Last year, I chatted or essayed on occasion about a Finland experiment....concerning basic income. The experiment was to cover 2,000 Finns, and last two years. The basic idea was that you'd find 2,000 unemployed people and give them a tax-free 'gift' of 560 Euro each, per month. What everyone expected at the beginning of this....is that some trend would be seen with some element of the 2,000 unemployed folks, and maybe some percentage (maybe a quarter....maybe half) would go onto a small business or training opportunity.....thus getting jobs.
About six months prior to the end, the government said in a blunt way....that there would be no second phase or enlargement of the experiment. It would just end.
So the topic came up this week with the full report by the government on what they discovered, and why it had to end. Focus, the German news magazine, discussed this to a small degree this morning.
The big shocker? No, the extra 560 Euro a month, for two years, did NOT lead onto more employment.
The non-shocker? People who got the money did say their lives were less stressful in this period, and some even felt it 'lifted' them in some ways (probably suggesting a more positive outlook).
One has to wonder....if you'd brought the unemployed guy in and spent the roughly 14,000 Euro on a 18-month training program or job-certification skill process....making them more marketable and offering some tax incentive for companies to hire the newly trained.....would it have been better money spent?
The end of the basic income idea in Finland? No. Based on a number of pieces that I've read...I would suggest that the pro-basic income crowd will come back for a second attempt and refine the process. Maybe this time offering it to only 2,000 unemployed who are willing to engage in training programs and actively seek jobs....to get the 2-year deal for 560 'free' Euro per month.
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