Free cash is in the works for a growing number of Dutch urbanites. After the city of Utrecht announced that it would give no-strings-attached money to some of its residents, other Dutch cities are getting on board for social experiments with “basic income,” a regular and unconditional stipend to cover living costs.Quartz
Tilburg, a city of 200,000 habitants close to the border with Belgium, will follow Utrecht’s initiative, and the cities of Groningen, Maastricht, Gouda, Enschede, Nijmegen and Wageningen are also considering it.
Supporters of basic income say it is a good mechanism to alleviate poverty and social exclusion. A recent study conducted in 18 European countries concluded that generous welfare benefits make people likely to want to work more, not less.
Ralf Embrechts, director of the Social Development Association of Tilburg and one of the promotors of the program, said that’s the theory the program is designed to test.
“We want to discover, if you trust people and give them a basic income without any rules or obligations—so, unconditionally—that they will do the right thing,” he explained in an email to Quartz.
The Dutch “basic income” experiment is expanding across multiple cities
Maria Sanchez Diez
8 comments:
Yes but they are in a fixed exchange rate with those without the basic income. This needs to be as wide as currency area.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ttip-controversy-secret-trade-deal-can-only-be-read-secure-in-reading-room-in-brussels-10456206.html
"The Dutch basic income experiment is expanding across multiple cities"
anywhere but Greece :(
You beat me to it Roger
"We want to discover, if you trust people and give them a basic income without any rules or obligations—so, unconditionally—that they will do the right thing, ”
What is the 'right' thing?
Finding jobs that don't exist?
Becoming an entrepreneur?
Going to the beach?
The right thing is: work at market rate wages, regardless of the BIG. If it hurts the capitalists ability to exploit people it wouldn't be implemented.
And anyway it won't as "we cannot afford it" and "how are we paying for that", only can be done for a few selected cities...
"the two Dutch experiments will only focus on residents who are already recipients of social assistance."
So it's kinda sorta means-tested, not a UBI as some headlines have suggested.
"Those in the program will be exempt from the severe job-seeking requirements and penalties in Dutch law.
So they're giving it to unemployed people and saying "you don't have to look for a job if you don't want to."
"Authorities aim to test how citizens react without that sword of Damocles over their heads. Will the money encourage them to find a job or will they sit in their couches comfortably?"
As Bob mentioned, how can they find jobs that don't exist? (Denmark's unemployment rate is 4.7%.)
Reading in between the lines of the article, the Danish means-tested BIG appears to be a substitute for existing safety net programs, not in addition to the existing safety net. If that is the case then I would expect the effect on labor participation to be minimal similar to the Canadian Mincome experiment. Especially since it is a temporary program so the recipient cannot expect to retire on the BIG.
As I see it the labor participation effects of a means-tested BIG have already been established by previous studies like Mincome and the Rumsfeld/Cheney experiments. The remaining issues for a means-tested BIG are political. A UBI is a whole 'nuther story.
"We want to discover, if you trust people and give them a basic income without any rules or obligations—so, unconditionally—that they will do the right thing, ”
Uh ... they want to recreate 10,000 yr old tribal customs ... on a larger scale? We already know that works. The only question is which methods to alter and add.
Biggest difference I see is that if someone got too much out of line in a tribal society, they wouldn't hesitate to kill the offender.
Historically, too, if you didn't forage or "work" - you starved, either by personal choice, or because you pissed people off so badly that they stopped sharing. Banishment was well represented in historical texts. As was warfare, and civilization collapse for environmental reasons.
There are 1001 ways for a nation state to collapse, and we haven't explored them all. Luckily there are enough ways to evolve ... if we'd just explore them too.
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