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The introduction of the universal income is part of the global elites’ plan to subdue mankind, according to a false narrative promoted across Romanian media.
From monkey to man and back
NEWS: “The future must lead to man’s involution. Citizens will receive a minimum guaranteed income to cover their basic food and subsistence needs. An increasing number of people seem thrilled at the news, daydreaming about the day when they’ll get paid to sit on the couch and watch TV. The system has already been tested in Great Britain and Nordic countries. A similar model, working from home, was launched during the pandemic. At the time, the authorities presented a number of benefits that appealed to citizens, who decided to change their lifestyle and work routines. This is how the trans-human mechanism designed to enslave people was set in motion, making social contracts obsolete. The tendency right now is to implement the guaranteed minimum income, which goes hand in hand with 15-minute cities, which are nothing else but a forced lockdown, which people are supposed to perceive as a natural development”.
NARRATIVE: In the near future, people will be isolated by the community, as their basic needs will be met by means of the unconditional universal income.
BACKGROUND: The idea of providing citizens with a share of budget revenues, only based on their citizenship and without requiring them to present evidence of eligibility for such financial assistance, is a globally spread phenomenon, which is approached differently from one country to the next. In principle, irrespective of the financial profile of individuals, the state will provide them with a basic income, so that they shouldn’t have to worry about procuring food or having a place to sleep ever again. Although it is highly utopic, the idea has gained increased traction in the context of growing social gaps caused by the crises affecting the planet in recent years (the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, severe meteorological phenomena caused by climate change, etc.) With intensifying debates on the universal basic income and in the context of an increasing number of attempts at implementing this concept in various countries, some voices have argued this solution has a hidden agenda, namely to make people more susceptible to manipulation and lock them in digital concentration camps, including by restricting their freedom of movement. The narrative is a mix between conspiracy theories that claim that health and eco dictatorships will eventually enslave mankind.
PURPOSE: To undermine people’s confidence in the authorities and the entire political class, to demonize the West, promote sovereigntist rhetoric, cause and amplify social unrest.
Romanian patriots and news from the last century
WHY THE NARRATIVE IS FALSE: The warnings about the universal basic income raised by local conspiracy mongers can easily be labeled as “prophecies about a bygone age”. Various forms of unconditional social welfare have been provided to people as early as the 1970s in regions of Canada and in the American state of Alaska or more recently, in underdeveloped areas in Africa in Asia, but also in countries with a strong economy like Finland, the Netherlands or Israel. Depending on how the population responded, the projects were extended, modified or discarded, without however enforcing certain social behaviors on the population of the said communities. Therefore, in India, the authorities discovered that the provision of a universal basic income prompted a 25% increase in the education level of young people. Finland, on the other hand, reported no significant change, which determined the authorities to scrap the program nearly two years since it was introduced. In one region of Namibia, a basic universal income was distributed for two years, starting January 1, 2008, to each registered citizen. As a result, the total income of the region’s residents grew by 29%, and crime, school dropout and unemployment rates dropped. At the same time, the entire area reported an increase in the number of startups. In Israel, the authorities are working on a new economic framework for the provision of sustainable universal income, measurable using blockchain technologies. Basically, Israel will create a peer-to-peer transfer network allowing people to give money to the poor, irrespective of their location, based on the principles of unconditional universal income. Such examples of programmes are also in use in Wales, Kenya, Germany, Iraq or Kuwait, but also in England, which will test a program based on which 30 people will receive a lump sum with no obligations, every month for two years. Also in England, in 2003 the government implemented a measure recently adopted by the Romanian state as well in the form of the Junior Centennial personal savings account, providing children with their “own capital” when they turn 18.
Irrespective of what form they take, the provision of such financial incentives has clear benefits, from boosting the citizens’ prosperity, curbing poverty and economic disparities, to ensuring better work conditions, a wider distribution of wealth and even closing gender gaps. More importantly, the universal basic income would have an effect contrary to the one described by conspiracy theorists, in the sense that citizens who don’t feel insecure about their future, are given increased freedom to sanction the intrusive or detrimental actions of the state, particularly because the said income is unconditional.
GRAIN OF TRUTH: Without playing the conspiracy game, there are indeed numerous economists who claim the widespread implementation of such programs can result in an soaring public debt and inflation and in certain cases unemployment.
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