Finland Giving Away 10 K a Year!!!

Anthony Gonzalez

uuThe Finnish government recently announced that it is planning to introduce a tax-fee monthly payment of 800 euros each year to all adults living in Finland, regardless of income, wealth, or employment status. The Finnish government hopes that asa result of the change, more people may look for work. Even so, some people are still deterred from seeking fora job due to the fact that they are better off receiving unemployment benefits than accepting the money the would get from a minimum wage job.

With regards to the oversight of this project, as stated by CNN, “The center-right coalition government, which was elected earlier this year, is planning to finalize the proposal in 2016 and run a pilot program in 2017. The agency in charge of welfare and national social security is currently designing the program. A trial period could see it make payments of 550 euros a month, while still offering some additional benefits such as housing support.”

Even so, 550 euros is still allot of additional change per month. To put it in perspective, this would be like receiving around 606.07. Considering the average american spends around 230 dollars per month on food, you could not only feed yourself, but as well allow yourself some additional change to buy other cool things. For instance, you may want to take a trip to New York for a weekend, or by that new video game console you have desired for a long time.

In addition to all of this, as further stated by CNN, “ The government commissioned an opinion poll in September, which found that 69% of Finns agree with the plan. It has not published estimates of the costs, and did not reply to CNNMoney’s request for comment.”

Assuming that every adult receives payment, CNN reported that “the program could cost between 40 billion and 50 billion euros ($54 billion) a year.”

As stated by sophomore Tyler Sansone, “If their economy can handle it, then that is great.”

So essentially, the Finnish government in implementing this is taking a big gamble. Yes, everyone could go out and get jobs, and yes the Finnish economy could prosper because of this, however, this still is a big gamble. So far, we can only wait and see what the future holds for Finland.