Love to egalitarianism: Russians vote for basic income, experts oppose it

As you know, the introduction of basic income is supported by the majority of Russians: according to the European Social Survey, conducted in 2016-2017. in 23 European countries, including Russia, in our country the majority of respondents (73.2%) aged 15 and older supported the idea of introducing a database.

However, not everyone considers this measure to be correct. Vyacheslav Bobkov and Yelena Odintsova, sociologists of the Laboratory for Problems of the Level and Quality of Life of ISEP RAS, Vyacheslav Bobkov and Elena Odintsova, interviewed 52 experts from Moscow and the regions, among whom were representatives of the research community, leading universities, business communities, trade unions and government and municipal authorities. Of these, 28 people had an academic degree.

According to almost half of the experts (49%), at this stage, it is more expedient for Russia to introduce transitional forms of DB. A slightly smaller group of experts (45.1%) are confident that Russia, in principle, is not ready for the introduction of a database - neither full nor partial (transitional forms). Only a few of the experts surveyed (less than 6%) believe that Russia is ready to introduce a database in full compliance with the entire set of criteria inherent in it.

Those. in general, 95% of experts are not ready for the introduction of the classic version of the database in Russia.

It is curious that the main arguments against the DB were not economic at all, but political and social. In short, the DB “can undermine Russia will stand,” the journalists of the Interpreter blog sarcastically, citing the generalized arguments of experts against DB in Russia:

- The proposals for DB are purely populist and should be viewed primarily in a political rather than a socio-economic context.

- The introduction of the database radically changes the principled approach to organizing the life of the people. Until now, the approach was: "the people live by their labor and the use of their natural resources." The introduction of the database will mean that part of the people do not live by their own labor. This part will be added to the exploiters. Or another option: the people will begin to live, as before, at the expense of their labor, but part of their income will cease to induce them to productive socially useful activities.

- With normal literacy, striving for development, a healthy person cannot but want to work for the welfare of himself, his family and country.

- Let us note the desire of the ruling elite to avoid social guarantees of the population as much as possible, which fully corresponds to the radical conservative spirit of government during the oligarchy.

- Russia is an empire with an extremely different ethnic composition. Each region contributes in different ways to the common piggy bank and, therefore, should receive its income in different ways. Equalization in income by population is one of the factors in the collapse of the USSR.

- Given the low level of wages in some areas, there will be a problem of a shortage of labor resources. DB is an aggravation of the problem of dependency and lumpenization (for example, projects to introduce payments for maternity capital; “there will be an increase in dependency, a decrease in motives and incentives to work, a drop in labor productivity,” 60% of the experts answered).

- There will be an incentive for immigration in order to obtain Russian citizenship (42% of responses).

Another interesting admission of experts, how much now in Russia should be the cost of living for one person:

- To survive, you need at least 3 minimum wages (that is, at the current level of minimum wages, this is about 35 thousand rubles per person).