The various basic income experiments going on around the world are now coming under criticism from public sector union officials:
As basic income experiments proliferate around the world — including in Prince Edward Island, the Netherlands, Finland and Kenya — some labour unions are starting to voice opposition to a plan they fear could make many public service jobs redundant.
Finland’s largest labour union, SAK, recently called the country’s basic income experiment “useless” and made what would ordinarily be a conservative argument against it — that it would encourage people to drop out of the workforce, harming economic productivity.
In Canada, here is what the union there had to say:
Ontario’s principal public service union says it will not support the province’s basic income experiment if it means job losses for social workers.
“Frontline social assistance staff are open to seeing their job descriptions evolve, but there is no way we will support any new model of social assistance delivery that doesn’t involve them,” said Warren Thomas, president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU).
Thomas said he is “all for” the basic income if it helps raise people out of poverty, “but people in poverty need more than money. They need employment counseling, housing supports, crisis intervention, and personal advocacy. And those things can only be provided by real live human beings who care for a living.”
I'm pretty sure this person has never actually been down to the Welfare Office in America. I wouldn't call the experience 'caring.' Humiliating, bureaucratic, slow, inadequate and usually downright hostile is how I would describe it. I've assisted folks through this in New York, Philadelphia and suburban Maryland and in each case the experience was test of wills and required multiple feats of strength. I would often say that all this long list of appointments, forms, examinations and mandatory instructions costs substantially more than just handing my client a check for ten grand. Which would immediately solve all of their financial problems and a slew of other ones that spring from it.
Seriously though, the problem of poverty is actually pretty much a problem of not having enough money. So, I don't see why we can't have a system that just...err...gives people the money. Just tax me, and hand out the money. A computer can do it.
We're quite a bit away from a national basic income system. These experiments will either prove concept, or they won't. These unions might want to hold their fire. But if they do, I believe the least persuasive argument from the social services employee unions is 'what about our jobs managing your life?' That's gonna be a tough one for the taxpayers to stomach I suspect.