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Celerity
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Celerity's Journal
May 10, 2020
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8303263/Couple-wear-masks-SWASTIKAS-grocery-shopping-California.html
Dustin Hart, who goes by Dusty Shekel on social media, posted a 14-minute clip of his encounter in a Santee Food 4 Less on Bit Chute
'We were peacefully protesting all the crazy lockdown rules that have been and are continuing to be enforced here in San Diego, California,' the 32-year-old said
Hart and a woman who was accompanying him can be seen with masks on and a Nazi flag that they use Velcro to attach
The woman with Hart is wearing a shirt with a version of the Pepe The Frog meme
Popular frog has become increasingly associated with alt-right imagery and anti-Semitic and racist ideology.
Hart lies to deputies when they ask him if the store employee offered him a replacement mask, an exchange he filmed earlier in the clip
When a deputy explains that the Nazi flag is an 'offensive symbol,' Hart responds: 'I see the LGBT flag and that is offensive to me and I don't call the cops'
The couple eventually remove their masks and make their way through the check out line
A California man sported a Nazi Swastika flag on his mask while grocery shopping in the same town where a man wore a KKK hood in another store, in an apparent jab at Governor Gavin Newsom.
Dustin Hart, who goes by Dusty Shekel on social media, posted a 14-minute clip of his encounter in a Santee Food 4 Less on Bit Chute - a video hosting platform that appeals to the far right and conspiracy theorists.
'We were peacefully protesting all the crazy lockdown rules that have been and are continuing to be enforced here in San Diego, California,' the 32-year-old said in the post.
'These crazy rules are destroying any quality of life we had left. Now we are unemployed and literally have nothing better to do and no where else we are allowed to be.'
snip
Racist films himself wearing swastika mask at grocery store in 'protest over lockdown' just days
after man wore a KKK hood to shop in same California townhttps://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8303263/Couple-wear-masks-SWASTIKAS-grocery-shopping-California.html
Dustin Hart, who goes by Dusty Shekel on social media, posted a 14-minute clip of his encounter in a Santee Food 4 Less on Bit Chute
'We were peacefully protesting all the crazy lockdown rules that have been and are continuing to be enforced here in San Diego, California,' the 32-year-old said
Hart and a woman who was accompanying him can be seen with masks on and a Nazi flag that they use Velcro to attach
The woman with Hart is wearing a shirt with a version of the Pepe The Frog meme
Popular frog has become increasingly associated with alt-right imagery and anti-Semitic and racist ideology.
Hart lies to deputies when they ask him if the store employee offered him a replacement mask, an exchange he filmed earlier in the clip
When a deputy explains that the Nazi flag is an 'offensive symbol,' Hart responds: 'I see the LGBT flag and that is offensive to me and I don't call the cops'
The couple eventually remove their masks and make their way through the check out line
A California man sported a Nazi Swastika flag on his mask while grocery shopping in the same town where a man wore a KKK hood in another store, in an apparent jab at Governor Gavin Newsom.
Dustin Hart, who goes by Dusty Shekel on social media, posted a 14-minute clip of his encounter in a Santee Food 4 Less on Bit Chute - a video hosting platform that appeals to the far right and conspiracy theorists.
'We were peacefully protesting all the crazy lockdown rules that have been and are continuing to be enforced here in San Diego, California,' the 32-year-old said in the post.
'These crazy rules are destroying any quality of life we had left. Now we are unemployed and literally have nothing better to do and no where else we are allowed to be.'
snip
May 9, 2020
Dr. Eva Galvez works as a family physician for a network of clinics in northwestern Oregon, where low-income patients have been streaming in for nasal swabs over the past several weeks to test for the coronavirus. Dr. Galvez was dumbfounded by the results. Latinos, about half of those screened, were 20 times as likely as other patients to have the virus. “The disparity really alarmed me,” said Dr. Galvez, who began trying to understand what could account for the difference. It is a question that epidemiologists around the country are examining as more and more evidence emerges that the coronavirus is impacting Latinos, and some other groups, including African-Americans, with particular force.
Oregon is one of many states where Latinos are showing a disproportionate level of impact, and the effects are seen among both immigrants and Latinos from multigenerational American families. In Iowa, Latinos account for more than 20 percent of coronavirus cases though they are only 6 percent of the population. Latinos in Washington State make up 13 percent of the population but 31 percent of cases. In Florida, they are just over a quarter of the population but account for two of every five virus cases where ethnicity is known. Because most of the clients at the Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center clinics in Oregon are relatively poor whatever their ethnic background, Dr. Galvez decided that income could not explain the disparity.
