Finland considers basic income to reform welfare system
Basic incomes have always been an interesting idea, appealing to a lot of smart people from radically different economic-political camps. There are some potential massive wins on long term unemployment that come from eliminating incentive issues, some answers to the "living wages" and other positive rights problems. Less bureaucratic micromanaging of people's lives. There's a reason it hold attention on HN, it's a real interesting idea. But…..<p>Basic income is the type of idea that is very, very hard to implement within our current (possibly any) political systems.  There is very little room for compromise, half measures and gradualism. It does not lend well to caveats exemptions, and design by committee.<p>One of the big selling points is that basic income is funded largely by <i>replacing</i> different welfare state institutions: unemployment benefits, child benefits, housing subsidies, state housing, pensions… This allows (A) A big enough basic income (B) big savings on welfare institutions running costs, (C) the simplicity needed for a clean re-write of incentives.<p>Where do the "efficiency savings" come from? Largely they come by cutting salaries associated with managing a welfare system. Can a government reduce public sector employment to that extent?<p>The danger for any country implementing this is that once they get into the political procee, they will chop and compromise and water down the idea until it is just another item on the big list of ingredient in the social welfare soup  €212.13 per month that you qualify for while keeping everything else that exists.<p>Reforming the tax system and the welfare system as radically as required in a short time is a tall order. Maybe the Finnish can pull it off. They have a good track record. More broadly, I expect that this would have a high failure rate.<p>The best chance (IMO) is for very a small country to try it first.