But I do think think that countries which offer a great deal of socialized benefits (such as Finland, Sweden etc.) have a significant problem with a unemployment in the youngest generation of the labor force.
Unemployment and youth unemployment are big problems in my area. I don't think the benefits are to blame though. It's just that ends don't meet and we don't have enough jobs.
In fact, there's been a strong push to get the unemployed to "do something" (however useless it is.. it's fine as long as they look busy..) and so now we have people who are more or less forced to work for 9eur a day in order to be eligible for the unemployment benefits. Which puts them well below the minimum wage for typical low income full time jobs.
I've been involved, and I know for a fact that many of these young people are very unhappy about this. They really would rather have a real job if they could.
EDIT: Finland
I suppose that universal income would be much easier to accept, politically and socially, in southern Europe, where living from the state doing the less work possible is already applauded and something a lot of people strive for. Of course, in order to implement something like universal income we would need to get our shit together first, and that is just not going to happen.
Anyway, I wonder if there is a country in the EU with a chance of implementing it in a generation. It should be a country without a big immigration problem, not overly protestant, not too big, with a grip on themselves and their politics... Ireland, maybe?
Outside the EU, Switzerland is the obvious choice (I heard that they are already looking into it). I hope they finally decide to do it as, if it works, it would probably trigger a lot of discussion in all Europe.
Norway has an unemployment rate of 3.9%... that's lower than the US (much lower if you use U6 as a metric) or UK. In fact, it's one of the lowest in the world.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_unemployme...
Youth unemployment in Norway is significantly lower than in the US, using the data from ycharts which should be from here: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/...
United states: 12.3%
Norway: 8.6%
https://ycharts.com/indicators/norway_youth_unemployment_rat...
https://ycharts.com/indicators/united_states_youth_unemploym...
Edit - I see someone else has already brought this up :)
The only way we can make a society more accommodating is to change the type of coercion to a more gentle one. I.e., instead of working to avoid starvation and being eaten by wild animals people now work to avoid going into debt, losing their preferred place to live and having to rely on food stamps (at least in the US). In a society with basic income they would be coerced to work though social pressure and the desire to have nice things. (Edit: The latter may seem like an intrinsic motivation but in a society with advertising it is one that is actively generated. Advertising may actually gain a new, vital role in getting people to work if a basic income program is implemented.)