Canada Set to Test Basic-Income Concept
Our northern neighbor has decided to experiment with an idea already gaining popularity in Switzerland, Germany and Finland.
Julian Schüngel / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Our northern neighbor has decided to experiment with an idea already gaining popularity in Switzerland, Germany and Finland.
From Mic.com:
Buried away in Ontario’s 2016 budget documents are unspecific plans for the Canadian government to start giving a guaranteed, unconditional salary away to a few people just for being alive.
“The pilot project will test a growing view at home and abroad that a basic income could build on the success of minimum wage policies and increases in child benefits by providing more consistent and predictable support in the context of today’s dynamic labor market,” the budget states. … Basic income has been around for about a century as a radical vision for welfare reform. It could allow people a safety net to pursue meaningful work, give control to people who have restricted welfare programs and compensate homemakers for their historically unpaid labor.
Critics of basic income question where the money will come from. Popular suggestions for funding the service involve progressive taxation and cutting other welfare programs. But there are bigger concerns about the recipients of those paychecks: Namely, what will people do if they don’t have to work to survive?
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The economist explains why DiEM25, the movement he founded, is opposed to funding universal basic income through taxation.
As new technologies replace work, the question for the future is how best to provide economic security for all.
An advocate of the idea cites numerous cases around the world in which money allotted to members of communities with no strings attached led to important gains in social cohesion.
Support for a universal basic income is growing. In Europe, for example, the Dutch city of Utrecht is about to introduce an experiment that aims “to challenge the notion that people who receive public money need to be patrolled and punished." Here, the political, philosophical and economic arguments are made clear.
Taking the lead from the city of Utrecht, other Dutch cities are considering social experiments with basic income -- an income unconditionally granted to all its residents on an individual basis, without a means test or work requirement.
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