Results: Finland’s Basic Income Experiment Help Us Build the Post-Pandemic World

> Of course people want to be useful and creative. But peoples usefullness and creativeness has to create atlest 2xUBI of taxes (one that goes back to the worker and one that goes to someone who get UBI but doesnt work) + all the other costs.

> If you're capable of doing stuff you like, being creative, liking that work, and creating that much income, why are you not doing it now?

I dunno, it's all speculation of course, but I'd say my 'usefulness' has gone up once I didn't have to bow to my bosses' whims. It's hard to quantify that, of course, but even if I go for a quantifiable measure, I'm probably more of a benefit to society than otherwise: I've been working on various business ideas that could improve the efficiency of other businesses, my volunteering reduced the burden I put on my country's health care system (on account of needing less therapy), and possibly reduced the effect on others around me. The money I make doing 'extra' work, that I wouldn't have to do, has benefitted my younger siblings who in turn might benefit society.

Personally I don't like this kind of thinking though. I'm convinced that a decent chunk of the population is just driven to do and create in a way that is valuable to other parts of the population. Trying to reduce this to 2xUBI is somewhat futile, and honestly not a society I want to actively encourage. In fact, engaging with this thought strikes me as already a bit of a needless capitulation. How much money could we save by reducing the pointless corporate work, military spending, etc, and how does UBI relate to that? At least for a significant experiment I suspect it's not much.

> I consider it quite possible, or at least worth properly exploring, a society that provides in the basic needs regardless of whether you do pointless work for pointless company to allow you to spend your downtime on pointless consumption and entertainment (because no energy for anything else).

>> Problem with this society is, that it also requires people who are working, to cover the cost of the poeple who are not working. Curretnly most countries do that for a very small percentage of unemployed (welfare), and most people in those countries are already complaining about the high taxes. If you raise the taxes on the people left working, and let others live relatively normal lives without working, you'll get less and less of the former and more of the later. Yes, non-workers will create music, art, will travel, write blogs, etc., but none of that generates enough income to cover even their own cost.

I think what I'm driving at is that this 'working' and 'not working' would be redefined. So much work is busiwork. So much 'work' is very tenuously measurably good for society. And, conversely, so much 'work' is not really considered work, but crucial to a functioning society.

In the same way that we (many Western nations) already got rid of having to worry (generally) about some of the most basic needs, UBI is one option to reduce that even further. I think, with the recent decades of insane progress when it comes to automation, that this is possible. And I'd rather see what happens and roll back the changes than just not do it because we can't fully predict the outcome.

Nobody paid my mother to raise me well. Nobody pays me to call her, or visit her. Nobody pays me to coach my younger siblings. Nobody paid that one great teacher to cultivate a love for programming in me, when just doing okay was enough. Nobody paid that one guitar player/singer who left a lasting impression on me with his song.

Nobody pays for my girlfriend to show affection to me, or spend time with me. Nobody pays... you get the point.

So many of the best things in my experience have not been quantifiable, or in fact even actively hostile to commerce. That guitar player was not getting paid, but he wanted to play because he liked the vibe of the bar. For all I know he was good enough that he usually gets played. I know that some of the top performers in my country (stadium-level audiences) would do so at no cost at this bar, randomly, and if you were lucky it was when you went there for a beer.

I do hope you don't really see the world as a matter of finances and payment. It's depressingly reductive.

UBI would have helped me. I am building plastic recycling machine in my free time and I am also helping communities build their own machine.

If there was UBI, I'd have completely focused on developing the machine and helping others around me full time.

Here's my project: https://medium.com/endless-filament/make-your-filament-at-ho...

Now my project is successful, I've given away tons of face shields and also made $4000 by selling filament on on e-commerce websites.

It took me a long time to get here, UBI would have definitely made it faster.

UBI would be cheaper than the current system (in the UK at least, but likely other countries as well).

First off, those that are currently entitled to most benefits would be getting UBI instead, and those that are not currently entitled to (most) benefits would be getting UBI and paying it back in tax.. so in theory its the same cost, less the administration and means testing.

Its also high return as its mostly spent on the basics when it isn't directly taxed back, so the money changes hands (taxed) several times within weeks. But also savings from the health service (10 billion spent each year in UK on preventable poverty related disease) and on courts and police (another 5 billion spent on petty crime directly related to poverty -likely not the full figure). Or as mentioned; the massive possibility for profit as you free up millions from demeaning repetitive low tax jobs to chase their dreams and entrepreneurial ambitions or higher education, as well as a permanent stimulus to the economy replacing much of the bailouts currently needed.

IMO we also really need an automation tax, as more and more jobs are automated the extra profit can't/shouldn't be focused on the few, though this wouldn't be necessary for UBI.

edit; I also want to add that back in the 80s early 90s, the UK welfare system was basically a guaranteed lifelong income. People were still falling over themselves to get work, i remember 10K applicants for 50 ICI jobs (low wage long hours).

A transfer of wealth would indeed be an issue. But I am wondering, would UBI give more people the option to live outside large cities, given that the scarcity of income is no longer an issue? And as such the demand for rent would go down? Will try and comment less, because debate on HN gets heavily penalised unless it conforms to certain patterns. But yeah UBI and inflation / transfers of wealth are an interesting topic.