How I experiment with my life. An experiment, cognitive ability - is a powerful driving force. Experiments aren't always successful, but success is impossible without experiments. So, in Estonia there began discussions on the topic of implementing basic unconditional income.
"Two thirds of residents of Estonia would leave their jobs if the state began to pay them a sufficient financial benefit", a public opinion poll says.
The question that was offered to the participants of a research was formulated as follows: "Let's imagine a situation when the state pays its citizens money, and you can leave your job. Would you agree to leave your job, and if yes, what amount of money would you like to get from the state on a monthly basis?".
Thus, an average resident of Estonia would like to receive 950 euros from the state. At the same time 38% of respondents expressed desire to continue to work anyway".
In Estonia the majority of the population isn't satisfied with their jobs. That's a sad fact. A job can be either a source of inspiration and infinite joy, or the evil that destroys a person and wrecks his life.
2/3 of the population in Estonia are ready to leave their jobs. People either don't do their thing or they do what they don't like.
Why do I urge the Estonian authorities to begin an experiment on paying a sufficient financial benefit so that people wouldn't have to be engaged in routine work which they don't like?
1. Residents of Estonia will receive freedom of choice. Money is a means to achieve a goal. Everyone has a goal. With money and free time people can achieve their goals and become happy and satisfied. What would I spend my monthly benefit on? On my education - to acquire new skills and knowledge, to develop the skills I already have. On my publishing activities. I would publish my books and sell them. The sales taxes would go to the budget. On building my own house. And etc.
As we see, unconditional income would revive the economy and allow residents of Estonia to do what they like.
2. Residents of Estonia will have free time. It is obvious that many things which exist in the old manner, are simply not necessary. For example, Unemployment insurance fund isn't neccessary because it doesn't help a person find a job. Having an income would give everyone an opportunity to spend it as he wishes, including paying for his education or on starting his own business. It's a "win-win" deal. If people have money, it will lead to a powerful domestic demand. The economy will flourish. Besides, people will work as many hours as they want and sleep as long as they want. Thus, they will get rid of a constant stress and anxiety connected to lack of sleep, daily 8-hour unproductive work (it's well-known that an ideal time for work is 3 days a week), fear of losing a job and ending up on a dump. Having free time will allow people to communicate with each other more, attend interesting events, arrange private life and be engaged in artwork. Many people can't start a family because they don't have time or they don't have enough money to keep a family and have children. Thus, Estonia would solve a demographic problem.
3. It seems to me that Estonia would make the right turn if it preferred downshifting and upshifting across the nation, and also care of people. At least, the unconditional basic income would save people from stress and depression, soothe their nerves and make them happy. Isn't it a dream of Estonians - to be a happy nation? Parents will stop terrorizing their children, reproaching them that they don't earn anything. And children won't reproach their parents that they never have enough money, and also, that they are never there for them. Poverty and starvation will be done away with. Routine work will be succeeded by self-employment.
4. In Estonia death rate exceeds birth rate, people leave Estonia and go to other countries searching not only for material welfare, but also a psychologically comfortable society. To change this status quo, it is necessary to change priorities, it is necessary to change the attitude towards a person. Unconditional income will give people confidence in today and tomorrow, promote growth of birth rate and will stop outward migration flow. Equal opportunities and guaranteed decent income will re-educate Estonians who will begin to think differently - in the manner of "win-win" thinking. And this new way of thinking will also be what will make a new generation of Estonians to be different from the Soviet and Post-Soviet generation. Psychologically and economically favorable life environment will provide decrease in crime rate and reduction of expenses on fight against criminality. Cooperation, altruism and mutual assistance will replace competition, consumerism and careerism.
5. Unconditional income will allow to turn Estonia into a society of communication, that is, intellectual communication will become the most important element of a new society. It will be an incitement in intellectual development of the Estonian society, it will promote development of Estonian and other languages. The open market hasn't brought happiness to Estonians. Moreover, the free market and worries about economy only encourage greed which is a negative trait of character, a moral defect.
I am quoting a social philosopher Jeremy Rifkin:
"The primary human drive is not insatiable material wants, as the economists would have us believe, but rather the quest for sociability. What makes us happy, after our minimum requirements for material comforts are met, is affection and companionship. We seek to belong, not to possess... In the Collaborative Age, learning is regarded as a crowdsourcing process and knowledge is treated as a publically shared good, available to all, mirroring the emerging definition of human behavior as deeply social and interactive in nature".
It is the lack of communication that turns us into Mowgli, promotes dehumanization of society, intolerance, hatred, meanness and is the reason of escapism, including its negative forms, such as alcoholism and drug addiction. Communication is a cooperation. And that's what a normal society should be like.
Maxim Efimov,
writer, social philosopher
Translated by Irina Efimova
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