"Universal basic income" for all: far-fetched, or future fact?
One income for all: far-fetched, or future fact?
By Jitendra JOSHI January 31, 2017
As technology-driven changes like Honda's robot 'Ashimo'
redefine society's understanding of work, some are looking at a "universal
basic income" as the way forward
Paris (AFP) - It is a utopian idea, literally, but is
enjoying a renaissance as politicians and policy wonks grapple with
technology-driven changes that could redefine our very understanding of work.
If robots and machine intelligence threaten to render
many white-collar jobs obsolete, then what will people do for money?
Enter the concept of a "universal basic
income", a flat sum paid to all regardless of your existing wealth or
ability to work. It is one of the rare ideas that has support from both the
libertarian right -- which favours tearing up the welfare state -- and the left
wing.
In France, Benoit Hamon has emerged as the surprise
Socialist candidate for April's presidential election first round, on a radical
programme that includes such an income -- to be funded in part by a new tax on
industrial robots.
National or local governments in other countries such as
Finland, the Netherlands, Canada, Scotland and Brazil are already evaluating
how such a revenue might work in practice.
Finland is furthest down the road. On January 1 it
started a two-year trial to give 2,000 unemployed Finns a monthly unconditional
payment of 560 euros ($590).
At the least, advocates argue, a basic income could
replace the thicket of unemployment benefits currently on offer in many
advanced economies. Those can, perversely, discourage people from retraining in
new fields or taking on lower paid work that society needs, such as care for
the elderly.
- Less is More -
At its most ambitious, the proponents say, it would give
everyone a safety net and encourage new modes of thinking: work might no longer
define our lives and instead we might find productive existences in
volunteering for the greater good, or in the creative arts.
"There's a whole new suite of technologies coming on
stream and people will need to adapt somehow," said Anthony Painter,
director of the Action and Research Centre at the Royal Society of Arts in
London, which in December released a research paper after a year-long study
into the idea.
"The basic income just gives them a fighting
chance," he told AFP, stressing the more immediate benefits that would
come from redrawing the existing tangle of support for the jobless.
If mass unemployment and fears of technology are modern
trends, the concept of a universal income goes back centuries.
In his 1516 book "Utopia", English philosopher
and statesman Thomas More imagined an ideal republic where private property is
abolished and all receive a basic stipend.
It is a pre-industrial society, of course, where
agriculture is the foundation of the economy and people's needs are basic.
Things are more complicated today.
- Who pays? -
A December study by OFCE, an economics think tank linked
to the Sciences Po university in Paris, said that to ensure nobody loses out
from the elimination of existing benefits, a universal income for French adults
would need to start at 785 euros per month.
That is a little over what Hamon is proposing -- although
pollsters give him little chance in the election given the dismal standing of
the Socialist party under the departing president, Francois Hollande.
OFCE found that that level would translate into
supplemental spending of 480 billion euros, or an extra 22 percentage points of
French GDP -- "which is unrealistic in practice".
There are also philosophical objections. In June, Swiss
voters rejected a proposed universal income in a referendum after critics
slammed the idea as rewarding the lazy and the feckless.
"If a large number of people choose not to work, or
to work less, where will the money come from to finance their income?"
commented Charles Wyplosz, economics professor at the Geneva Graduate
Institute.
But evangelists argue there will be plenty of scope to
innovate tax-gathering in the new economy, and say our current regimes for
welfare are ridden with inefficiencies that could, with a radical overhaul,
free up money for the proposed stipend.
"As new technologies replace work, the question for
the future is how best to provide economic security for all," economist
and former US labor secretary Robert Reich wrote in a blog post.
"A universal basic income will almost certainly be
part of the answer."
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