basic income: experiment

[tielan]

The original link is here: Basic Income Could Transform Society.

There's a discussion about it on FFA. The conversation threads go in all directions, although the ones that I enjoy reading about are the ones that examine not the economic success/failure of the concept, but the reactions to the concept - their own, the other anons', political groups/societies - and what it says about their own preconceptions, presumptions, and prejudices.

For me, I think, one of the key points is not "does it work?" but "why do so many people want it to fail/rejoice in the idea that it might fail/refuse to even contemplate tests to see if it works?"

Comments

[heliopausa]

I'll look forward very much to the publication of the results of the study.

[tielan]

Right? It's one of those things that you at least want to see the outcome (several of them, really), because it has such potential.

Yes, it would require more political spine and forward vision than any western government possesses right now, but the possibilities!

[lynnenne]

There's a pilot project underway right now in three Canadian communities, all in Ontario: http://globalnews.ca/news/3399143/ontario-basic-income-pilot-project/

[monanotlisa]

To some degree, I think the discussion is moot: We NEED the vast majority of people in our community to be able to afford shelter, food, and, yes, internet connectivity in this day and age. Whether we call it "welfare" or "basic income" or "required subsidies" is really of no matter to me (though I understand, intellectually, that nomenclature matters enormously to certain people).

Basic income discussions were all en vogue in the 2000s in philosophical cafés in Germany. I haven't kept up with them since; should really check back in.

[coeur_de_noir]

People seem to forget that what we have ISNT working so we have to try something else? Even if it doesn't work as expected, it's better than being stagnant and embedding the reality of the working poor.