Free Money Provokes Some Finns to Slam Basic Income as ‘Useless’
- SAK’s chief economist says basic income won’t boost employment
- Test of alternative to means-tested payments to end in 2018
Customers inspect homeware products and fabrics at a store in Helsinki.
Photographer: Henrik Kettunen/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Finland’s basic income experiment is unworkable, uneconomical and ultimately useless. Plus, it will only encourage some people to work less.
That’s not the view of a hard core Thatcherite, but of the country’s biggest trade union. The labor group says the results of the two-year pilot program will fail to sway its opposition to a welfare-policy idea that’s gaining traction among those looking for an alternative in the post-industrial age.