Dutch City To Experiment With Paying Citizens a "Basic Income" (theguardian.com)

BarbaraHudson writes: The Guardian is the latest to report about experiments with a basic income, in this case in Utrecht. The idea has been around for more than 2 centuries, and has become a bit of a hot-button topic on slashdot. It seems to be gaining political support now that job insecurity has become the new normal. "To those who say it is an unaffordable pipedream, Westerveld points out the huge costs that come with the increasingly tough benefits regimes being set up by western states, including policies that make people do community service to justify their handouts. 'In Nijmegen we get £88m to give to people on welfare,' Westerveld said, 'but it costs £15m a year for the civil servants running the bureaucracy of the current system. We will save money with a "basic income."' Horst adds: 'If you receive benefits from the government [in Holland] now you have to do something in return. But most municipalities don't have the people to manage that. We have 10,000 unemployed people in Utrecht, but if they all have to do something in return for welfare we just don't have the people to see to that. It costs too much.'"

Comments

Good for them

[Anonymous Coward]

Looks like the Dutch have plenty of money to spare and are taking steps to remedy this dire situation. It's unconceivable that a modern European state should have any surplus instead of being in deep debt. Within some months they will have run out of money and all will be well again, deep in the red like all modern European states should.

Where can I signup?

[Anonymous Coward]

I want to do whatever I please and still get my basic income.

Wishful thinking

[scsirob]

I live in The Netherlands, and work in Utrecht. Large areas are quickly turning into islamic no-go areas. Young people from those areas dress like they grew up in a kaliphate and are openly sympathising with IS. Meanwhile they blame Dutch society for not offering them employment, and call every employer that turns them down a racist. Everything is someone else's fault. They are happy to take from the society they despise, they are unwilling to participate in any way.

Utrecht is a notorious left-wing city. They dream up pie-in-the-sky ideas all the time, without thinking who will pay for it all. The Dutch are at the limit of what they will tolerate for taxes, and also for islamic influences shoved down out throats. 2016 looks like it will become a pivotal year in The Netherlands.