Too Long; Didn't Read
This year’s election in Italy was shocking. The populist, anti-establishment Five Star Movement party emerged from obscurity to become the largest party in government. Its central campaign plank was to pay a Universal Basic Income (UBI), locally referred to as the “citizen’s income” and “citizen’s wage” to the poor. Italy has long suffered from mass unemployment. The new government is fulfilling its campaign promise: it has <a href="https://www.thelocal.it/20181017/here-are-the-main-things-included-in-italys-peoples-budget" target="_blank">introduced a UBI</a> of €780 per person, every month, in its draft 2019 budget.