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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: 5, Insightful) by q.kontinuum on Tuesday December 08 2015, @03:01PM
And I'd probably salute you on my way to my job :-) Most people tend to be competitive and want to have just a little more than the neighbour. In the current society, once you are on social welfare, earning some money on top is punished, because reductions on benefits can easily be more than you earn. So, unless you go from unemployed to real good job, chances are you are punished for trying. Fixing this can be quite complex because the rules as they are now didn't appear out of thin-air.
With basic income, the administrative overhead would vanish, peoples self-respect would be increased, and even if the base-tax for every dollar earned on top is 50% you would start having a plus right from the first dollar you earn.
For you, I do believe you that you might spend a lot of time fishing, but I don't believe you'd stop being a productive member of the society. You are working on soylentnews, whihc is a net-gain for society, and you are not getting paid for that, either. So you do know the feeling of intrinsic motivation. There are probably lots of other jobs where intrinsic motivation wouldn't cut it (I imagine there aren't that many people who do a cleaning-job for the job-satisfaction), but just because people have a base-income it doesn't mean they don't want to earn more.
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Tuesday December 08 2015, @06:11PM
> (I imagine there aren't that many people who do a cleaning-job for the job-satisfaction)
You'd be surprised [channel4.com]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday December 08 2015, @06:35PM
S'true but I wouldn't be doing it if it didn't benefit me as well; in the form of a useful site for example. I don't do altruism, it's evil.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by q.kontinuum on Tuesday December 08 2015, @07:40PM
What goes around, comes around. In a smaller society people help those in need, expecting them to help when the tables are turned. No one keeps exactly track, but generally people learn to know each other, and a known leach in need might receive the help he needs anymore. This is an efficient arrangement because it takes corrective action without administrative overhead. It's give and take, not altruism. But it requires people to have some time left to work together. If everyone has to juggle 3 jobs to get his stomach full, society dies.
In a state, this unfortunately doesn't work, because the society is too big to keep an overview...
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum