Look, it’s simple. If a person has to actively work to make money, they’re not “the rich” and they’re not the problem. A surgeon making $200k a year still stops making money if they stop showing up to do surgery, because they’re still selling their labor. The radical discrepancies in how we value different skills are certainly a problem, but the guy who makes money when he doesn’t even get out of bed is the one making money on the value of other people’s labor.
Ireland is coming to the end of a three year pilot of Basic Income for Artists.
2000 artists received €325 a week for three years, and every euro paid to participants resulted in society receiving €1.39 in return.
Artists’ earnings from their art increased, there were more cultural activities and events and there were, unsurprisingly, huge leaps in participants’ psychological wellbeing.
