# **What are we talking about?**

*From [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_basic_income):*

> Universal basic income (UBI) is a sociopolitical financial transfer policy proposal in which all citizens of a given population regularly receive a legally stipulated and equally set financial grant paid by the government without a means test

*If you prefer a video*, Kurzgesagt’s [Universal Basic Income Explained](https://youtube.com/watch?v=kl39KHS07Xc) explains it more in depth.

Basically, *if you feel like you don’t have enough time for yourself or for the activities and people you care about*, that your time at work is often wasted, if you struggle to make ends meet with the money you make or that 8 working hours per day are too much, *UBI could make our life easier and more enjoyable*.

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# Q&A

Q: **Where can I sign?** ✍️

A: *Link at the end of the post.*

Q: **What’s an ECI?**

A: It stands for European Citizen Initiative. In short, it’s an *official collection of signatures* that allows EU citizens to propose new laws to the European Commission.

Q: **How does it differ from sites like change.org?**

A: *It is an official and regulated mechanism* that can’t be ignored by the European Commission, unlike any other petitions site.

Q: **There’s no way we’ll reach the set goal in 3 weeks, why should I sign?**

A: Never say never; we’re posting in every European subreddit. *If you think UBI should be experimented but you won’t sign, how will people ever know?*

Q: **Why should I trust you?**

A: *Don’t.* Resources have been linked so you can inform yourselves and form your own opinion.

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## ➡️ ***[Sign here ✍️](https://lv.eci-ubi.eu/)*** ⬅️

13 comments

  1. Unfortunately we have issues with people not wanting to work and choosing to live on welfare even with our weak, below-poverty-line welfare benefits. I fear basic income would be disastrous for us. Maybe it works in more developed societies but I doubt it would work here.

  2. No because this initiative means nothing and is based on some kind of fairy tale (i am not saying this from a “people won’t work” perspective but from purely funding perspective).

    Just a bit for numbers – We have more or less 1.8mil people in Latvia, 100EUR UBI/month means 180mil expenses each month or 2.1bil per year. That is ~20% of our current budget and almost the same amount of money that goes just for pensions. The total social budget is 3.3bil.

  3. It’s the dumbest of ideas. People are already lazy, if they will saw peers getting money for nothing competition will be to do even less. With such a lazy population we will quickly be occupied by Iran or Russia

  4. In capital city Riga every single industry is understaffed.

    Currently it is around 4.5% or less.

    Giving people ability to not work or work part time would cripple many industries and projects.

    I can see UBI working if there are no jobs and lots of unemployed. As a way to give them means of living.

    But now we have lots of jobs and nobody to work.

    As one who is welfare donor already, i would be even less benefiting from UBI.

    UBI meams more taxes, less funding for other projects.

    Lack of funding already froze big project in my area for more than year and makes it uncomfortable to drive car or bycicle.

  6. I support this initiative. Despite what some other people are saying, people really do want to work, it is in our genes, it makes us feel fulfilled, makes us feel like have a purpose.

    The problem is that most jobs don’t really have a deeper purpose (Rimi cachier for example), but people will still do it because they need to eat, need a shelter.

    Giving a little bit of money for people to be able to fulfil these basic necessities will open up new opportunities for these folks, make space for them to be able to do something they want to do, while not risking starving or living on the streets.

  8. The piece of pie is not fixed. Its not like feudal system anymore. capitalist system thrives on achievements of tomorrow and capitalize on it. If people are able to afford education or seek a job that they find enjoyable with the help of ubi it creates a potential for increase in counties gdp.

  9. this will be very important as AI and automation develops further but I have no clue if it’s good for now

  10. I remember about UBI when Andrew Yang was campaigning for US presidency. It seems like a good system but only in countries that have enough monetary resources so like USA, western European countries, some of Nordics.

    In Latvia such system would just not work, comparing to other countries.
    Salaries are too low and already we can’t get enough to pay for pensions for our older generations.

  13. Honestly UBI is garbage idea. And more so in countries like Latvia with its mentality.

    At the first glance it seems nice, free money, right? But when you look at how that will impact the economy and willingness to work it is a disaster.

    This needs to be funded somehow. The most likely way is tax. Taxing the upper end even more will most certainly lead to finding the more and more loopholes for tax evasion. Considering we already have a huge problem with it, it is a very scary path to be on. Not to mention heavy taxation will lead to some business closings thus leading to less work opportunities and less service/goods available for people.

    Do you really think that everyone having more money will not increase the prices for everything? Every landlord happily cash in more if he knows the tenants can have more disposable income. Some goes for every industry. Why sell for less then you can sell for more.

    We also already have a lot of free loaders living on welfare. Why work 40h a week for 400€ when you can cash in on 200-300€ for not doing anything. Work a bit unofficially and you can have the same 400€ with minimal effort.

    Also the politicians will gladly use the opportunity to funnel some of that money into their pockets. There will be something like 30% overhead with hundreds of departments managing and distributing the money while cashing in huge percentage for it.

    Before signing something shouldn’t we first think of the ways it will actually be achievable and how will it affect everything in accordance?

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