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https://scottsantens.substack.com/p/finland-basic-income-experiment-mental-health-ubi>
"There’s a revolution happening in mental health treatment, and it’s not coming
from pharmaceutical companies or therapy offices. It’s coming from something
far simpler and, in retrospect, far more obvious: giving people monthly
unconditional income.
A new analysis of Finland’s basic income experiment has just added another
brick to what is becoming an undeniable wall of evidence. In the groundbreaking
experiment, two groups of unemployed people received an identical amount of
money with identical regularity—€560 per month. The only difference was how
they received it. One group got it unconditionally, with no strings attached.
The other group got it conditionally, with requirements to look for work,
report to unemployment offices, and satisfy bureaucrats. And the money went
away with employment.
Same money. Different rules. The results?
In the control group receiving conditional benefits at the end of the trial,
24% had poor mental health. In the treatment group receiving unconditional
basic income, only
16% had poor mental health. That’s an 8 percentage point
reduction—a full
33% less poor mental health—simply from removing the
conditions.
Let that sink in. It wasn’t the amount of money that made the difference. Both
groups got the same €560 a month. It was the unconditionality itself—the simple
act of trusting people with resources, without surveillance or judgment,
without hoops to jump through or forms to fill out—that created these dramatic
improvements in psychological well-being.
This new analysis, published in December 2025 by researchers at the Max Planck
Institute for Demographic Research and the University of Helsinki, confirms
what basic income advocates have long suspected: the conditions we attach to
welfare aren’t just bureaucratic inconveniences. They are active harms. They
create stress, anxiety, and psychological damage that persists even when the
financial support is adequate."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
