A test of UBI began this year in Finland in which a monthly stipend is paid to randomly-selected unemployed recipients even if they become employed. Ilkka Kaukoranta, chief economist of the Central Organization of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK), says it’s the wrong direction.
So writes Raine Tiessalo for online newspaper The Independent. Tiessalo quotes Kaukoranta describing a Finnish UBI as “impossibly expensive”, though SAK’s opposition may be related to potential loss of union membership and bargaining power if UBI made trade unions less relevant.
Raine Tiessalo, “Universal basic income ‘useless’, says Finland’s biggest union” (Februaury 9, 2017)
