Finland is beginning an experiment, giving 1000s of people a basic income

Daily Kos Staff

Tuesday August 30, 2016 · 10:38 AM PDT

2016/08/30 · 10:38

Earlier this year, Switzerland was able to get the conversation about a national “basic income” to the level where the country voted on the idea. The Swiss voted against creating the basic income—but there were a variety of reasons for that, and most of them have to do with the uncertainties of such a radical economic shift. Smaller samples of basic income experiments have been popping up over past few years, offering glimmers of how these types of programs can work (or not). Finland is joining the communities and countries trying this experiment.

Finland is about to launch an experiment in which a randomly selected group of 2,000–3,000 citizens already on unemployment benefits will begin to receive a monthly basic income of 560 euros (approx. $600). That basic income will replace their existing benefits. The amount is the same as the current guaranteed minimum level of Finnish social security support. The pilot study, running for two years in 2017-2018, aims to assess whether basic income can help reduce poverty, social exclusion, and bureaucracy, while increasing the employment rate.

A big criticism is the reduced sample size (reduced from the original proposal) and the narrowness of what will be looked at as data.

The Finnish government introduced its legislative bill for the experiment on 25 August. Originally, the scope of the basic income experiment was much more ambitious. Many experts have criticized the government’s experiment for its small sample size and for the setup of the trial, which will be performed within just one experimental condition. This implies that the experiment can provide insights on only one issue, namely whether the removal of the disincentives embedded in social security will encourage those now unemployed to return to the workforce or not.

There is no mention in the language of this experiment that talks about looming automation of the workforce, and therefore the need to change the culture of how our work lives and economies will move forward. Automation is coming for us all, even Wall Street. A basic income is an important concept that must be thought about beyond the concept of unemployment.

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Finland is beginning an experiment, giving 1000s of people a basic income

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