58, are all unemployed, and were selected at random by Kela, Finland's social-security institution.
Instead of unemployment benefits, the participants now receive €560, or $690, per month, tax free. Should they find a job during the two-year trial, they still get to keep the money.
While the project is praised internationally for being at the cutting edge of social welfare, back in Finland, decision makers are quietly pulling the brakes, making a U-turn that is taking the project in a whole new direction.
and . . .
Entrepreneurs who have expressed support for UBI include Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, and Google's futurist and engineering director Ray Kurzweil.
These tech moguls recognize that UBI, as well as [combating] poverty, could also help solve the problem of increased robotization in the workforce, a problem they are very much part of creating.
and . . .
The existing unemployment benefits were so high, the Finnish government argued, and the system so rigid, an unemployed person might choose not to take a job as they would risk losing money by doing so – the higher your earnings, the lower your social benefits. The basic income was meant as an incentive for people to start working.
This article gives me serious doubts about whether a program like this can work and whether other countries will try it.
Previously: Finland: Universal Basic Income Planned for Later in 2016
Finland Launches Basic Income Experiment With Jan. 1 Cheques for Those in Pilot Project
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 20 2018, @12:44PM (2 children)
Why tax workers?... there are other things you could raise taxes on. VAT on luxurious products, extra tax on pollution/unhealthy food, have international companies pay a little tax instead of nothing.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday April 20 2018, @02:04PM
Tax on pollution would be to normalize the behavior so that it is in line with the externalities it creates. And sin taxes (like extra taxes on "unhealthy" food) have no place in a rational government. It shouldn't be their business in the first place.
(Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Friday April 20 2018, @05:48PM
To me, it seems obvious that taxing job-stealing robots (whatever those are) is the way to fund UBI. After all, if the program is created to combat the loss of jobs to robots, it stands to reason that they should fund it. It's analogous to funding environmental clean-up with a tax on pollution. This is just another way of dealing with externalities.
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