Free money is not so funny anymore: Confessions of a (former) skeptic of basic income [View all]
Free money is not so funny anymore: Confessions of a (former) skeptic of basic income
by Gleb Tsipursky at Salon
http://www.salon.com/2016/08/21/free-money-is-not-so-funny-anymore-confessions-of-a-former-skeptic-of-basic-income/
"SNIP............
Getting a tire replaced seems easy to me. I’d just go to the nearest tire place and get it fixed. But Jayleene was living from paycheck to paycheck and didn’t have $110 to spare. She couldn’t get to work, and her boss fired her. She couldn’t make her rent and was soon out on the street — all because she needed $110 at the right time.
Jayleene told me her story during my volunteer shift at a soup kitchen. Her experience was the final straw that convinced me to support the idea of providing a basic income, the notion of giving people an unconditional living wage, which has been backed by conservatives and liberals alike. The concept of basic income is becoming increasingly popular around the world, with Finland, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Canada experimenting with it.
So is the United States. A study is planned for Oakland, California, that will be funded by the well-known Y Combinator. “In our pilot, the income will be unconditional,” Sam Altman, president of Y Combinator, said. “We’re going to give it to participants for the duration of the study, no matter what. People will be able to volunteer, work, not work, move to another country — anything.”
Added Altman: “We hope basic income promotes freedom, and we want to see how people experience that freedom.”
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