As Ireland’s $1,500-a-month basic income pilot program for creatives nears its end in February, officials have to answer a simple question: Is it worth it?
With four months to go, they say the answer is yes.
Earlier this month, Ireland’s government announced its 2026 budget, which includes “a successor to the pilot Basic Income Scheme for the Arts to begin next year” among its expenditures.
Ireland is just one of many places experimenting with guaranteed basic income programs, which provide recurring, unrestricted payments to people in a certain demographic. These programs differ from a universal basic income, which would provide payments for an entire population.
A lot of gatekeepers in the comments who seem to love the idea of a UBI, but hate any attempt to test the viability of one.
I think this is a great step towards proving the benefits of a UBI for the greater population. I believe supporting the arts is always a positive endeavour, so using them as the pilot program kills two birds with one stone. I think that randomising who gets to enter the pilot program may allow some people to game the system, but the benefits outweigh the possibility of one schyster scamming a paycheque. The lottery system stops this becoming a bonus for established or famous artists, and supports creatives in all areas.
All in all, this is a good thing, and the people who want “all or nothing” are short sighted.
but hate any attempt to test the viability of one
How many more before people are convince it works? I think this is one of those studies or referendums where the powers-that-be and its supporters keep running the test until they get the one result they want. Besides, with the burgeoning automation, UBI is needed. If not, at least universal basic services could be done instead, where we are provided with housing and utilities for free, if the concern that over-accumulation of capital through free handouts might lead to abuse or crash the economy or some vague similar notions
I’ve been struggling for years, living in poverty since I was 18 despite having just about the best education you can have in my field. I’ve made desperate decisions and risky moves to keep a roof over my head all while being spat on by all sorts of people and weathering wave after wave of politically motivated anti-intellectualism and it’s 2AM and I’m exhausted from digging a fucking trench to install pipes for the shitty house in the middle of buttfuck nowhere that I’ve had to move to in order to be able to work from home…
And this piece of news made me cry a little. Even though I don’t live in Ireland.
Cause I know how it is to feel like there’s no way out and to watch how everyone consumes art daily like addicts all while saying artists don’t matter and we should be grateful for the “privilege” we have and yelling “get a real job” anytime you complain.
And that’s my piece. Bring on the logical arguments. I’ve laid out my feelings.
Also, UBI for everyone would be fucking amazing. Why we’re not doing that is beyond me. It’s like “they” think that without a “carrot on a stick” everyone will stop working. If I had a penny for everyone who practically can’t think straight because of how worried they are about basic needs I’d probably save those pennies for my own basic needs. Fear is not a good motivator for workers.
Ireland: do implement and study an program and agree it is working and they will continue it.
Users who are jealous: “this is unfair” “how that even work” “I am an artist”
This would fix me
I hate being alive.
This is just the set up to Master and Margarita
that’s unfair. what classifies as “art”? am i an artist? I’m not sure.
i think a major point of the UBI scheme was the broad democratic support because everyone benefits from it. if only a specific group of people gets it, that’s just another way to split the society. not what we need.
that’s unfair.
Crabs in a Bucket
This program has been terminated by Irish Arts minister Bucket O’Crabs.
It gets even more unfair: participants get selected by chance (if they fulfill the criteria)
BUT it’s just a pilot project. I hope it’s successful and gets implemented for everyone - I mean everyone has the potential to become an artist if money isn’t the deciding factor anymore.
Who knows how many great musicians, painter, etc. are stuck in a 9-5 job? I for example want to create a game… Not really “art” in the classical sense, but creative and prone to bring me next to no money unless I have a lot of luck.
Hell, even scientists might be more free in what they want to study if money is less of a problem…
UBI might be a great thing and I agree that art isn’t the only thing that could benefit from it.
Well, our current system is unfair. So you can get on board with helping struggling artists, or you could rather more people struggle.
If this scheme works out, it doesn’t take much to think this could be applied to more and more groups.
It has to start somewhere, and opposing this because it doesn’t immediately include everyone is short sighted and selfish imo. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good here.
“Art” is such an interesting notion. I think it’s safe to say that we currently call people “artists” if they’re able to commodify their creative output. Whereas in reality, all humans are capable of creative expression. You are an artist. We all are. And UBI should be given to everybody!
