by sz4kerto on 11/8/13, 1:46 PM
"Unconditional basic income is a new form of total social security for all citizens. It’s an unconditional monthly sum, paid out to by the government to every citizen - rich or poor, old or young, employed or unemployed."
Well, they should have written
"Unconditional basic income is a new form of total social security for all citizens. It’s an unconditional monthly sum, taken from taxpayers and paid out to every citizen - rich or poor, old or young, employed or unemployed. "
by ck2 on 11/8/13, 1:54 PM
Nice to see but what is with the mountain climber image which reminds me of someone who would have plenty of free time and cash for such a hobby.
Is the idea to be "upwardly mobile" ? I mean I have to grasp for that idea.
by KiwiCoder on 11/8/13, 1:59 PM
I'd not heard of the basic income concept until now so my reaction might be naive, but what benefit could possibly justify the collection and redistribution of a fixed amount of cash to
everyone, regardless of their situation?
For example, if 1 person in 10 is thirsty, what benefit derives from giving water to all 10 versus the 1 - isn't that simply a wasteful distribution of resources?
Even in the extreme case where a blind distribution of resource would save a life I cannot see it being superior to a distribution based on actual need.
by kfk on 11/8/13, 1:56 PM
I will never support this idea. This is kind of thinking is extremely nationalistic: I am entitled to free money because I was born in XYZ.
On top of this, this idea has very weak economics fundamentals, there is no prove that growth comes from redistributing wealth. There is plenty of prove growth comes from innovation and innovation comes from people actually working.
We are in denial. The whole Europe is in denial. We don't realize the only way out of this mess is working more and cutting public spending. Instead we propose the exact opposite.
by luckyisgood on 11/8/13, 12:40 PM
The goal has been set at 15,000 EUR and the duration of the campaign at only 14 days. There are still 12 days left in this campaign and the donations keep coming in.
by SanderMak on 11/8/13, 1:43 PM
Maybe I'm missing something, but if they want to gather signatures - why not add a link to the petition so people can actually sign?
by achy on 11/8/13, 2:46 PM
The problem I envision with a basic income model is that it could have an inflationary effect - shifting the baseline. The only way this doesn't happen is if our basic income economies exploit non basic income economies - and even this wouldn't prevent housing, energy, and (non artificially) scarce items from inflation.
by RivieraKid on 11/8/13, 2:39 PM
One important advantage of BI would be that it would allow the labor market to be more liberal (especially in Europe, I don't know about the situation in the US). Employees wouldn't need to be protected that much, because they would be less scared of being fired.
by stanjourdan on 11/10/13, 2:22 PM
by w_t_payne on 11/8/13, 2:35 PM
With little administrative overhead, this should be a more effective way of stimulating demand than QE.
by kabdib on 11/8/13, 2:20 PM
People voting themselves bread. I'm sure this will turn out well.