Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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

Posted by samzenpus on from the pay-to-play dept.

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.'"

4 of 474 comments (clear)

  1. FYI by bytesex · · Score: 4, Informative

    Famous right-wing rag The Guardian had a piece not so long ago on why basic income doesn't work:

    http://www.theguardian.com/com...

    --
    Religion is what happens when nature strikes and groupthink goes wrong.
  2. Re:Good for them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Same here in Belgium, in some cities in Wallonia you lost up to 200€ per month if you got off unemployment into a minimum-wage job...

  3. Re:Doesn't work locally by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Except that it's not true. You have to have the same _rules_ regardless of nationality. But old age pension for instance can be a "saving scheme" where each year of paying tax contributes to the pension. Or have unemployment benefits linked to the length of the previous employment.

    And yes, you can't discriminate on the nationality of family either. If you pay for children, you pay for them. Lack of creativity really. Pay for (local) daycare instead, pay for schools etcetera. Plenty of methods to keep money local.

  4. Wait a minute... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Wait a minute...

    USA right? 319 million people. 800 a month. 12 months a year.

    (* 12 800 319e6) = 3,062,400,000,000.0 = over 3 trillion dollars.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget#Total_outlays_in_recent_budget_submissions shows the 2014 budget (most recent data) at 3.5 trillion.

    I think I see a problem here...

    Our employment/population ratio floats at around 60%. http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS12300000