A basic income for all?
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 21 March 2019
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Would a Universal Basic Income help solve inequality or make it worse, and would it protect us from robots taking our jobs?
Finland has just completed a two-year experiment in doing just that. Manuela Saragosa speaks to one of the grateful recipients of the pilot project, freelance journalist Tuomas Muraja. A similar approach has already been taken for many years by some charities in the developing world, as Joe Huston of the GiveDirectly explains.
So how does it work? Anthony Painter of the Royal Society of Arts in London says the financial security it provides allows people to be more creative and invest more in themselves. But Professor Ian Goldin of Oxford University is sceptical, saying there are more effective and affordable ways of helping those most in need.
(Picture: Money falling on people; Credit: stocknroll/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC. I'm Manuela Saragossa. Coming up, free money for all that used to be a radical idea. Is it going mainstream? |
| 0:12.2 | There is concerns about inequality and poverty, changes in our economy, fairness in society and people are looking for alternatives. |
| 0:20.0 | And universal basic income is one that |
| 0:22.1 | has some evidence behind it. Yes, we're talking universal basic income, a monthly transfer of cash for |
| 0:28.1 | everyone from the state. What's not to like? We want to ensure in our societies that those that need |
| 0:34.4 | get support from taxpayers. And when you end up giving everyone the same support, |
| 0:39.7 | those that really need it get less. The good and bad of basic income coming up here in Business Daily |
| 0:45.5 | from the BBC. What if your government offered you a monthly cash payment, no strings attached? |
| 0:55.8 | A bank transfer just for you, |
| 1:00.3 | regardless of whether you're employed or not, and regardless of how rich or poor you are. |
| 1:05.8 | It may sound too good to be true, but there are trials all over the world doing just that. |
| 1:12.6 | It's called a universal basic income. Some argue it could address entrenched problems of inequality. |
| 1:17.4 | Others think it's just an all-round bad idea. We'll come to that in just a moment. |
| 1:22.9 | First to Finland, where a two-year universal basic income trial has just been closed. |
| 1:28.9 | 2,000 unemployed Finnish citizens were given just under $650 every month. |
| 1:32.3 | They got that instead of their usual state unemployment benefit and continued to receive the monthly payment even when they found a job. |
| 1:36.8 | The Finnish government wanted to see if it would help get people back into work. |
| 1:41.1 | I got €560 tax-free, which made my life easier. |
| 1:48.7 | Psychological effects were very positive. |
| 1:52.3 | That's Tuamas Murayan, a freelance journalist and writer. |
| 1:56.3 | He was one of the participants in the Finland trial. |
| 1:59.4 | Before the trial, he got benefits from the state. |
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