I would guess, it means you have an art degree or something of the sort.
also by the way what i find interesting is that UBI wouldn’t actually have to pay for 100% of people’s living expenses. imagine i get a $100, then i’m gonna spend $30 of that on food at a nearby restaurant, so the chef and waiters are gonna get money, which they then spend again … what i’m saying is that $1 in UBI does far more than $1, because people are gonna spend it and then other people are gonna have it … so you probably need to pay far less than 100% of living expenses, only like maybe 30% could be enough.
Or less. Alaska’s dividend program is a couple thousand a year and significantly reduces its poverty rate.
Defining living expenses is tough. If everyone is homeless, getting them a studio or tiny house seems basic, but if everyone is in a studio, getting them into a one bedroom seems basic. If everyone struggles to get enough clean water to drink, having water for drinking and washing seems basic, but if everyone has plenty of wash water then they want pools and irrigated golf courses. The way human brains are programmed with a hedonistic treadmill means we will never feel like 100% of our living expenses are covered. But every sustainable bit of help we can set up society to deliver makes our society richer.
I feel like this won’t last long (maybe 10 or 15 years), because they’ll end up prioritizing seniors.
Why would a politician prioritize artists when the majority of voters are seniors who want their pensions?
Either UBI for everyone or UBI for no one. Lest we forget, money for this comes from of decades of collaboration in European tax avoidance by greedy multinational corporations to avoid paying their fair share in the other EU countries they operate in.
Otherwise, UBI is a great idea.
edit: “-excludes for example journalism or books for educational purposes, for example: textbooks, technical manuals, writing created for advertising or publicity purposes.”
Yeah, you wouldn’t want journalism or education to be freely accessible as an ocupation… This has to be the most ridiculous ubi experiment in the last decade.
Either UBI for everyone or UBI for no one.
UBI for some.
Little American flags for others
We already have basic income but just for some people. Would it be better to abolish those programs or keep them?
Ireland has a history of supporting artists, mostly with large tax breaks for ARTISTS. While journalists and scholars use writing extensively in their careers, they are not “artists” in the way that people tend to think of that concept. They are not creating art, they are creating knowledge. That’s an honorable endeavor, but it is not strictly art.
mostly with large tax breaks for ARTISTS
i mean yeah that barely costs ireland anything as artists are typically poor and therefore barely pay taxes anyways … /s
I wasn’t implying journalism is art, I’m implying no government is going to give you the tools to depose them.
Regarding “ARTISTS”, let’s see how many of the supported artists actually develop a craft rather than just producing content.
Many many many popular historical artists were not popular in their own time. The if it’s be an artist or go work for a living, that’s still people paying for things in their communities for however long that is. It’s entirely worth it even if they just create content. It’s a fair place to start imho
The overwhelming majority of the EU population works in services industries, whereas we lack specialized tradespeople like construction specialists. If forced to choose, I’d rather see that UBI go to them to support an early retirement plan for those underapreciated classes that have physically demanding work. Anyone can be an artist, especially if we don’t need to have two jobs to make rent.
Perfect being the enemy of good.
Man it’s gotta got to start somewhere. The full value of such a system will not be seen in our life times.
But if “anyone can be an artist” I’ll argue then that is actually the very best place to start this.
Young, old, decrepit, disadvantages, anyone can claim an artist UBI? Fucking great! That sounds like a feature not a bug
Work on your own terms, your own needs, within your own choices. Fucking great.
I’ve lived where the first thing they gets cut from every budget is the Arts.
That certainly hasn’t made the world a better place to live because “work” is always going to be a dog eat dog world where you don’t collaborate you compete. Your usefulness is only determined by how much value can be extracted from you without a care for your well being.
Arts are useless? Can’t make rent with an arts degree? Well guess what now everyone can.
I really don’t understand why you are so pissed about this and seemingly(my interpretation, I could be wrong) uninterested in looking at how this can be good the way it is.
For those, like me, that are curious how they decide who’s eligible…
Also:
Selection process
The department expects a high volume of applications and it will not be possible to provide funding to all eligible applicants.
Selection will be a non-competitive process. Once an applicant satisfies the eligibility criteria they will be included in an anonymised random sampling process to determine the pilot participants from the pool of eligible applicants for the BIA Pilot.
Funding for the scheme will allow for approximately 2,000 eligible applicants to participate in the pilot scheme.
So it’s a lottery? WTF.
How else would you handle distributing a limited resource pot without making judgment about what art is good/valid?
A competitive system is more what I was expecting. So, somebody who’s a big name in Irish art but doesn’t currently make a living would get priority above someone who just has an Etsy shop.
