Is free money the future?
What is it? Why is it cool?
It all began with the financial crisis in 2008. The public demanded explanations from banks and as result of the crisis they forcibly became more transparent. It then became clear that we were getting ripped of. Prior to 2008 the bankers were loaning money to people that couldn’t pay it back, giving each other big bonuses every year and greed was triumphing. And then the crisis started and the banks suddenly needed help. Several government intervened thereafter to help the banks up. The crisis forced us to look very critically at the current capitalists system and made us think about different alternatives. One example of it is a group of people trying to introduce a system with guaranteed minimal income, a hybrid system with capitalist and socialist elements. The Idea is that everybody will get a minimal income of around €900,- to fulfill their basic needs, without any further obligations.
This idea was put to the test in an experiment in Canada in 1974, called “Mincome”. The experiment showed that only 5 till 10 percent stopped working. And more surprisingly those who stopped didn’t replace there workplace for the couch, they went back to school or took more time to stay at home to take care of their children. Even the number of sick people declined, most likely because of the reduction of stress in peoples lives. What’s interesting is that in the 70’s the political right as well as the left supported the experiment. Now the political right, but also for a part the left, think it’s unrealizable with the argument that people will probably only benefit of it, get lazy and add nothing back to the society. But the Mincome experiment proved otherwise. Recently there has also been an experiment with hobos in England where they received free tax paid money (3000 pounds) without any obligations. The expectations were very low, but the results were astonishing: they spend the money very wisely, bettered their lives and it was cost efficient.
What is the future growth potential?
If we can create a world with a minimal income, we can get more happiness, less diseases and more educated people. That sounds very utopian and I’m little bit skeptical, but if it works we will definitely gain a lot as a society and humanity in general.
Bron:
http://public.econ.duke.edu/~erw/197/forget-cea%20(2).pdf
https://decorrespondent.nl/10/waarom-we-iedereen-gratis-geld-moeten-geven/384450-0b1c02bd
http://tegenlicht.vpro.nl/nieuws/2014/februari/basisinkomen.html
http://basicincome.org.uk/interview/2013/08/health-forget-mincome-poverty/