Public health experts say Latinos may be more vulnerable to the virus as a result of the same factors that have put minorities at risk across the country. Many have low-paying service jobs that require them to work through the pandemic, interacting with the public. A large number also lack access to health care, which contributes to higher rates of diabetes and other conditions that can worsen infections. Oregon last month expanded testing criteria to prioritize Latinos and other minorities, citing the higher risk posed from the virus because of “longstanding social and health inequities.”
At the Virginia Garcia clinics, Dr. Galvez sees those inequities among her patients every day. “We realized that it must be how Latinos live and work that’s driving these disparities,” said Dr. Galvez, who works at the clinic in Hillsboro, outside Portland. The Hispanic patients, many of them immigrants, help produce some of the country’s premier pinot noir, maintain Nike’s sprawling headquarters and plant berries, hazelnuts and Christmas trees in the Willamette Valley. Others are seasonal workers who are expected to begin arriving by the thousands later this month for the harvest. They live in close quarters, often multiple families to a house or with several farmworkers crowded into a barracks-style room, where social distancing and self-isolation are impossible. They perform jobs that require interaction with the general public, in food service, transportation and delivery; and some also work in meatpacking plants that have emerged as major hot spots.
snip
For Latinos and Coronavirus, Doctors are Seeing an 'Alarming' Disparity
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/07/us/coronavirus-latinos-disparity.htmlDr. Eva Galvez works as a family physician for a network of clinics in northwestern Oregon, where low-income patients have been streaming in for nasal swabs over the past several weeks to test for the coronavirus. Dr. Galvez was dumbfounded by the results. Latinos, about half of those screened, were 20 times as likely as other patients to have the virus. “The disparity really alarmed me,” said Dr. Galvez, who began trying to understand what could account for the difference. It is a question that epidemiologists around the country are examining as more and more evidence emerges that the coronavirus is impacting Latinos, and some other groups, including African-Americans, with particular force.
Oregon is one of many states where Latinos are showing a disproportionate level of impact, and the effects are seen among both immigrants and Latinos from multigenerational American families. In Iowa, Latinos account for more than 20 percent of coronavirus cases though they are only 6 percent of the population. Latinos in Washington State make up 13 percent of the population but 31 percent of cases. In Florida, they are just over a quarter of the population but account for two of every five virus cases where ethnicity is known. Because most of the clients at the Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center clinics in Oregon are relatively poor whatever their ethnic background, Dr. Galvez decided that income could not explain the disparity.
Public health experts say Latinos may be more vulnerable to the virus as a result of the same factors that have put minorities at risk across the country. Many have low-paying service jobs that require them to work through the pandemic, interacting with the public. A large number also lack access to health care, which contributes to higher rates of diabetes and other conditions that can worsen infections. Oregon last month expanded testing criteria to prioritize Latinos and other minorities, citing the higher risk posed from the virus because of “longstanding social and health inequities.”
At the Virginia Garcia clinics, Dr. Galvez sees those inequities among her patients every day. “We realized that it must be how Latinos live and work that’s driving these disparities,” said Dr. Galvez, who works at the clinic in Hillsboro, outside Portland. The Hispanic patients, many of them immigrants, help produce some of the country’s premier pinot noir, maintain Nike’s sprawling headquarters and plant berries, hazelnuts and Christmas trees in the Willamette Valley. Others are seasonal workers who are expected to begin arriving by the thousands later this month for the harvest. They live in close quarters, often multiple families to a house or with several farmworkers crowded into a barracks-style room, where social distancing and self-isolation are impossible. They perform jobs that require interaction with the general public, in food service, transportation and delivery; and some also work in meatpacking plants that have emerged as major hot spots.
snip
May 9, 2020
We must build back more resilient, just societies that consume within ecological limits.
https://www.socialeurope.eu/overconsumption-globalised-supply-chains-and-the-covid-19-crisis
The immediate response to the Covid-19 crisis must continue to be saving lives, preventing the further spread of the virus and showing human solidarity and compassion—in particular with the most vulnerable and with essential workers. Meanwhile, the spectre of unprecedented recession looms. And voices from some political parties and industry bodies, such as the car and plastics lobbies, are calling for environmental policies to be scaled back or scrapped. This would be a grave mistake—and would leave us even more vulnerable to future crises.
