Another Mediocre Idea From the Left
21st March 2023
The European Parliament had barely voted on the idea of a global wealth tax before its attention turned to another staple of ‘democratic’ socialism: a universal basic income for everyone.
A carefully crafted proposal for a pan-European basic income was put forward by the European Commission in September last year. Formally known as the Council Recommendation on Adequate Minimum Income Ensuring Active Inclusion, the idea was the subject of a parliamentary debate on March 14th.
To be honest, it was not much of a debate. Of the two dozen speakers, Ádám Kósa of Hungary was the only unconditional opponent of the idea. Most of the rest of the speakers offered various iterations of the same argument: there are poor people in Europe, and therefore EU member states must guarantee them an adequate minimum income, AMI. Every adult in Europe would be guaranteed the AMI in lieu of other means for supporting themselves.