Universal basic income

A no-strings-attached income has gained new popularity amidst the automation of jobs, but it’s not always popular.

Could we ditch work and still get paid? The idea that we must work for our money – earn our living – is so ingrained that the suggestion of paying people for doing nothing seems radical. Yet it’s far from new. Thomas More proposed a basic income for everyone more than 500 years ago in his book Utopia. Others have returned to the idea since, including Richard Nixon, who ordered a trial in 1968 in which 8,500 families were given $1,600 (around $10,000 or £8,000 today) a year. Handouts proved politically unpopular, however.

Fast forward 50 years and the idea is taking off again, with advocates from Silicon Valley to India. Last month the Labour Party said it would consider the case for basic income in the UK. What changed? After the global financial crisis of 2008, many now see a universal basic income as the best way to reform struggling welfare systems, and to prepare people for a rocky few years as we adjust to increasing automation. A universal handout takes the stigma away from unemployment benefits and gives people a cushion while they retrain or seek new jobs.

There’s some evidence that these schemes allow people to continue education. But it’s not clear they help people find work. The largest recent trial, conducted in Finland between January 2017 and December 2018, found that a monthly payment of 560 euros ($630; £500) to 2,000 people out of work made them happier but no less unemployed.

In fact, some worry that free money will make it hard to fill low-paid, unpopular jobs, such as cleaning or rubbish collecting. It is also unclear how governments would pay for it. For these reasons, in 2016, voters in Switzerland rejected a proposal to give nearly $2,500 (£2,005) a month to every adult in the country.

Money: you can’t give it away.

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Image credit: Piero Zagami and Michela Nicchiotti.