In March, just before the lockdowns began in earnest in many places, the European Commission launched its new Circular Economy Action Plan. The plan is a package of 35 initiatives which aim to improve how we design products and minimise waste. Many of these represent genuine progress, yet the plan stopped short of committing to reduce the overall amount of resources consumed within the European Union. As such, it fails to get to the heart of what a circular economy should and must be—ensuring that the quantity of resources that go into our economy is reduced to within ecological limits.
Three planets
The EU currently consumes as if we had almost three planets available to produce the resources we use and absorb the waste we produce, which in turn is driving the climate and biodiversity crises. Many of our resources also come from outside the bloc, and thus our economy relies on highly globalised supply chains. Growth-led demand for natural resources has been shown to lead to the transmission of deadly viruses to humans. In January David Quammen wrote in the New York Times:
The EU’s overconsumption contributes in creating exactly these conditions for viruses to make the jump to human populations. Our demand for natural resources, such as through mining for our electronics and petrochemical drilling for plastics, is tearing into forests worldwide. Globally, resource extraction and processing accounts for more than 90 per cent of global biodiversity loss.
Spreading the virus.........
snip
Overconsumption, globalised supply chains and the Covid-19 crisis
We must build back more resilient, just societies that consume within ecological limits.
https://www.socialeurope.eu/overconsumption-globalised-supply-chains-and-the-covid-19-crisis
The immediate response to the Covid-19 crisis must continue to be saving lives, preventing the further spread of the virus and showing human solidarity and compassion—in particular with the most vulnerable and with essential workers. Meanwhile, the spectre of unprecedented recession looms. And voices from some political parties and industry bodies, such as the car and plastics lobbies, are calling for environmental policies to be scaled back or scrapped. This would be a grave mistake—and would leave us even more vulnerable to future crises.
In March, just before the lockdowns began in earnest in many places, the European Commission launched its new Circular Economy Action Plan. The plan is a package of 35 initiatives which aim to improve how we design products and minimise waste. Many of these represent genuine progress, yet the plan stopped short of committing to reduce the overall amount of resources consumed within the European Union. As such, it fails to get to the heart of what a circular economy should and must be—ensuring that the quantity of resources that go into our economy is reduced to within ecological limits.
Three planets
The EU currently consumes as if we had almost three planets available to produce the resources we use and absorb the waste we produce, which in turn is driving the climate and biodiversity crises. Many of our resources also come from outside the bloc, and thus our economy relies on highly globalised supply chains. Growth-led demand for natural resources has been shown to lead to the transmission of deadly viruses to humans. In January David Quammen wrote in the New York Times:
The EU’s overconsumption contributes in creating exactly these conditions for viruses to make the jump to human populations. Our demand for natural resources, such as through mining for our electronics and petrochemical drilling for plastics, is tearing into forests worldwide. Globally, resource extraction and processing accounts for more than 90 per cent of global biodiversity loss.
Spreading the virus.........
snip
May 9, 2020
Parents have a tough job in general. It hasn't gotten any easier in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. They're caretakers, providers, chefs, chauffeurs, and teachers. There are a lot of opportunities to be frustrated as hell.
MOVO, a canned wine spritzer company, is going to give you the ultimate care package for Mother's Day. No, there aren't bath salts or face masks. You're just getting free alcohol and the opportunity to scream at someone who won't hold it against you.
MOVO has opened a hotline at 1-833-3-SCREAM-4-WINE where any mother can call to cry, vent, laugh or scream as required by the current situation. The line will be open from May 7-10, and after you get it all out, an automated voice will send you to this site where you can claim some free wine for placing the call.
It's available across the country, with the exception of Alabama, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Vermont, and West Virginia. If you're not in one of those states, you'll get your free wine from MOVO when it sends you money via Venmo to pay for the pack. You'll have to go pick it up yourself, though. Sure, you have to put in a little work yourself, but who doesn't need a good scream followed by a little wine?
snip
Moms Get Free Wine for Calling a Hotline & Screaming Out Their Frustrations
https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/movo-free-wine-hotline-mothers-dayParents have a tough job in general. It hasn't gotten any easier in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. They're caretakers, providers, chefs, chauffeurs, and teachers. There are a lot of opportunities to be frustrated as hell.
