A new report shows that Finland’s “basic income” experiment recipients are happier and more secure.
And those paying for it are twitchy and paranoid, wondering what the government’s going to take from them next.
A new report shows that Finland’s “basic income” experiment recipients are happier and more secure.
And those paying for it are twitchy and paranoid, wondering what the government’s going to take from them next.
If you were one of 2,000 participants in the country receiving a guaranteed income regardless of whether you worked or not, would you describe your “financial situation more positively than respondents in the control group” who did not receive such a stipend and did not have such a guarantee of future earnings?
Might you also “experience less stress and fewer financial worries than the control group”?
I know I would. I’m a moderate when it comes to outlawing science boondoggles. That data point will cost the researchers nothing.
It’s astounding. Governments feel that they can intuitively know what will make victim groups feel insulted, and can instinctively know what motivates perpetrators of “hate crimes,” but they have to spend tangible cash in ever-increasing quantities to study, investigate, quantify, and discuss whether people are more willing to get something handed to them than they are to sweat for it.
Another study is needed. I volunteer. But this time the data points will cost you. Immoderately.
The price of basic income is too damn high!
DamnCash
Oddly I would be all for a basic income if all monies now currently spent by the government as transfer payments were lumped together, limited by Amendment and then equally distributed to all Americans with the option of refusing the amount and taking a tax deduction instead. Haven’t crunched the numbers but it might save some money in the long run. Downside is that after you get your government check you are on your own for everything in your life, outside private charities.