That is a judgement call, but not neccesarily about the worth of the art itself.
Lotteries avoid issues with the deciding committee handing these to their friends.
To an extent, it also can provide better data on outcomes. Instead of biasing for the most motivated, it includes a wider pool, so of whom may otherwise be seen as “unworthy”. Then people do people things.
Sure, it’s not without advantages, but it waters down the concept quite a bit. Which may or may not be a bad thing, I guess - lots of people could use a basic income.
This is kind of ridiculous and not even ubi. Universal means universal. And this is clearly not universal. So if only some people get the grant, there needs to be a talent competition and the 2000 best artists should be the winners. Otherwise imagine being objectively a better artist than someone else who got the grant and you didn’t get it. 😡
Trying to rank who is the better artist objectively sounds like a nightmare
Nobody in the Irish government has actually used the label “universal” for this program by the way.
A lottery among pre-selected candidates. Just about anything can be considered to be art, so it is inevitable that there would be far more demand than fulfillment. After all, if they gave $1500 per month to anyone who claimed to be an artist, literally every single citizen would suddenly become committed to their “art.”
I’m already a musician, but if I weren’t, I’d become an artist today.
Yeah, exactly. If the selection isn’t competitive it’s vaguely art-themed more than anything, in practice.
you see this a lot with these pilots. its funny because you don’t really see the actual benefits until everyone gets it. Someone can breathe and take some classes to get into a profession or take some time to get into better shape to become a first responder or start a business.
also by the way what i find interesting is that UBI wouldn’t actually have to pay for 100% of people’s living expenses. imagine i get a $100, then i’m gonna spend $30 of that on food at a nearby restaurant, so the chef and waiters are gonna get money, which they then spend again … what i’m saying is that $1 in UBI does far more than $1, because people are gonna spend it and then other people are gonna have it … so you probably need to pay far less than 100% of living expenses, only like maybe 30% could be enough.
edit: this has nothing to do with your comment, i just wanted to write it somewhere.
oh yeah. its kinda like when people talking about a penny costing more to make than a penny but metal coins last much longer in circulation than bills. so if its actually used for its intended purpose then its not an issue as each penny realizes many pennies over its lifetime. The problem comes if the value is so desperate that people hold on to them as a value store. I firmly believe this type of understanding is lacking in our politicians who love half of what keynes said but like to ignore the other half.
as long as influencers dont count as artists, does this sound great
edit: i still want everyone to get UBI and like rather have artists + influencers than none
That attitude is why the wealthy will always insist on means testing to oppose progress…
The attitude we need is:
I hope as many people as possible get it now, and we’ll keep working on the rest.
Influencers suck, pretty much as a rule.
But everyone deserves to live. And them being UBI proponents and constantly talking about it because they’re genuinely happy they got it is a hell of a lot better than them taking cash from a billionaire to pit us against each other.
i mean i get what you mean, and i ofc also want UBI for everyone
But i still think giving it to influencers specifically at this point is just further encouraging shitty behaviour, i think this will just make even more people try that, and to get any relevancy they would have to be even worse as a person to get any attention… And i doubt that they would not be greedy enough to not take not any extra money from whoever is offereing it.
I think it should be considere that they would litteraly influence others and i doubt it would be in a better way then it is currently.
i think i would be fine with litteraly any other group of people instead, and also influencers are probably not included anyway tho
(ofc there are probably some good influencers, but they are drowned out by all the others)
edit: but like i think i still would rather have artists + influencers ubi then none
wtf even is an “influencer?” i am an online comedian posting my own material to an audience of 90,000-100,000 followers. i am not trying to be an influencer. i don’t want to be seen as even a micro-influencer. it seems that word is given to anyone who is trying to be an entertainer online.
is that how you’re using it too? how would we legally separate between artists like me and whatever an influencer is?
In the current context i mean any of these “lifestyle” people, i mean these that basically create nothing, whose content is either just about themself, like a vlog or them live streaming how they play a game while they add nothing of value to it, or these whose content is them beeing a menace on socitiy, or pointless drama or ragebait stuff.
I dont think any of this is art.
But i dont mean anyone that actually does create something, so i dont mean online comedians like you, that is an artist for me in this context.
I actually think it is kind of hard to define, influencer is probably not even the right word for what i mean, but i have heard people use it for what i ment… But yeah i am probably using the word wrong
but like i think i still would rather have artists + influencers ubi then none
Right…
But first you posted a comment about how pissed you were that another group were getting it and they shouldn’t.
