European Citizens' Initiative for an Unconditional Basic Income

Main objectives:
In the long run the objective is to offer to each person in the EU the unconditional right as an individual, to having his/her material needs met to ensure a life of dignity as stated by the EU treaties, and to empower participation in society supported by the introduction of the UBI. In the short term, initiatives such as “pilot-studies” (Art 156 TFEU) and examination of different models of UBI (EP resolution 2010/2039(INI) §44) should be promoted by the EU.

[link to basicincome2013.eu]

This is great. Pass it, and we'll all move to europe, sponge off the state and smoke dope until we collapse into a stupor. After that society will function better than ever.

I can't wait to see what the roads and hospitals and vendor products look like after this great transformation.

1. unconditional basic income
2. communist revolution
3. ????
4. profit

I wonder who is going to fund the UBI when all these dumbass college students graduate and decide not to bother getting a job because they'd rather spend their lives sitting around smoking weed, discussing how to make the world a "better" place?

I know who won't be funding it - all the dumbasses who quit their jobs because work is just too stressful and the UBI makes it practical for them to spend their lives sitting around smoking weed, discussing how to make the world a "better" place.

And I know who else won't be funding it. All the "rich" people (i.e. those who work) who will hopefully decide they've had enough, go Galt, and leave these morons to fend for themselves. Finally!

Then, when the free money runs out and the UBI checks stop, the stoners can eat each other, which will be a good thing, because it will reduce carbon emissions by decreasing both the number of Cheetos factories necessary to keep them alive and the total population.

So I guess the UBI really will save the planet! Yay munchies!

This is great. Pass it, and we'll all move to europe, sponge off the state and smoke dope until we collapse into a stupor. After that society will function better than ever.

I can't wait to see what the roads and hospitals and vendor products look like after this great transformation.

Well the US system for low taxes for the wealthy and higher taxes for the working class is really much better.

DREAM: US gives the wealthy lower taxes so they invest that "extra" money in there companies to create more jobs.
On paper this is very logic and interessting but in reality the wealthy are "investing" most of there money in little islands the governement doesn't know about just to avoid taxes.

yep great system in the US

Make work actually pay! Why would someone work 40 hours a week when it only pays 100 to 200 bucks a month more than sitting on the couch all day?

"A technology revolution is fast replacing human beings with machines in virtually every sector and industry in the global economy. Already, millions of workers have been permanently eliminated from the economic process, and whole work categories and job assignments have shrunk, been restructured, or disappeared. Global unemployment has now reached its highest level since the great depression of the 1930s. More than 800 million human beings are now unemployed or underemployed in the world. That figure is likely to rise sharply between now and the turn of the century as millions of new entrants into the workforce find themselves without jobs.

Corporate leaders and mainstream economists tell us that the rising unemployment figures represent short-term "adjustments" to powerful market-driven forces that are speeding the global economy in a new direction. They hold out the promise of an exciting new world of high-tech automated production, booming global commerce, and unprecedented material abundance. Millions of working people remain sceptical. In the United States, Fortune magazine found that corporations are eliminating more than 2 million jobs annually. While some new jobs are being created in the US economy, they are in the low-paying sectors and are usually temporary.

This pattern is occurring throughout the industrialised world. Even developing nations are facing increasing technological unemployment as transnational companies build state-of-the-art high-tech production facilities, letting go millions of cheap labourers who can no longer compete with the cost efficiency, quality control, and speed of delivery achieved by automated manufacturing."

More at link.

I think its a good idea.

Everyone should get it. Even people who earn a million.

Much better then bailing out the banks every 10 years.

It has been tried before with successful results.

[link to www.dominionpaper.ca]

A Town Without Poverty?
Canada's only experiment in guaranteed income finally gets reckoning

This is great. Pass it, and we'll all move to europe, sponge off the state and smoke dope until we collapse into a stupor. After that society will function better than ever.

I can't wait to see what the roads and hospitals and vendor products look like after this great transformation.

and btw higher income means you can spend more means more income for companies means companies needs to create more jobs is less unemployed people means the governement pays less social stuff for those people and more income for the governement.

So where is the problem?