Posted on 04/24/2018 4:12:26 PM PDT by blam
Finland's government has decided not to continue its year-old experiment offering citizens a universal basic income -- or money for nothing -- beyond the two year trial. In January 2017, Finland became the first country in Europe to pay some of its unemployed citizens a basic monthly income, amounting to 560 euros ($587), in the unique social experiment aimed at cutting government red tape, reducing poverty and boosting employment.
On Tuesday, it emerged that the government had decided to stop making the payments to the 2,000 randomly picked citizens chosen as subjects in the experiment from January 2019. The government denied a request from its own social benefits agency, KELA, to expand the program.
The experiment will have run its full, two year intended course when the payments stop at the beginning of next year.
"The government is making changes taking the system away from basic income," a KELA official told the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, according to Britain's Guardian.
Some at KELA were clearly disappointed in the decision to end the experiment, with one of the researchers, Olli Kangas, telling public broadcaster YLE that even the two year trial was "too short a period to be able to draw extensive conclusions from such a big experiment. We should have had extra time and more money to achieve reliable results."
Those chosen 2,000 participants have received the monthly payments without any reporting requirements on how they spend it. The amount was deducted from any benefits they were already receiving.
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(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
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It failed because there were enough sensible people in Finland to see that it would have been a disaster to apply this madness to the entire population.
It is “guaranteed universal income” - free money to all. Anyone with any sense in their head can see that it would immediately start an inflationary spiral, with no end, and no way out of it. Plus it would attract all the lazy slobs who would gladly take the money without working.
I wish nothing but a life of misery for all those who seriously proposed this.
#17 I have a relative on SSI who feeds wild animals like ducks and geese etc and always runs out of money every month as they spend hundreds on them. They do not save a dime for a rainy day.
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