By Andrew Snyder #article_featured_image { display: none; }
Transcript:
Samuel Taube: Joining us again today is Andy Snyder, the former editorial director of The Oxford Club and, more recently, the founder of Manward Press.
And today we are talking about the pros and cons of the controversial policy idea known as universal basic income. Andy, thanks for joining us again.
Andy Snyder: Thanks for having me back. I appreciate it.
ST: Yeah, sure. I think every time you come on the podcast, one of us is sick, so bear with us here.
So as we often do, let’s just start with a basic definition here. What is a universal basic income policy, and what problems does it seek to solve?
AS: Sure. So the term’s kind of a broad one, and you can define it in many ways, but the simplest way is it’s kind of the fairest welfare program of them all. So basically the idea is to give every citizen in a country or a state a set basic minimum income.
Some countries have defined it as the poverty level. They give you enough to keep you above the poverty level. Other countries are looking at different figures above and below that figure, but the main goal is to keep people out of poverty.
That’s the main thing that politicians consider when they’re looking at this idea. They say hey, if we give every citizen in the country enough to stay above the poverty line, then we get rid of poverty in our country. And that’s what they’re aiming to do. Whether it does it or not is yet to be seen.
ST: Okay. Pretty simple idea. Now, are there any countries or even just states or municipalities that have a policy like this?
AS: Sure. So there’s nobody really officially doing it in a big way.
Probably the biggest headline getter lately would be Finland. As a country, earlier this year, in January 2017, it embarked on a pretty big and ambitious experiment to start handing out money. It handed out about $645 to I believe it’s about 2,000 citizens. Every month, they get the $645.
And so what the government is doing, along with scientists and researchers, is just seeing what effects that has on the economy, on the people and on the country in general. And so far, the results are very mixed, and of course it’s very controversial.
The problem in Finland is a liberal government kind of started the program, and now a Republican or a conservative government is implementing the idea. So the new government isn’t really fond of it. The people who got it started are out of the equation.
Some other places that are doing it are right here in the United States. Oakland, California – which most folks don’t know about – Y Combinator, the startup incubator, is giving I believe it’s 100 families in Oakland $1,000 a month.
And they’re just doing the same thing, seeing what’s going on, what happens to them and how it turns out.
Alaska has a similar program. It’s probably the …read more
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