that's cool. UBI next!
this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2026
447 points (99.3% liked)
World News
53749 readers
2244 users here now
A community for discussing events around the World
Rules:
-
Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
- Post news articles only
- Video links are NOT articles and will be removed.
- Title must match the article headline
- Not United States Internal News
- Recent (Past 30 Days)
- Screenshots/links to other social media sites (Twitter/X/Facebook/Youtube/reddit, etc.) are explicitly forbidden, as are link shorteners.
-
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
-
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed.
-
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
-
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF OCTOBER 19 2025
-
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
-
Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
-
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
Lemmy World Partners
News !news@lemmy.world
Politics !politics@lemmy.world
World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world
Recommendations
For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/
- Consider including the article’s mediabiasfactcheck.com/ link
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
I'd love that in France...
So anyone who has been close to musicians is aware of how little they get for what they do and how much time they put in. Sometimes they’re lucky to get drinks for what they do.
In the meantime, we have arseholes with at least enough money in their pockets to go out telling the door person ‘we’re with the band’, hitting bands up for entry or trying to get in the back entrance with them. For 10 or 15 entry fee.
That’s just a perspective of someone who has been close to local level musicians and isn’t an artist themselves. I can imagine what other performing and producing artists have to put up with.
Good on Ireland for this. I don’t think they’ll struggle screening it. Social payments underwrite artistic creativity because if artists have it, they can at least eat and live while they produce for the entertainment of others.
Even amazing writers and musicians can barely scrape a living. Being an artist is mostly unpaid labor that enriches Irish culture. Why wouldn’t we incentivize artists for some pitiful sum of money if they’re willing?
No matter how much capitalists pretend that artistic talent falls from the sky like mana for the rest of us to enjoy, it isn’t actually free. It takes thousands of hours of effort to become something resembling an artist. And this program is a cheap way to make that happen.
One thing I consistently find is the willingness of those who oppose arts funding to seek free entry to performing arts or offer ‘exposure’ as payment to artists.
Edit: changed ‘to’ to ‘who’
load more comments
(16 replies)
Account less than a month old and posting uplifting news, while being salty about said news in the comments.
I smell astroturf.
load more comments
(8 replies)
That's honestly pretty neat, assuming these artists are more useful to society than my idiotic "artist" sister. I'm interested to see how it plays out over the long term, and what it could mean for other places considering a universal basic income.
I think it'd be pretty neat even if it covered useless idiots. Keeps 'em out of trouble.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Amazing, I love it. Good job Ireland!
"Fuck my life!", said factory workers throughout the land.
Factory workers are eligible to become artists at any time. It was always allowed.
IIRC this program is invite-only, because yeah, otherwise it'd end up being for everyone.
Edit: And that's sus, and might just end in politician's cousins getting invited.
Art is a skill that takes time and dedication to cultivate, and often at least a seed of talent to boot.
I can't just wake up one morning and say "I'm an artist now" anymore than I can wake up and say "I'm a doctor today."
That’s the point. People want to simultaneously pretend that art is the trivial pursuit of effete dilettantes but also that subsidizing art is unfair since it would take too much sacrifice and effort for any random person to become an artist.
load more comments
(3 replies)
I did 10 years as a professional artist, it was the hardest I ever worked in my life, and in the end I gave it up because despite winning awards and having collectors around the world after becoming very good at it, it is very hard to manage and maintain an actual art business in a world that doesn't take art very seriously, especially with rising costs of things like healthcare and general goods needed to produce work.
There's a reason why when you go to a fine art museum half of the most famous works and most beautiful pieces that changed the culture of art and even our perception of the world, were made by people who died in abject poverty.
It's wild we read stories like that and say "Wow that's a shame, I wish we could have given that artist the accolades and support they needed to survive and know how important they were for the world." But the moment someone says "Maybe we should support artists" suddenly it's hand-wringing and whinging about "factory workers."
This isn't a question if Ireland's policy makes you feel good or bad, it's a question whether or not you think there should be art in the world at all and what you're willing to accept or change or pay to have that world with actual art in it.
load more comments
(3 replies)
Or the disabled, or the just poor and untalented.
Basic income is the darling of policy wonks of all kinds. But, doing it just for already-successful artists is a bit random.
doing it just for already-successful artists is a bit random.
I think a lot of people have radical misconceptions about what it means to be a "successful artist" or even what the spectrum of the field looks like for an average creator.
Everyone in this post feeling salty about this whole story are picturing either struggling deviantart furry artists living in their parent's house making terrible sonic OC's for sheltered discord kiddies, or snooty dudes in black turtlenecks having showings of abstract nonsense at galleries in upscale neighborhoods, and nothing in between.
Most artists who survive by art are making minimum wage grinding out graphics and designs for like, edges of price-tag-holders on magazine racks at drug-store checkouts and the other millions of tiny details that go into making our world deliberate-looking and designed, and most of those kinds of artists are working contract/gig work and aren't even full-time employees and have no benefits or safety nets. Employers hate paying artists, there's a very real stigma and aversion to paying people for creativity and most companies choose either outsourcing small projects at a time, or more and more choosing to just use AI.
A graphic designer can make a logo that redefines a global company's image and helps launch a multi-billion dollar venture, and make $200 for it. This is why there's a very real need to fund art unless we want to hand it over to AI entirely and just let the world dissolve into mediocrity and soullessness.
Yeah, but this specific policy, last I checked, is invite-only. That means it's the turtleneck guys, or more likely the Celtic fine art equivalent, not gig work graphic designers.
Unless said graphic designer has an in with someone in charge of sending the invites, anyway. Which is another issue with doing it that way.
(It's a good thing to point out in general, though)
That means it’s the turtleneck guys, or more likely the Celtic fine art equivalent, not gig work graphic designers.
And? That's fine. The country wants to boost their artistic culture, it has to start somewhere. And honestly, despite me holding it up as a picture of stereotypes, even those "cultural" artists rarely see any measure of actual success despite trying their whole lives to gain some kind of social connection to an art market. Again, this is a matter of deciding if we want art in our lives and where that goal is going to begin.
If celtic sculptors and "art lifestylers" get a UBI, that's great. It just means the struggling graphic artist is a little closer to also finding some level of support, and the closer the struggling graphic artist gets to social respect and support, the closer YOU get to a broad-scale safety net.
I just will never shit on efforts to socialize our vast resources as a species, at least not until the last billionaire is made into mulch.
325 euros per week, says the article.
About as much as I made on my best weeks doing art professionally for close to 10 years, despite having won awards and secured collectors around the world.
I worked harder than I ever had in my life to keep that business running, and eventually closed shop because it's too much work for too little pay or respect.
Ironic since I'm quite sure most of the sock-puppets and astroturfers baiting this post and whinging about "factory workers" are literal kids who have never actually worked a day in their life.
load more comments
(2 replies)
Didn’t they already do this like a year ago? And the year before that?
They were trialing it, yeah, turned out to be successful so they're permanizing it
It's almost like artistic endeavours take time to be valued in their entirety. Years, decades, centuries sometimes. And the number crunchers just don't want to give it a chance because it isn't a good ROI for this quarter or period.
view more: next ›