Money looks like this: has the experience of unconditional basic income in Finland worked?



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The Payment of an Unconditional Basic Income to Unemployed Finnish Citizens did not result in the fact that they started looking for a job.

For two years – from January 2017 to December 2018 – The country set up an experiment and paid 2,000 unemployed citizens a monthly payment of $ 634 without any conditions.

The purpose of the experiment is to understand how this will affect their behavior – in particular, if they will start looking for work.

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It turned out that the payments did not affect the employment rates of the participants in the job. study. However, they began to feel happier and their feelings of stress decreased.

In 2017, Finland became the first country to decide on the idea of ​​an unconditional basic income. The experiment was coordinated by a government agency responsible for social security issues (Kela).

What is an unconditional income and how does it work?

The idea of ​​unconditional basic income implies that every citizen of a country receives from the government a guaranteed sum of money, regardless of income and work.

Experimental conditions in Finland, it was a little different: it concerned exclusively unemployed citizens

Another variant of this idea concerns unconditional basic services: when, instead of guaranteed income, citizens have the right, for example, to free education or treatment.

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Getty Images [1 9659017] Although the concept of basic income has become more and more popular lately, it is not new. For the first time, it is mentioned in "The Utopia" by Thomas Moor, published in 1516.

Today, different variants of the idea of ​​minimum income are tested in different countries. Adult residents of one of Kenya's villages will be assured of receiving US $ 22 for 12 years. The Italian government is developing a plan called "citizen income". In October, the authorities of the Dutch city of Utrecht also conduct an experiment with unconditional basic income under the generic name of Weten Wat Werkt – "Know what works."

Why do you want it?

Advocates of the concept of unconditional basic income believe that it will contribute to the struggle. with poverty because it will give people time to look for work or to be educated to acquire a new specialty

The importance of introducing a basic income, it is said, is aggravated by robotics many professions, making more and more people lose their jobs.

Ms. Saymanen, one of Kela's researchers who studied the results of the experiment in Finland, told the BBC that the government had sought to test these summaries in practice and to understand if a basic income tool could be used to reform the social security system. 19659011] Did the idea work?

It all depends on the understanding of the word "work". Has the experience helped the unemployed to find a job, as the government hoped? No, not quite.

According to Saymanen, although some of the unemployed did in fact find a place of work, their participation in the experience did not improve their position in relation to those of the unemployed belonging to the so-called control group and not perceiving no basic income. [19659005] At present, researchers are still studying the results of an experiment and are trying to understand what could be the resulting data.

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Many people think that it is not at all interesting to think about the concept of basic unconditional income . and the reduction of the unemployment rate. According to them, if the purpose of the experiment was to make people happier, its results could then be considered triumphant

One of the participants in the experiment, a former editor-in-chief a newspaper named Thomas, during a conversation with the BBC, expressed exactly this opinion.

"I still have no job, I would not say that unconditional basic income has dramatically changed my life." From a psychological point of view, yes, but not financially, "he says.

Disadvantages of the basic idea of ​​income

The idea of ​​unconditional basic income is actively supported – and no less actively criticized Some supporters of the left believe that the idea of ​​basic income is too focused on the finances and purchasing power of the population and forget the fact that companies produce too much unclaimed property and Forcing their employees to work more and more.

Grace Blakeley, an economics expert, writes in New Socialist that without fundamental structural reforms of the economic system, unconditional basic income will be the only cosmetic event.

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Those who believe that it is important to say that such a scheme would be too expensive for the budget of # 39; State and could also cause addiction and culture syndrome. , in which people expect money without doing anything.

Ulrich Schlosshofer, Managing Director of ABB, expressed this opinion in 2016 in an interview with the Financial Times. "The material remuneration should be based on the creation of an added economic value," he said.

Ms. Saymanen does not agree with the fact that experience on unconditional basic income has failed.

"This is neither a failure nor a success, these are just facts we did not have before the beginning of the experiment," he said.

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