Surprise: Finland Finds Out Its Foray into Universal Basic Income Has Flopped
Sometimes, you have to experience something or actually try it out to figure out if it will work for you in the long term.
Things such as dating or a brand new vocation would fall under that category.
Other times, you don’t need any firsthand experience to know something won’t work and will be an abject failure.
Universal basic income should clearly fall under that category.
If you were to ignore thousands of years of human existence, then sure, universal basic income sounds like it could work.
For those unaware, universal basic income is the idea of the government paying unemployed citizens a monthly stipend. The theory is that by doing so, the government would spur the unemployed to go out and find work, even if it’s a lesser or riskier job, by having the monthly stipend act as a safety net of sorts.
While not quite the same thing, the ideas behind universal basic income are not entirely unlike socialism.
Both fiddle with the idea of massive government oversight that allows them to redistribute wealth in a way that they deem best. It’s a crock, and the proof is in the pudding.
As far as socialism goes, look no further than the utter chaos engulfing Venezuela. There are Venezuelan citizens literally begging Americans not to adopt socialism.
Universal income is a hair’s breadth away from becoming full-blown socialism.
But if you needed any evidence that universal income is a dumb idea, just look at how it has affected Finland.
According to BBC News, Finland’s foray into universal income found that “employment levels did not improve” though “participants said they felt happier and less stressed.”
Great, I guess. But where does that get you?
To be blunt, handing “free” money out like that is completely unpractical and unsustainable. I say “free” but clearly it’s coming from the taxpayers.
And far be it for me to denigrate the value of someone feeling happier and less stressed, but that’s not going to help a country or its economy.
From January 2017 until December 2018, the Finnish government paid 2,000 unemployed Finns approximately $648 a month. It did not help spur the economy or help people find more jobs.
Why, exactly, was this a surprise to anyone? If you hand someone a wad of cash, no strings attached, every month, what incentive is there to go out and find a job? It’s just asinine.
It’s stuff like this that proves why socialism and government meddling in people’s finances is so wrong on so many levels.
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