Survey about Basic Income and its Impact on the Irish Labour Market

Survey about Basic Income and its Impact on the Irish Labour Market

The typical reaction to the idea of basic income is that it might be a good idea but it appears to be not realistic and probably the most common objection is that freed from the existential necessity of carrying out paid work people would reduce their employment so far that the prosperity of society and thus ultimately also the BI would be endangered.

Most people’s reaction when being confronted with the, for them new, idea of BI is the assumption that nobody would work anymore at all as nobody would have an incentive to work. This survey, as part of academic research, intends to show that the opposite may be the case; that a Basic Income scheme could increase the inducement to take up work for many people who under current unemployment benefit schemes have no incentive to even look for a job; that people might even take low-wage jobs that are not beneficial for them under the current social schemes as BI is unconditional and not means-tested. Any income additional to the BI means indeed additional income.