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Finland is often cited as a beacon of so-called progressive politics, and thinking outside the box. In fact, their most famous idea was very much inside the box.

When infant mortality rates were high, the Finns introduced a Baby Box that’s given to all new mums and turns into a cot. Now Finland has one of the lowest rates of infant mortality anywhere in the world.

The Finns also rank near the top of various league tables for life expectancy, education, and income equality. Its people are apparently among the ‘happiest’ in the world.So when the Finnish government decides to try […]

Full Post at www.itv.com

The Resolution Foundation’s prediction that inequalities are going to grow ( UK faces return to inequality of Thatcher years , 1 February) makes gloomy reading. Sadly it is underestimated because it takes no account of cuts in what Barbara Castle , when she was secretary of state at the Department of Health and Social Security 40 years ago, called “the social wage”. By this she meant “the publicly provided services which mean so much to family healthcare, education, housing and a good environment”. She estimated that in 1975 the social wage added £20 a week to the average working […]

Full Post at www.theguardian.com

Renowned French economist Thomas Piketty, best known for his 2013 book Capital in the Twenty-First Century , has been making headlines for his positive comments regarding basic income in a number of blog posts. However, the approach he proposes is not basic income as it is commonly understood.

In a blog post published on 13 December, Basic income or fair wage? , Piketty states that while he’s pleased to see such consensus across the political spectrum on the idea of a minimum income within France, discussions of a basic income and its specific level are not radical enough – […]

Full Post at basicincome.org

Ontario, Canada

In the 1970s, a basic income experiment took place in the Canadian province of Manitoba. Forty years later, Ontario has expressed interest in following up on that trial with a study of its own.

The government hasn’t yet released many details of the trial yet, which will likely begin in spring 2017, though it has aside roughly $19 million to fund it.Ontario Works, the jobs department of the Ontario government, is asking the public to weigh in via an online survey . The survey includes projected payment amounts, provisions, and general questions about interest in basic income. […]

Full Post at www.businessinsider.sg

Rising inequality and fears about technological unemployment — or at least robots driving wage stagnation — have helped revive talks about the merits of governments providing a universal basic income. (Full disclosure: I am curious but skeptical .) Many new experiments are underway to take a fresh look at the old idea. Finland has a pilot program, for instance. So does startup accelerator Y Combinator as many techies have been pondering how the rise of robots will effect workers. A crowded street in downtown New Delhi, India. Credit: Twenty20 But none of these small, limited experiments can match what […]

Full Post at www.aei.org

Finance minister Arun Jaitley says for universal basic income to come into practice, the existing set of subsidies will have to go.

Edited excerpts:

Before you give the budget there was a lot of discussion on a scheme called universal basic income. Even your Chief Economic Adviser had an entire chapter devoted to the need for universal basic income. Is that idea still in the table or what are your thoughts on that? I think Arvind Subramanian’s idea which of course is now being globally discussed is a wonderful idea. Mahatma Gandhi also liked it. And in the economic survey […]

Full Post at pcmctimes.com

Arvind Subramanian and Arun Jaitley have a many-mouthed country to feed with the national wealth. They must work out how to ensure that along with putting money in people’s pockets, food is also put in their mouths. | PTI Intelligent men make us think. Arvind Subramaniam has given us much food for thought with his ideas on Universal Basic Income.

In essence, he argues that instead of convoluted subsidies, freebies and handouts, it is far more efficient to just give poor people money in the form of guaranteed basic income — to the tune of anywhere between Rs.10,000 and Rs.15,000 […]

Full Post at www.thehindu.com