Ireland started with artists because they were an easy case: chronically underpaid, culturally necessary, structurally abandoned by the market, and the political argument was winnable. But the experiment proves something more general: unconditional income produces more output, not less, generates return and not just expenditure, and retains people in socially valuable work who would otherwise give up.

Ireland started with artists because they were an easy case: chronically underpaid, culturally necessary, structurally abandoned by the market, and the political argument was winnable. But the experiment proves something more general: unconditional income produces more output, not less, generates return and not just expenditure, and retains people in socially valuable work who would otherwise give up.

Ireland started with artists because they were an easy case: chronically underpaid, culturally necessary, structurally abandoned by the market, and the political argument was winnable. But the experiment proves something more general: unconditional income produces more output, not less, generates return and not just expenditure, and retains people in socially valuable work who would otherwise give up.