Improving random lives by mailing out free money
German startup proves value of basic financial security for all
BERLIN— From his Berlin startup’s brick loft offices, Michael Bohmeyer led the way past a brewery-turned-art-space to a makeshift cafe. “If we’re going to sit outside, I might even get coffee,” mused the 36-year-old tech entrepreneur and founder of the “My Basic Income” website. “After all, you have to enjoy life a little bit.”
Enjoying life is no trivial matter for the slight, serious Bohmeyer, whose experimental, grassroots platform has thus far given more than 650 randomly selected people 1,000 euros a month (about $1,550) for a year, no strings attached, just to test a thesis: that what people need to thrive in a rapidly changing world is not more money but more security, and that an unconditional basic income — a monthly sum to cover living expenses that, if implemented, would be paid by the government and received by everyone — could enable this.
The idea has resonated in Germany, a wealthy country that spends about onethird of its gross domestic product on a robust social welfare system. In the six years since Bohmeyer first called for donations, “My Basic Income” has raised about 8 million euros, thanks to 140,000 or so private donations of sums as low as a couple of euros a month.
Now, after publishing a bestselling book detailing the experiences of a cross-section of recipients — ranging from a hotel heiress to a homeless man — Bohmeyer and his team have partnered with the respected German Institute for Economic Research for a study. As part of this project, 120 randomly chosen people will receive 1,200 euros a month for three years, while a larger control group of “statistical twins” in similar life situations will not.
Given its small size, the study does not look at macroeconomic impacts, like how taxes would be affected or if a basic income would lead to inflation. Rather, it will simply try to find out whether unconditional monthly payments lead to statistically significant changes in recipients’ behaviour and feelings.
To write “What Would You Do? How an Unconditional Basic Income Changes Us,” Bohmeyer and his co-author interviewed 24 recipients, past and present. In keeping with the findings of other basic income studies around the world, they found that few people quit their jobs. Many, however, made changes: A social worker used the extra resources to retrain as a hospice worker, and a just-treading-water retiree quit her off-the-books job waitressing for an exploitative boss and got another job at a better restaurant.
Regardless of whether they spent the money, saved it, invested it or gave it away, almost all of the people interviewed said the monthly payments just made them feel better. “We call it the ‘basic income feeling,’ ” said Bohmeyer. “The subtext of the unconditionality is, ‘We as a society believe you are OK.’ ”
He added, “I don’t want to sound esoteric, but the message is, ‘We are all equally worthy of existing.’ ”
Bohmeyer credits his own willingness to jump into an experiment like this to the way he grew up. Born outside Berlin in the last years of the German Democratic Republic, Bohmeyer was 5 when the wall fell. But a do-it-yourself spirit lived on in his household. After the collapse of the East German system, he watched as his parents — a physicist and a technician — successfully remade themselves as entrepreneurs. The experience taught him the value of hard work, but it also gave him a critical eye.
“What I learned from my parents is that systems don’t last forever,” he said. “From today to tomorrow, it can cease to exist. That’s why I can’t take capitalism completely seriously.”
After a senior year as an exchange student in Michigan, Bohmeyer came home and launched an online distribution centre for signage. At 29, he decided he needed to try something new. He stepped away from the daily work of the sign business but continued to receive about1,000 euros a month as his share of the profit.
Slowing down gave him a chance to question the path he had taken so far, and he came to realize that for him, making more money was not an end in itself.
He started reading French philosopher Michel Foucault and reflecting on his own life. “Who am I? How do I want to live? What do I need for a good life?” he said. “Hard questions, but it’s totally cool if you have the chance to ask them.”
He noticed other changes as well: His relationship with his partner improved. He was more patient with his 2-year-old daughter. His chronic stomach cramps went away. He started to wonder if a basic income, like the one he had, could help other people find more balance and equanimity in their lives, too.
He has come to believe that a basic income could offer solutions for a whole range of social ills, like emotional burnout, environmentally damaging overconsumption and right-wing populism.