Following the launch of Finland's "universal basic income" scheme last year, other Western countries are now toying with the idea of handing out cash every month to their citizens for "free." But as nice as this all might sound to those who don't understand economics, universal basic income is really just a more pleasant way of saying universal basic welfare, a.k.a. stealing from those with more and giving it to those with less.
Finland is already learning the hard way that it just doesn't work, with reports indicate that the experiment is already in the process of being scrapped. Apparently handing out the equivalent of $690 per month to people who aren't working, and with no strings attached, doesn't have the long-term viability that its visionaries imagined.
"Right now, the government is making changes that are taking the system further away from a basic income," stated Miska Simanainen, a researcher from Finland's social security institution, to the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, about her country's full phase-out of the program at some point later this year.
One would think that the failure of this experimental program in Finland would spell the end of all interest in trying to mimic it around the world. But this isn't the case, including in the United States where technocrats like Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX, Chris Hughes of Facebook, and Ray Kurzweil of Google are actually aggressively calling for a universal basic welfare program to be implemented in the land of the free.
Kurzweil, in fact, openly expressed support for universal basic welfare at a recent TED conference, claiming that this whole "free" money phenomenon will eventually go global by the 2030s – and that, once this happens, everyone will be able to "live very well on that." Where all of this "free" money will come from, however, was not discussed by Kurzweil.
"People currently pushing Universal Basic Welfare include evil globalist Mark Zuckerberg and taxpayer-funded techno hype artist Elon Musk," writes Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, about the impetus behind this push in the U.S.
"Other liberals are also on board, attempting to praise the idea of 'free money for everyone,' apparently oblivious to the fact that putting everyone on welfare is possibly the most destructive idea collectivists have come up with yet."
Finland now wants to launch a "universal credit trial" that would package various government handout programs into one
So is Finland done with handing out free money? Not exactly. While the universal basic income program it launched last year is on the way out, there are other, perhaps even worse, forms of it on the way in. One of these is a "universal credit trial" that would compile welfare benefits, tax credits, and other government handouts into a single packaged deal.
"When the basic-income experiment ends this year, we should launch a universal credit trial," Finland's finance minister Petteri Orpo told the Finnish newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet during a recent interview addressing the upcoming changes.
Where Finland is arguably moving more in the right direction is with its social welfare reform propositions, which would enact an "activation model" whereby recipients of government cash would be required to work a minimum of 18 hours or enter a job training program within three months of enrollment. If they fail to achieve this, they would lose some or all of their benefits.
It's not much different than what currently exists in the U.S., where welfare recipients are given certain stipulations in order to continue receiving benefits. Those who fail to comply face being kicked off the gravy train – which incentivizes actually looking for work and getting hired.
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