MOVO, a canned wine spritzer company, is going to give you the ultimate care package for Mother's Day. No, there aren't bath salts or face masks. You're just getting free alcohol and the opportunity to scream at someone who won't hold it against you.
MOVO has opened a hotline at 1-833-3-SCREAM-4-WINE where any mother can call to cry, vent, laugh or scream as required by the current situation. The line will be open from May 7-10, and after you get it all out, an automated voice will send you to this site where you can claim some free wine for placing the call.
It's available across the country, with the exception of Alabama, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Vermont, and West Virginia. If you're not in one of those states, you'll get your free wine from MOVO when it sends you money via Venmo to pay for the pack. You'll have to go pick it up yourself, though. Sure, you have to put in a little work yourself, but who doesn't need a good scream followed by a little wine?
snip
May 9, 2020
https://thebanter.substack.com/p/donald-trump-wants-youto-be-cannon
WASHINGTON, DC -- Donald Trump might as well be wearing sweatpants and no makeup because he’s completely given up. Specifically, he’s given up on responding to the COVID-19 outbreak. I think I speak for all of us when I say, it’d be nice if he gave up the presidency, too, but we just aren’t that lucky. No matter what he did or didn’t do, the president continuously failed to rise to the occasion, and it wasn’t a shock to anyone who’s been following his career. He tried being his own bastardized version of “presidential” there for two minutes; he tried his usual loudmouthed a-hole routine and that failed, too.
He was desperate to turbo-charge his poll numbers to the same level as George W. Bush’s after 9/11, but his obnoxiousness and villainy was always a massive roadblock -- a wall, if you will -- between him and broader support outside of his Red Hat cult. The best he did was a temporary approval bump into the middle 50s, but that, again, was short lived. Likewise, I get the sense Trump is crawling out of his disgusting canned-ham colored skin. He personally and politically needs the crisis to be over and the nation to return to the way it was before the pandemic. The problem is: his own actions, especially now, are making that impossible.
Not only did he worsen the death toll and reach of the virus through his criminal inaction, but now, because he appears to be giving up, the pandemic and the stay-at-home orders will inevitably remain in place until either there’s a widely accessible vaccine or a new president or both. In a personal sense, he wants to get back to goofing off: the big beautiful cake and hamberders, ranking on his enemies, yelling at his television, manipulating the stock market, greeting guests at Mar-a-lago -- the usual nincompoopery. Politically, the only way he’ll ever come close to winning re-election is either by stealing it again or by erasing the pandemic from existence and returning America to its 2019 political climate, and I don’t think DARPA has invented a history eraser button yet.
He just doesn’t have the attention span to fight an “invisible enemy” for this long. So, he quit. And in lieu of doing anything constructive himself, which he couldn’t do if he wanted to anyway, the president has instead decided to float the idea of shutting down the White House Coronavirus Task Force while urging Americans to become “warriors,” presumably by violating stay-at-home orders and subsequently being infected with the virus. The president’s bored and useless, so it’s time for Americans to be deployed into malls, offices, bowling alleys, and beaches where the unlucky ones will be added to the daily 9/11-level death toll. They’ll become statistics in Trump’s war effort and ultimately ignored by the rest of the nation the same way too many of us ignored the casualties from two actual wars in recent memory.
snip
Donald Trump Wants You...To Be Cannon Fodder In His War
Trump has given up on trying to stop people dying from Coronavirus. He now wants you to die so he can get reelected.https://thebanter.substack.com/p/donald-trump-wants-youto-be-cannon
WASHINGTON, DC -- Donald Trump might as well be wearing sweatpants and no makeup because he’s completely given up. Specifically, he’s given up on responding to the COVID-19 outbreak. I think I speak for all of us when I say, it’d be nice if he gave up the presidency, too, but we just aren’t that lucky. No matter what he did or didn’t do, the president continuously failed to rise to the occasion, and it wasn’t a shock to anyone who’s been following his career. He tried being his own bastardized version of “presidential” there for two minutes; he tried his usual loudmouthed a-hole routine and that failed, too.
He was desperate to turbo-charge his poll numbers to the same level as George W. Bush’s after 9/11, but his obnoxiousness and villainy was always a massive roadblock -- a wall, if you will -- between him and broader support outside of his Red Hat cult. The best he did was a temporary approval bump into the middle 50s, but that, again, was short lived. Likewise, I get the sense Trump is crawling out of his disgusting canned-ham colored skin. He personally and politically needs the crisis to be over and the nation to return to the way it was before the pandemic. The problem is: his own actions, especially now, are making that impossible.
