Free money for everyone is one of the stories about Switzerland that have travelled across the globe recently. As Swiss people will get to vote on a basic income, a lot of questions have arisen and remain open. This interesting article from the Netherlands looks at real-life experiments that might prove that free money does not remove incentives to work and leaves everyone better of. I remain skeptical of the idea – mainly for reasons, though, that are not mentioned in the article: It will create a rift between those eligible for a basic income and those who aren’t and I shouldn’t be at all surprised if it would lead to ever tighter immigration laws.

From Weekly Filet #148, in January 2014.