Unversal Basic Income pilot in Europe

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Automation will replace labor, what can they do ?



Finland, Scotland Experiment With Universal Basic Income
International Business TimesBy Pranshu Rathi | International Business Times – 6 hours ago

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    Apart from poverty and unemployment, reports about the disruptive impact of automation are also encouraging the idea of Universal Basic Income.View Photo

    Apart from poverty and unemployment, reports …

In an effort to understand how to combat unemployment, poverty and social inequality, Finland and Scotland are embarking on bold and ambitious economic experiments that will have their governments pilot a Universal Basic Income (UBI) for every citizen, regardless of their employment status, albeit with a few caveats.

The program has already begun in Finland and is restricted to 2,000 participants who were selected at random out of a pool of people who were receiving some sort of unemployment benefits or income subsidy. The selected participants will receive 560 euros ($587) a month for a period of two years from the Finnish federal social security institution Kela, and the money they will receive will be tax-free.

In Scotland, the plan is being considered for the councils in Fife and Glasgow, however, no figure has been computed as of yet. The source of funding is also under contention.

“It could be funding from particular trusts, it could be individual philanthropic funding, or it could be a redirection of the existing welfare state spend,” said Jamie Cooke, head of the think tank Royal Society of Arts in Scotland, according to the Independent.

However, in both countries, those receiving the UBI will not be eligible to simultaneously also claim other welfare schemes such as unemployment benefits. UBI is being explored to see its effect in reducing poverty in Scotland and in Finland it is expected to see if it may improve the country's cumbersome and expensive welfare system and its unemployment rate that stood at 8.1 percent in November.

Is UBI everyone’s future?

Apart from several countries exploring the feasibility of pilot UBI projects such as the Netherlands, Canada, Kenya, Switzerland, Iceland, Uganda and Brazil, it seems that the Silicon Valley is also paying rapt attention. Reports about the disruptive impact of technology and automation are also spurring action on the UBI front.

Elon Musk has already addressed the question in an interview and he feels we simply won't have any choice. "There is a pretty good chance we end up with a universal basic income, or something like that, due to automation…Yeah, I am not sure what else one would do. I think that is what would happen," Musk told CNBC.

And on Dec. 8, the Economic Security Project, a research alliance of technologists and activists such as Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, Sam Altman, president of the startup accelerator Y Combinator and more than 100 other organizers announced a $10 million fund to study UBI over the next two years.

An even more recent report released by the White House on Dec. 20 predicts a staggering  47 percent  of U.S. jobs being at risk from the advent of artificial intelligence and increase in computerization. Although this sort of disruption may take decades, interestingly the skills most sought after by industry according to LinkedIn, Upwork and Opportunity are to do with computer programming.

Here are the 10 most sought after skills for 2016-17:

1. Cloud and Distributed Computing

2. Statistical Analysis and Data Mining

3. Web Architecture and Development Framework

4. Middleware and Integration Software

5. User Interface Design

6. Network and Information Security

7. Mobile Development

8. Data Presentation

9. SEO/SEM Marketing

10. Storage Systems and Management