Not only did he worsen the death toll and reach of the virus through his criminal inaction, but now, because he appears to be giving up, the pandemic and the stay-at-home orders will inevitably remain in place until either there’s a widely accessible vaccine or a new president or both. In a personal sense, he wants to get back to goofing off: the big beautiful cake and hamberders, ranking on his enemies, yelling at his television, manipulating the stock market, greeting guests at Mar-a-lago -- the usual nincompoopery. Politically, the only way he’ll ever come close to winning re-election is either by stealing it again or by erasing the pandemic from existence and returning America to its 2019 political climate, and I don’t think DARPA has invented a history eraser button yet.
He just doesn’t have the attention span to fight an “invisible enemy” for this long. So, he quit. And in lieu of doing anything constructive himself, which he couldn’t do if he wanted to anyway, the president has instead decided to float the idea of shutting down the White House Coronavirus Task Force while urging Americans to become “warriors,” presumably by violating stay-at-home orders and subsequently being infected with the virus. The president’s bored and useless, so it’s time for Americans to be deployed into malls, offices, bowling alleys, and beaches where the unlucky ones will be added to the daily 9/11-level death toll. They’ll become statistics in Trump’s war effort and ultimately ignored by the rest of the nation the same way too many of us ignored the casualties from two actual wars in recent memory.
snip
May 9, 2020
Deep Dark Dangerous Quarantine Sessions 9, Live, Starts May 9th, 3 PM PST, live stream up now
Filthy beatz 
24/7 DEEP DARK & DANGEROUS RADIO
Quarantine Sessions 9 is on the same stream below
https://www.twitch.tv/truthmusic
alternate stream
https://www.truthdubstep.com/
May 8, 2020
https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/sip-n-dip-lounge-great-falls-montana-tiki-bar
MONTANA BRINGS A LOT OF THINGS TO MIND: dusty cowboys, grizzly bears, and outdoor adventure. The landlocked state is the last place you'd expect to see mermaids… but that’s exactly what you’ll find when you stop by the legendary Sip 'n Dip Lounge in Great Falls. Built in 1962 as part of the retro O’Haire Motor Inn, the Sip ‘n Dip just might be the best bar in America you’ve never heard of. This colorful tiki haunt is where Big Sky Country meets Polynesian basement vibes. On almost any given night after 9 o’clock, mermaids swim and perform behind the bar, often accompanied by the vocal stylings of octogenarian lounge singer "Piano" Pat Sponheim.
I know what you’re thinking, but Great Falls isn't some hipsterfied town where kitsch blends into the nightscape. Known as "Electric City" due to its stout collection of dams and power plants, this is a hard-working ranching and hunting community located next to an Air Force base specializing in ballistic missile maintenance. That really ups the surreality factor when you enter the Sip ‘n Dip.
Christenson is one of 11 mermaids currently employed at the legendary venue. During her four hour shift, she'll swim up to the large windows behind the bar (which shares a wall with the attached hotel’s 21,000-gallon swimming pool) and make gestures of encouragement to patrons as they tackle massive rum cocktails like the signature 52-ounce Fishbowl. The mermaid gimmick is the brainchild of Sip ‘n Dip owner Sandra Thares, in 1996. When I told my dad about the idea, he replied: ‘You will live to regret this, but it’s probably the best idea you’ve ever had.’
The initial show wasn't exactly a high-production affair. I had a little housekeeper who said she was a pretty good swimmer, recalls Thares of their first mermaid show on New Year’s Eve ‘96. So we bought a green plastic tablecloth and we literally duct taped it around her waist and ankles. She jumped in and flopped around for about two minutes and got out. And she was our very first mermaid. Twenty-four years later, mermaids now can be seen six to seven nights a week. Thares custom-sews two to three tails for each mermaid, which can weigh anywhere between ten and 50 pounds when wet depending on how elaborate she gets with the layering.
snip
Live Mermaids Make This Montana Dive Bar One of Our Great National Treasures
Mythical mermaids and a legendary lounge singer, in the last place you'd expect.https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/sip-n-dip-lounge-great-falls-montana-tiki-bar
MONTANA BRINGS A LOT OF THINGS TO MIND: dusty cowboys, grizzly bears, and outdoor adventure. The landlocked state is the last place you'd expect to see mermaids… but that’s exactly what you’ll find when you stop by the legendary Sip 'n Dip Lounge in Great Falls. Built in 1962 as part of the retro O’Haire Motor Inn, the Sip ‘n Dip just might be the best bar in America you’ve never heard of. This colorful tiki haunt is where Big Sky Country meets Polynesian basement vibes. On almost any given night after 9 o’clock, mermaids swim and perform behind the bar, often accompanied by the vocal stylings of octogenarian lounge singer "Piano" Pat Sponheim.
