Finland plans to give every citizen a basic income of 800 euros a month

"What do you do when there isn't enough jobs for everyone? What do you do when people just do not want to work, or have very low skills and abilities? I do not know the answer, but that is where not just us but the world is heading. It's called 330 million people in America all wanting a job at some point. I can easily see 200 million in America in the future without a job to be had no matter how good they are, life is going to change unless we get our population growth under control."

The population is totally in control (excepting Africa). The declining birth rates & projections show the world population will never reach 10 Billion. It's a bit of a mashup but partly we can point to this as a cause for the current economic problems. Our business models and system are based around an expanding market share - increased profits and bigger returns. Really how do you do this with declining populations? Where are the new jobs?

What gets me is there is so much that needs to be done, (yes needs) and yet the system we have created asks for an immediate financial return and budgets are tight so even with unemployed people who would love to help it doesn't happen.

1) Plant trees (you know for oxygen which has declined .03% in the last 20 years) also for carbon sequestration.
2) Colonisation of space (yep I'm serious) We, yes us, we are responsible for the continuation of our species. All our eggs are sitting in one basket, needs to happen as soon as we possibly can.
3) Clean our waters, the rivers, lakes and the sea.
4) Stop polluting our air, find the new technologies that produces the power we need but not the mess. Clean up the nuclear spills and the waste deposits. Lets open up the books on where this stuff was mined, there are areas of the planet where if you swim in the water you will die in a matter of days.
5) We put heavy metals into our medicines to increase the shelf life (it makes the medicine cheaper) these decisions, and many like this, are making us sick.

The reasons that these changes are not employing the people, are financial reasons. They exist because of the system that we ourselves have created. A country that takes on the job of fixing these things, is financially disadvantaged in the worldwide scheme of things.

People, we lack for nothing, we live in paradise, the sun and mother earth give us everything we need. We are bathing in abundance. There is enough of everything for everyone.

I applaud Finland for making a change that recognises this.

originally posted by: Peter Brake

1) Plant trees (you know for oxygen which has declined .03% in the last 20 years) also for carbon sequestration.

Doesn't seem like a big job market but it does speak about how our future job base will be Government run mostly and that is not good.

2) Colonisation of space (yep I'm serious) We, yes us, we are responsible for the continuation of our species. All our eggs are sitting in one basket, needs to happen as soon as we possibly can.

Fill in the gaps I get it, but it seems people like to pack it in with big and ever growing cities. I do not get it since it seems all bad comes from that environment. You might like the open space, but many do not, and you want them to accept that change, good luck.

3) Clean our waters, the rivers, lakes and the sea.
4) Stop polluting our air, find the new technologies that produces the power we need but not the mess. Clean up the nuclear spills and the waste deposits. Lets open up the books on where this stuff was mined, there are areas of the planet where if you swim in the water you will die in a matter of days.

Clean energy all comes down to Technology getting cheaper. We will not go with new technology that is more expensive and/or not as good, but we are getting there.

5) We put heavy metals into our medicines to increase the shelf life (it makes the medicine cheaper) these decisions, and many like this, are making us sick.

Well ok, once again technology will fix this, but we are also living extremely long too, so it is hard to debate this when the world gets older and older.

I do not see a huge job market increasing with all these, better living, but I do not see new jobs, so what do we do when 200 million want a job and there are none to be had? That is the question here.

Finland is great and also a population of 5 million so they can do these things easier than a population of 330 million or 2 billion.

a reply to: Xtrozero

You are of course correct about the number of jobs that would be created, throwing 200 million people into the task is inefficient when building a factory creating tree planting machines would just get it done. (I am talking about areas like the Sahara though - where we would have to build a soil to start with.)

Actual boots on the ground in colony's is what is needed though, but again in terms of efficiency why pay for the rocket space to transport 10's of thousands, when a suitcase full of fertilised eggs would get the job done. AI directed drones would create the living space before they were ever hatched.

I too have made this point - the technology advances are such that no new jobs are being created to replace the jobs that are being lost. Which is why the system needs to change, I'm just hoping that the changes will accommodate fixing the problems that we do have.

We are just beginning to expand our living age, 100 years is long enough to build an attitude, we need a few thousand to truly express ourselves.

Again we do not lack for anything - just need to polish up those cells so they continue to divide. The people will figure out what they truly want to do with their lives, be it art, music, raising their families, growing their own food, helping in their communities. Growing. The change needs to happen on the inside, food on the table and the concept of abundance will help.