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Basic income is all the rage these days. The idea — which calls for the government to give everyone in a given city/state/country/whatever enough money to live in, no strings attached — is being tested in Finland, in Ontario, in the Netherlands, and in Kenya. Switzerland’s set to vote on whether to adopt it as a national policy in June.
But discussions of the proposal rarely mention that many rich countries — including France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Sweden — already implement a version of it. Most Western European countries have what’s called a “universal child benefit,” or a basic income going only to families with children.
It’s a much simpler way to support families than the complicated system the US uses, and an American version could vastly reduce child poverty, perhaps eliminating it altogether.
At least 10 rich countries have universal child benefit policies
For a widely employed policy, universal child benefits (also known as “child allowances”) keep a pretty low profile. That’s […]
Cash for kids? A terrible idea. Why do we want to turn the US into a welfare state – even more than it already is? Encourage people to have more children? What are you thinking? I’ve served in the military (a social-welfare system) and in community healthcare for over 40 years, combined. If you give people money to have children we’ll have more unwanted children from parents that only have the children for the money. Thousands of absent parents, mostly men, already avoid contributing to their children’s financial and emotional support, so sure, let’s let them all off the hook to procreate without conscience. People think it is their God-given right to have children, shame they don’t believe it’s their God-given responsibility to care for them as well.
Well maybe because all the “welfare states” as you style them, have populations that live longer, that report themselves happier, that have lower disease rates, higher educational attainment amongst their young,have higher incomes, no concern about medical, early childhood, or eldercare costs, are making a concerted effort to deal with climate change, have high speed low cost rail… I could go on and on. These societies are not perfect but they do have the conviction that wellness is better. But perhaps none of that is of interest to Americans.