Even if you know you meant “everyone should get it”…
You didn’t type that, you were manipulated instead into only saying a group you don’t like shouldn’t get it.
No one reading your initial comment was/is capable of reading your mind. You did what the wealthy wanted, and may have influenced those who just read your first comment.
i edited my comment tbh for me it was kind of obviouse that i am not against UBI but fine, i guess it was not
You’re giving the right fucks. UBI for all.
Thankfully the article lists everyone that’s eligible and not eligible.
it was only a question of when i get called out on this lol
Not true! I’m definitely not eligible, and I’m not listed anywhere in the article.
Reminds me of when Ireland uploaded one of the most ridiculous rap videos ever to their country’s youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljPFZrRD3J8
They’ve always prioritized the arts, mostly because the English have been trying to erase Irish culture for centuries.
It makes perfect since why Ireland would prioritize Irish artists.
Absolute tune, the video is hilarious too.
That video is a work of art.
One of those guys does the blindboy podcast now, it’s well worth a listen.
“mostly because the English have been trying to erase Irish culture for centuries”
What on earth are you on about? Do you think anyone in England is waking up thinking about ways to suppress Irish culture? You do realise that England and Ireland are separate countries now?
Mate I’m English and let me tell you, you have no fecking idea how badly our previous generations have treated the Irish basically from the 12th century up to 1996.
Also feel free to ask the Welsh and Scottish for their takes as well on English suppression of their cultures.
If Ireland wants to invest in it’s cultural capital to expand it’s horizons outside of Whisky, Guinness, St. Patrick, etc. that have been co-opted and stereotyped by the Anglosphere, then good on them!
A good place to start would be checking out Kneecap.
Can’t wait for other new works that Irish artists will create from this investment.
Have you read like….any history book in your life? Ever? This take is absolutely baffling.
Do you think anyone in England is waking up thinking about ways to suppress Irish culture?
…
When someone says Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, do you think that person is talking about every common Israeli citizen, or specifically the Israeli government?
Like, this confusion is a much larger problem than Ireland/England. So I want to put a good effort into explaining it.
But first we need to get on the same page that the English royal family isn’t even eth ically English, they’re a cadet branch of the old French royalty before the French decapitated all their royals…
So pretty much the only people who’s had to put with the English royal family more than the Irish, are the English commoners. That’s why the English language is such a mess, there was no upper society enforcing rules on it as it grew, because the ruling English didn’t consider themselves English, they were the ruler of the English people.
Their culture was already pretty much erased by the time the English royals starting carrying about “England” and that was mostly just so the English royalty kept their heads. In private they likely don’t see themselves as English so much as as they see England as a representation of them, which is why they try to erase every other culture.
I hope some of that made sense because like I said, it’s important to understand when people criticize a country, they’re almost always referring to the government of said country, and not every last citizen…
Yes, I guarantee there’s at least one person who wakes up and does have that thought
I wonder what the criteria are to define what an artist is, or what requirements are needed to qualify for such assistance.
“I’d rather be an out of work musician than an out of work pipefitter.” – The Commitments
I wonder sometimes, if we all get UBI, what happens to home ownership? It might be enough to pay rent, but probably not save up for and afford a mortgage. Would the government then own all real estate? Which it would then farm out to private corporations to manage. Effectively making all of the property owned by corporations?
I mean that’s kind of how it works right now.
But UBI is just basic income, to make sure people can get on their feet. It works as a springboard to enable people to achieve higher goals, like home ownership.
UBI doesn’t prevent you from earning money. It’s just that, no matter what, you get x amount of money every week/month.
Im not wholly knowledgeable on UBI but I imagine you can still make money on top of the basic income. Like as an artist you can still sell works, do commissions and whatnot you just dont have to stress nearly as much about covering the basics when works dont sell and there are gaps in customers. You still can have savings and the like. Best cases at some point housing would be cheap enough that one could realistically buy a house outright with good financial planning instead of it being owned by a bank
Having corporations do basic functions is a mistake of neoliberalism, which literally cannot conceive of anything without a profit motive.
I do agree that government ownership is tricky because they have to act as both regulator and vendor, but it can be done.
In case anyone wanted info from the Irish Citizens Information Board: [Basic Income for the Arts (BIA) https://share.google/BLpgqipdMH1y42mb1](Basic Income for the Arts (BIA) https://share.google/BLpgqipdMH1y42mb1)
