As someone who follows Finland very closely, I must register complete bafflement at this Peter Goodman piece in the New York Times about the coming end of Finland’s basic income experiment. The piece is titled “Finland Has Second Thoughts About Giving Free Money to Jobless People” and argues that the regular end of Finland’s two-year basic income experiment indicates some kind of shift in Finnish sentiment about providing income benefits to jobless people. But no such shift has occurred at any level, not in the government and not in the public.

In fact, what’s bizarre about the piece is that it contradicts itself on this point. Goodman says this:

But the Finnish government’s decision to halt the experiment at the end of 2018 highlights a challenge to basic income’s very conception. Many people in Finland — and in other lands — chafe at the idea of handing out cash without requiring that people work.