Ireland’s basic income for artists changed my life. Other people deserve the same luck | Caelainn Hogan

Other people, like those of us on disability/invalidity/blind pension who have to deal with €254 a week, with many many strings attached?

It’s worth noting that the scheme does not in reality have any economic benefits. They tried to claim it does, but attributed it to a nebulous wellbeing gain.

I’m broadly in favour of the scheme, certainly as an experiment, but there’s not a sufficient evidence of actual art yet. I’m not sure, for example, how this woman counts as an artist. She wrote a book about the Mother and Baby Homes several years ago, she seems to be a journalist rather than an artist.

The article is extremely vague when it comes to what was actually done.

>Only months into the scheme, I found out I was pregnant. The basic income helped me decide to have my baby, knowing I could continue creative work and keep my small studio space in a light-filled warehouse in the heart of Dublin. The Back Loft, one of the few affordable spaces left for artists, is a strong community of visual artists, musicians, writers, tattooists and knitters.

>The basic income gave me more freedom to experiment in my work, to write for independent publications and engage with community initiatives. I helped to create events that brought together artists across forms and raised money for a local rape crisis centre.

There’s not much in there that suggests any large output of artistic works.

And where do we see all this art? Why don’t they stop closing art spaces and show off all this art 

Did she produce any other art than one book in the time? Its a great idea though. And UBI is a utopian thought. But this scheme should means tested (she says they outright own their own home so mortgage free) and you should have to submit annual report.

Basic income for artists is morally unjustifiable as well as just wrong on the level of simple economics. What you have here is a demand problem – nobody wants to buy this stuff and basic income only stimulates ‘artists’ to produce more of it. This a) increases the glut and b) frees the ‘artists’ from having to cater to any audience other than their paymasters. So poets can write more and more up-their-own-arse poems, but still nobody is going to read them.

The cost benefit analysis looks a lot shakier when you realise that over 70% of the “benefits to society” are artists in the scheme feeling happier. People feeling happier when they get free money is not really a benefit to society.

Fuck the artists I want more dole money

The eternal problem with UBI is that it’s always niche projects and trials that never impact the economy. No one can propose properly how it would work on a national level. I know that Switzerland toyed with the idea but 77% of people voted against so we never saw that in action.

I like the idea and im happy for my taxes to go to help people who create art and culture. Better than some wan whose never worked a day in her life getting a free house 🤷‍♂️