Today’s Solutions: November 22, 2024

In February, the first report came out from Finland’s groundbreaking experiment in universal basic income, which gave 560 euros to 2,000 randomly selected unemployed people. The report showed receiving free money made recipients happier without making them any less likely to join the workforce. Although this wasn’t everything the Finnish government was hoping for — its stated goal was to boost employment — it still offered an important counter to critics of basic income, who often claim getting free money will induce people to work less. The evidence does not support that.

The second report from Finland’s landmark experiment revealed that recipients of the free income reported less stress than the control group. That was true even for recipients who felt they were struggling to make ends meet. The recipients also reported that they felt more trust towards other people and social institutions—from political parties to the police to the courts—than they did before getting a basic income. It may seem intuitive that getting a guaranteed, regular infusion of cash will make people happier and less stressed (even if that cash isn’t enough to cover all their needs). But that’s kind of the point: This is a pretty obvious way to increase citizens’ well-being, yet most countries aren’t doing it.

Solutions News Source Print this article
More of Today's Solutions

Changemakers of the week: GRuB and SparkNJ

Every day on the Optimist Daily, we report on solutions from around the world. Though we love solutions big and small, the ones that ...

Read More

The giant beneath the waves: world’s largest coral found in the Pacific

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM In a world where bad news about the environment routinely outweighs good news, scientists have discovered an incredible ...

Read More

Tortoise discovered in a home in Pompeii

Almost 2000 years after the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius and its trapping of the city of Pompeii in time, archaeologists are still making discoveries ...

Read More

Revel at the most detailed image of our universe yet

Here at The Optimist Daily, we have been sharing every exciting step of the James Webb Telescope’s journey, from its long-awaited launch, to when ...

Read More