It is an experiment, but it may be the beginning of something that, until recently, seemed like a utopia. The universal basic income is an increasingly close reality, and a good example of this is that Catalonia will start applying it next year.
It will be with a pilot test that will start in 2023 and will last until 2025. For two years, 5,000 adult Catalans will receive 800 euros per month, and 300 for each minor dependent on them, and how their lives, their environments, their consumption, etc. change. and ultimately whether this measure is a real way to end poverty.
How does the experiment work?
Of the 5,000 selected, 2500 people will be chosen at random. The other 2,500 people will be resident in two municipalities with between 1,200 and 1,400 inhabitants in two different provinces, yet to be defined.
The cities will have characteristics similar to the Catalan average in terms of unemployment rate, average per capita income, inequality ratios, etc. As explained an article in the newspaperA statistical method called Synthetic Control has been applied, which seeks that the current parameters coincide with the trends of recent years.
Before, during and after the delivery of the rent a follow-up will be carried out to see how this project affects not only the beneficiaries of the aidbut to all the socio-economic dynamics of its environment.
The project is now awaiting the approval of the 40 million a year it needs to announce the beneficiaries and implement the measure next year.
A pioneering project all over the world
Universal basic income has been reported in recent times by some sectors, such as the only effective measure to put an end to the increase in people approaching or crossing the poverty line.
Any Catalan can receive the benefit, regardless of his income or socio-economic situation, Only people who earn more than 45,000 euros gross a year or who pay wealth tax, i.e. the richest 10% of the population, are exempt.
The project is a worldwide pioneer. Although similar tests were carried out in different places, no test has ever been rigorously applied universally.
