Universal Income Story

A number of months ago....I essayed over a European idea being floated around by various groups.....universal basic income.  If you were unemployed or physically/mentally unable to work....there would be an income paid to you...NOT welfare. 

So the first country to attempt this, in an experiment....was Finland.

The Finns said in a direct way when it started....it was a test, and 2,000 people from the nation....would be signed up at random, and paid out this deal.  There was an age stipulation to it...which I found interesting....between the ages of 25 and 58.  They never went into detail why the age situation mattered.

So today....the Finnish government announced that the experiment is finished (done).....at the conclusion of 2018, and it will be ended. It will not be renewed, or lead onto a full-up program.

What happened here to fail it?  I've sat and read a dozen different newspapers, the BBC piece on it, and some financial news analyst comments.  I've come to three reasons to it's demise:

1.  The original concept was unconditional, as the Finn government built it.  They reached some conclusion that you have to have conditions (mandates would be a good word).  Basically, you need to show some improvement or willing attitude to look for work.  I don't think they saw it after the Basic Income deal started with the 2,000.

2.  The tax management folks came to some agreement that nationally.....to make the whole thing work....there would have to be a 30-percent increase in the basic tax structure.  You can imagine the shock in the room when the experts told the political parties this, and they were like....well....how would you invent twenty-odd taxes to cover this cost? 

I paused over this part of the problem.  Didn't the experts realize the cost impact back when they started this?  I can't imagine starting an experiment without detailing the total cost impact.

3.  The good moral instinct is to help these people, and the Basic Universal Allowance idea would have flowed a fair amount of money to the lower-class (often non-working) establishment.  I suspect there just weren't that many Finnish people in the category of being extreme good moral type individuals....going to that distance.

I've spent a week in Helsinki back in 2016, and wandered around the city.  I would readily agree that it is a fascinating place and has a wide landscape of society.  But you tend to notice that Finns aren't happy with beggers or alcoholics on the street.  There is some kind of national attitude that makes the culture unique.

As for this being the end of the universal allowance idea?  No.  There are various groups in Germany which have the idea drafted up and want to freshen it for a new prospective.  Fundamentally, they probably deserve the chance.  But if you were asking me personally.....a new focus with the Job-Center folks and a whole new approach to getting long-term unemployed back into the work-place....would be a better investment area for tax funding.