I know what you’re thinking, but Great Falls isn't some hipsterfied town where kitsch blends into the nightscape. Known as "Electric City" due to its stout collection of dams and power plants, this is a hard-working ranching and hunting community located next to an Air Force base specializing in ballistic missile maintenance. That really ups the surreality factor when you enter the Sip ‘n Dip.
I NEVER REALLY THOUGHT, MOVING TO MONTANA, THAT I WOULD BE A MERMAID, says Lauren Christenson, a native of suburban Chicago.
Christenson is one of 11 mermaids currently employed at the legendary venue. During her four hour shift, she'll swim up to the large windows behind the bar (which shares a wall with the attached hotel’s 21,000-gallon swimming pool) and make gestures of encouragement to patrons as they tackle massive rum cocktails like the signature 52-ounce Fishbowl. The mermaid gimmick is the brainchild of Sip ‘n Dip owner Sandra Thares, in 1996. When I told my dad about the idea, he replied: ‘You will live to regret this, but it’s probably the best idea you’ve ever had.’
The initial show wasn't exactly a high-production affair. I had a little housekeeper who said she was a pretty good swimmer, recalls Thares of their first mermaid show on New Year’s Eve ‘96. So we bought a green plastic tablecloth and we literally duct taped it around her waist and ankles. She jumped in and flopped around for about two minutes and got out. And she was our very first mermaid. Twenty-four years later, mermaids now can be seen six to seven nights a week. Thares custom-sews two to three tails for each mermaid, which can weigh anywhere between ten and 50 pounds when wet depending on how elaborate she gets with the layering.
snip
May 8, 2020
MSNBC says it is going to get a lot worse over the next month or two.
U6 (broadest measure of unemployment) 22.8%, worst since 1933 when it was 24.9% (per MSNBC)
U-6 Total unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor forceMSNBC says it is going to get a lot worse over the next month or two.
May 8, 2020
fiya
ONEFOUR hook up with A$AP Ferg on 'Say It Again', here's how it happened
https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/news/musicnews/onefour-collab-asap-ferg-say-it-again-how-it-happened/12220698
ONEFOUR - Welcome To Prison (Official Music Video)
ONEFOUR - Say it Again ft A$AP Ferg (Official Music Video) +Welcome To Prison (Official Music Video)
Aussie drill crew
fiya
ONEFOUR hook up with A$AP Ferg on 'Say It Again', here's how it happened
https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/news/musicnews/onefour-collab-asap-ferg-say-it-again-how-it-happened/12220698
ONEFOUR - Welcome To Prison (Official Music Video)
May 8, 2020
The coronavirus crisis has renewed interest in the notion of a universal basic income. The full report of a two-year Finnish experiment has just appeared.
https://www.socialeurope.eu/basic-income-positive-results-from-finland
On January 1st 2017, Finland began the most careful experiment with basic income undertaken in a developed country. Two thousand long-term unemployed, aged between 25 and 58—at the time recipients of the means-tested, minimum-income benefit of €560 a month—were randomly selected. For two years, they were given that same amount unconditionally—irrespective of with whom they were living, how much they were earning and whether they were actively looking for a job. The experiment terminated, as planned, on December 31st 2018. As the researchers wanted to observe their subjects as unobtrusively as possible, they announced that they would publish the final report only after all relevant administrative data could be collected and analysed. This report was published on May 6th.
Key question
One key question the experiment aimed to answer was whether the unconditional character of the benefit would boost or depress beneficiaries’ participation in the labour market. Would it enhance that, as a result of the benefit not being reduced or lost when starting a job? Or would it lessen participation, as a result of the beneficiaries no longer being forced to keep looking for a job or accept a job when one became available? In the first year of the experiment, as documented in a preliminary report published last year, the difference in working days—those in which at least €23 was earned through a wage or self-employment—with respect to the control group was slightly positive, but not statistically significant. Some feared, however, that the whole relevance of the experiment would be shattered, as a result of a major social-policy reform which entered into force precisely at the beginning of the second year.
