The Finnish Social Insurance Institution, Kela, is currently drawing plans for a nation-wide implementation of basic income – a social system that would provide a guaranteed, sufficient income to all people, regardless of whether they work or not.
It seems like in the past couple of years, we’ve been writing more and more about basic income – because the entire idea is picking up a lot of steam. In case you’re not familiar with the concept, basic income is basically a universal basic income, a system of social security in which all citizens or residents of a country regularly receive an unconditional sum of money from the government or a public institution. At a first glance, this sounds absurd; giving people money for doing nothing, how could that work? Well, in a developed world where manual labor is required less and less, people would get rid of the stress of having to work something they detest just to make a living, and it will allow them to focus on what they actually want to do. But wouldn’t people just stop working? Well… no. Several pilots have already been done over the past decades. Even in the US, back in the 70s, Guaranteed Annual Income (GAI) was a goal of President Nixon and the House even successfully passed a bill for it. Large-scale pilots were implemented in Seattle and Denver, finding that hardly anyone stopped working; men reduced their hours on average by 8%, and women did so even less. It was also shown to harbor a healthier economy, increase administrative efficiency, reduce bureaucracy and increase competence for key positions.
Recent pilots have also been implemented, to test how the system would work in the modern market, most notably in the Netherlands. The recently elected Finnish government is also committed to a basic income economy, and Kela is already designing how this can be rolled out. In its initial phase, the income will be 550 euro ($600), but in its full form, it will reach 800 euro ($900).
Kela says it will prepare the basic income proposal by next year, and it could revolutionize their entire social system. Hopefully, it will work – and inspire other countries in turn.
If you were given money freely, how would you spend it?
Would you expect someone else to show up to work to provide you a service if
he’s getting a check in the mail. How many people do pain in the butt work for
you out of the kindness of their heart? If you’re given money, you better
provide some form of service to others or else it has no value. If your car
breaks down and you have cash given freely to you and you want to spend it with
the auto repair guy who is also getting cash for free, why would he bother
showing up to help you if he didn’t enjoy doing the work for its own sake,
especially
if he doesn’t need your money? Unless machines are doing work that people hate,
not many people are going to show up to do that necessary work. Why would I
risk my life repairing high voltage telephone wires if I don’t have to because
I have free money? If you want other people to work for free, you better work
for free. That would mean that the majority of the people would have to become
altruists for this system to work. Being an altruist
means spending minimally on the needs of your body and devoting the majority of
your time, energy, and resources to help others. Until the majority makes this
shift, there will be no UBI.
Your thoughts are interesting; but you paint a picture of the world in which all people are supposedly Lazy and don’t want to perform mundane tasks – unless they receive substantial payment for it.
All the major studies about motivation that I’ve heard of have concluded that money isn’t the best incentive for productivity. Work in itself is rewarding for people, therefore they work. When people work with something that interests them, they will be a lot more productive and innovative. Consider that much of our technology today was actually created by hobbyists, not highly paid employees.
I wouldn’t worry too much about getting your car fixed, we as people still enjoy and benefit (on a personal level) from being of service to others. Besides, there are always going to be people interested in a variety of things. There will always be someone interested in how a Car works, therefore you should be able to find someone who is willing to help you repair your car.
The UBI model in itself doesn’t seek to undermine the economy, simply guarantee a minimal standard of living. It gives people the freedom to focus on what they WANT to do. But if people WANT a big house and other material possessions, then they will still have to work – as 800 euros per month will hardly be enough for your dream house, dream car and so on (albeit enough to move to a small cottage in the countryside and live off those 800 euros), the point is people will get an option. All pilotprograms thus far have demonstrated that people don’t stop working.
Consider how many people today are stuck in jobs that they detest. If given a UBI check every month, they will get an option to either continue working, find something else to focus on or stop working all together. I would dare suggest that many people would continue working – but in having CHOSEN to do so their productivity will increase; they will likely be happier overall as well.
I’m very interested to see the development in Finland, as it could become a Pilot for many other countries around the globe. Success in Finland could potentially debunk all the (undocumented) arguments against UBI; in turn paving the way for political goodwill towards the UBI system.