What if everyone got a monthly check from the government? [View all]
In an audacious experiment, Finland is giving some residents a “basic income” of $16,000 for two years, no strings attached. Here’s what two of them did with the money.
One afternoon in the final days of 2016, Steffie Eronen got a phone call from her husband, Juha. The Eronens had spent Christmas with relatives in Savonlinna, Finland, and Juha had just made the two-hour drive home so he could return to his job as an electrician. The couple live with their 5-year-old daughter in a cozy, two-bedroom apartment in Mikkeli, a quiet, midsize city in the southeastern part of the country. Juha was calling to let his wife know he was home safe, and oh, by the way, an important-looking letter had arrived for her from the Social Insurance Institution of Finland—or, as everyone calls it, Kela.
“Open it,” Steffie said.
There was a pause as Juha tore into the envelope. Then he laughed.
“You got it!” he exclaimed.
“Got what?”
“Basic income,” Juha told her. “You’re in the program!”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/what-if-everyone-got-a-monthly-check-from-the-government/ar-BBIec7c?li=BBnb7Kz
This is a long piece. I did not read it all but have book marked it for later. I am retired and living on a pension and social security and my wife who is younger is still working. We are doing OK but younger people will run into problems that I never had to.
We are going to need a new model. My question is where does the money come from and what kind of society will we need to make it happen. I hope this is answered in the article. Do the rules of economics I learned in school still apply?
= new reply since forum marked as read