Re:Finland Is Considering Testing Giving Every Citizen €800 ...
by maus42 on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @09:41PM
(#10701571)
I'd rather say that the support is not uniform. The most left wing party supports unrealistically generous basic income plan, some people in the (right wing) government parties support a much more modest plan (that might actually end up downscaling current system or not) or at least support running this planned test. However, no one has any idea if they have a majority support in the government parties, and there's also opposition to "giving everybody free money", "it will bankrupt the state".
I understand that the greens also have their own, different basic income plan.
The moderate left wing party (social democrats, in opposition) and the unions oppose all basic income projects; they built the current welfare system.
There is no ongoing trial, just a plan to have a trial start in about a year. The parameters (e.g. location, the monetary sums, exactly which existing social security mechanisms it replaces) are still undecided. But it seems very unlikely that they'd run the test in just a single location like you're suggesting.
It is also not being pushed by a left-wing minority, but by the most conservative government Finland has had in decades (consisting of the conservative party, the centre party and the nationalist party). At least right now the idea appears to have very broad support in the polls, though that could of course change once there's a concrete proposal.