On January 1st 2018, the right-of-centre Finnish government introduced the so-called ‘activation model’, a general reform of the means-tested benefit schemes which made them more constraining: if benefit recipients failed to work a sufficient number of hours or follow suitable training in each quarter, their benefits were to be cut by about 5 per cent. This reform, undone since by Finland’s current government, was in force throughout the second year of the experiment and applied, at the beginning of the year, to about two thirds of the control group. It also applied to slightly less than half the members of the experimental group, because they could claim, on top of their basic income, means-tested child benefits of some €150-300 according to the number of their dependent children, and means-tested housing benefits up to €600 or more according to their place of residence.
Employment went up in both groups from the first to the second year. How much was due to the ‘activation model’ is impossible to say, since no randomised experiment was conducted. However, whether large or small, this effect was necessarily more significant in the control group than among basic-income recipients, as fewer of the latter were concerned by the tightening of the conditionality. The question then becomes: did the implementation of this activation model, with its stronger grip on the control than on the experimental group, reverse the basic income recipients’ slight advantage in terms of labour-market participation during the first year? It did not. On the contrary, the gap widened considerably and became statistically significant: in the second year, basic-income recipients worked on average six more days per year than individuals in the control group. And had the activation reform not taken place, one can safely conjecture that this differential would have been even greater.
Structural effect
Does this suffice to show an unconditional basic income is a good idea? ..............................
snip
Basic income: Finland's final verdict
The coronavirus crisis has renewed interest in the notion of a universal basic income. The full report of a two-year Finnish experiment has just appeared.
https://www.socialeurope.eu/basic-income-positive-results-from-finland
On January 1st 2017, Finland began the most careful experiment with basic income undertaken in a developed country. Two thousand long-term unemployed, aged between 25 and 58—at the time recipients of the means-tested, minimum-income benefit of €560 a month—were randomly selected. For two years, they were given that same amount unconditionally—irrespective of with whom they were living, how much they were earning and whether they were actively looking for a job. The experiment terminated, as planned, on December 31st 2018. As the researchers wanted to observe their subjects as unobtrusively as possible, they announced that they would publish the final report only after all relevant administrative data could be collected and analysed. This report was published on May 6th.
Key question
One key question the experiment aimed to answer was whether the unconditional character of the benefit would boost or depress beneficiaries’ participation in the labour market. Would it enhance that, as a result of the benefit not being reduced or lost when starting a job? Or would it lessen participation, as a result of the beneficiaries no longer being forced to keep looking for a job or accept a job when one became available? In the first year of the experiment, as documented in a preliminary report published last year, the difference in working days—those in which at least €23 was earned through a wage or self-employment—with respect to the control group was slightly positive, but not statistically significant. Some feared, however, that the whole relevance of the experiment would be shattered, as a result of a major social-policy reform which entered into force precisely at the beginning of the second year.
On January 1st 2018, the right-of-centre Finnish government introduced the so-called ‘activation model’, a general reform of the means-tested benefit schemes which made them more constraining: if benefit recipients failed to work a sufficient number of hours or follow suitable training in each quarter, their benefits were to be cut by about 5 per cent. This reform, undone since by Finland’s current government, was in force throughout the second year of the experiment and applied, at the beginning of the year, to about two thirds of the control group. It also applied to slightly less than half the members of the experimental group, because they could claim, on top of their basic income, means-tested child benefits of some €150-300 according to the number of their dependent children, and means-tested housing benefits up to €600 or more according to their place of residence.
Employment went up in both groups from the first to the second year. How much was due to the ‘activation model’ is impossible to say, since no randomised experiment was conducted. However, whether large or small, this effect was necessarily more significant in the control group than among basic-income recipients, as fewer of the latter were concerned by the tightening of the conditionality. The question then becomes: did the implementation of this activation model, with its stronger grip on the control than on the experimental group, reverse the basic income recipients’ slight advantage in terms of labour-market participation during the first year? It did not. On the contrary, the gap widened considerably and became statistically significant: in the second year, basic-income recipients worked on average six more days per year than individuals in the control group. And had the activation reform not taken place, one can safely conjecture that this differential would have been even greater.
Structural effect
Does this suffice to show an unconditional basic income is a good idea? ..............................
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