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I don't see basic income working in its purest form but then again that is not what this is. This reminds me of the reforms done to the Norwegian pension system
by jernfrost 10y ago
I don't see basic income working in its purest form but then again that is not what this is. This reminds me of the reforms done to the Norwegian pension system, which allows people to keep working after retirement without reduction in pension payments. This was to encourage people who are healthy to work longer than the standard 67 year retirement age.
To my knowledge this has worked well in Norway, and so I suspect a similar change can work well for the unemployed.
I think we are going down the wrong path with endless reports, and threats to get unemployed people back into the workplace. I think it would be better with stronger focus on positive encouragement.
I won't claim to fully understand the theory of guaranteed basic income, but as it has been explained to me it seems inherently flawed in its purest form. The whole point of a welfare system is that members of society will occasionally experience dramatic situations which can get very costly, whether from unemployment, serious illness or accidents. That means sudden spikes in money requirements. A socialized system can handle that as those spikes are evened out over a large portion of people. But a universal pay is constant to my understanding and thus won't fluctuate with need.
This all it can really solve is hindering people from lacking basic necessities like food, shelter and clothes. You can make a system which pays enough to handle every possible case unless you make the payment really high. A young healthy individual will require less basic income than a disabled person in a wheel chair with expensive medications and customized house and car.