Universal basic income - Europe's latest social experiment

THE new year started on what some would consider a very happy note indeed in at least two countries in Europe: a new law giving workers the right to unplug from any office e-mail after work hours took effect in France on Jan 1, while Finland launched a scheme that pays all working-age citizens - including the unemployed - 560 euros (S$840) every month, no strings attached.

While the "right to disconnect" law can probably be linked to the joie de vivre spirit of the French, and is not widely expected to inspire many other countries to follow suit (although wellness gurus and other advocates of worklife balance have lost no time suggesting how people outside France can similarly tune out), the Finns' two-year social experiment with the universal basic income (UBI) has a much broader background, and will be closely watched around the world. In Europe, pilot UBI schemes have been, or soon will be, underway in four Dutch cities and in two Scottish councils, as well as across the pond in Canada. And not least, the scheme was roundly rejected in Switzerland last June, when it became the first country to hold a public referendum on a basic income proposal - nearly 77 per cent of voters opposed the plan to give 2,500 Swiss francs (S$3,500) every month to each adult in the country, and 625 francs to each child under 18.

This highly radical idea of giving all citizens - regardless of income or employment status - an unconditional basic sum apparently dates back to the early 16th century with the humanists' proposal of a minimum income as a form of public aid. The concept developed over the years, with debate, experiments and initiatives across various countries in more recent decades, before a seeming resurgence of interest in Europe in the last few years. And what's driven the strong appetite for UBI of late, apart from frustration with costly and inefficient social welfare and workfare programmes, has been the rise of tech disruption in everyday life, and the advent of the digital and gig economies.