Universal Basic Income ​

Universal Basic Income or the citizens dividend was first the idea of Thomas Pain English born American philosopher , appreciated by the time by some of the history greatest thinkers, The idea behind is simply giving free money for everyone unconditionally, regularly and on a long term basis.

Finland is among a handful of countries that is experimenting with giving free money to citizens beside their social status

Money for nothing, Jobs for free

Money for nothing, Jobs for free is a brilliant equation that could solve a tremendous issue of our today's society.

Imagine a business shop owner who has a downturn hits in her sales during an economic crisis period, In the usual circumstances with no UBI, and in the best scenario, the owner would close her shop's door luckily with no tax debt or any loans at her back.

But with UBI (Universal Basic Income), She could afford to sustain some of the basic costs and covers some of her living expenses

While the UBI would be the safety line that replaces the sales incomes for a while.

As a conclusion, the business would remain up and running, And the state would prevent a loss of one more tax payer.

The key feature of the UBI or the Universal Basic Income is that, it is a reverse investment for the state to prevent and save cash due to unemployment, crime and medical fees.

And it could be a safety line for a multitude of people who could lose their jobs if they are replaced by automation or robots.

It is clear, robots are already changing the future of work, Some giant tech leads say that UBI could give workers an opportunity to retrain today's workforce.

Other advocates say, UBI would eradicate poverty and addresses growing income inequality across the developed world.

It could give people freedom to start their own business or flexibility to pursue create interest.

Negative tax in Finland

The Finns government started to experiment giving randomly to 2000 unemployed people around Finland, an amount of 650 Euro each month tax free.

What they do with the money is entirely up to them.

The conclusion made by KELA, which is one of the arms of Finland government that is implementing the trial, is that the social security system could and should be reformed to the Universal Basic Income.

Difficulties to implement Universal Basic Income

The first mainstream issue here is to provide the budget for the reform.

Well! The money could come from the budget that goes into the usual welfare, social system, And by cutting some other sector budgets since we mentioned earlier that this new reform would cut crime and health care fees.

Despite the budget, UBI would not only replace the welfare system, but brings an added value to the society like improving people education and skills.

C/C

Not everyone is crazy about the idea, critics say that Universal Basic Income could actually disincentives people from getting a job if they know they are going to be paid not to work.

Even though more and more trials are underway in some countries like Netherland, Kenya, Canada and the United state, to see if universal basic income would become the norm for their citizens anytime soon.

NB: UBI = Universal Basic Income