4 Comments

1. Task force members will have to do a little work, the recipients won’t.

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2. Science!!

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   Finland’s Flirtation With “Free” Money For The Jobless To End (Universal Basic Income)
   CBS News | 4-24-2018

   Finland’s government has decided not to continue its year-old experiment offering citizens a universal basic income — or money for nothing — beyond the two year trial. In January 2017, Finland became the first country in Europe to pay some of its unemployed citizens a basic monthly income, amounting to 560 euros ($587), in the unique social experiment aimed at cutting government red tape, reducing poverty and boosting employment.

   On Tuesday, it emerged that the government had decided to stop making the payments to the 2,000 randomly picked citizens chosen as subjects in the experiment from January 2019. The government denied a request from its own social benefits agency, KELA, to expand the program.

   The experiment will have run its full, two year intended course when the payments stop at the beginning of next year.

   “The government is making changes taking the system away from basic income,” a KELA official told the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, according to Britain’s Guardian.

   Some at KELA were clearly disappointed in the decision to end the experiment, with one of the researchers, Olli Kangas, telling public broadcaster YLE that even the two year trial was “too short a period to be able to draw extensive conclusions from such a big experiment. We should have had extra time and more money to achieve reliable results.”

   Those chosen 2,000 participants have received the monthly payments without any reporting requirements on how they spend it.

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   “Marxist Dream” Crushed – In Landslide Vote, Swiss Reject Proposal To Hand Out Free Money to Everyone
   Zero Hedge | Jun 5, 2016 | Tyler Durden

   This weekend the Swiss population was called upon to make a historic decision, when Switzerland became the first country worldwide to put the idea of free money for everyone, technically known as Unconditional Basic Income (of CHF2,500 per month for every adult man and woman, and CHF625 for every child, for doing absolutely nothing) to a vote.

   As reported previously, the outcome of this referendum would set a strong precedent and establish a landmark in the evolution of the debate of handing out free money in a centrally-planned world. And as predicted, based on early vote projections it has been a landslide decision against the “free lunch.”

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   California city to experiment with ‘universal basic income’
   WND | 2/4/18

   Residents to get $500 a month, no questions asked, as starting point

   The mayor of Stockton, California, is leading an experiment with “universal basic income,” which is set to start by giving low-income residents $500 a month, no questions asked.

   Mayor Michael Tubbs calls his city “ground zero” for issues like wage stagnation, rising housing prices and loss of middle-class jobs that affect the nation.

   The Central Valley city went bankrupt in 2012, and for decades it has been trying to diversify its agriculture-based economy.

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   Joe Biden Slams Universal Basic Income: ‘A Job Is About a Lot More Than a Paycheck’
   Newsweek | 3/28/18 | Nicole Goodkind

   Those who support the idea of a universal basic income are “class clueless,” former Vice President Joe Biden said in an interview Wednesday.

   Universal basic income, a program that would guarantee a minimum income for all Americans, has been gaining popularity as job displacement due to advances in technology continue. A recent Gallup poll found 48 percent of Americans support a universal basic income for workers who are replaced by artificial intelligence.

   But Biden, who is rumored to be eyeing a presidential run in 2020, said he does not believe that’s the way “America is built.” Instead, it’s a concept created by Silicon Valley executives who are missing the point, he said on Crooked Media’s Pod Save America, which is hosted by former Obama staffers.

   “Every time someone would lose a job, my dad would say, ‘You know, Joey, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. It’s about dignity, it’s about respect.’ It’s about your place in the community. It’s about being able to look your kid in the eye and saying, ‘Honey, it’s going to be OK.’ That’s what it’s about. Dignity,” he said. “Getting an annual wage, you sit home and do nothing. You strip people of their dignity.”

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   • Let’s see if I get this right. Stockton went bankrupt in ’12, but 6 years later they’re so flush they can start handing out $500/mo. to maybe 20% of their residents? Start telling the thousands of homeless people around the SF bay area about this. What could possibly go wrong?

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     • The Frisco homeless won’t leave for Stockton because Stockton, unlike Frisco, still won’t allow them to s**t in the street.

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