How to build a well-designed national basic income program – at half the cost
How to build a well-designed national basic income program – at half the cost
A new PBO report shows Canada could halve basic income costs using the economic family model while reducing poverty significantly.
Simplicity makes it more difficult for paper-pushers to game the system to help the rich. So any suggestion to complicate it oughta be taken skeptically.
The key is to base eligibility
And that's how you know this is the usual contempt and hatred for Canadians behind a proposal trying to use the philosophical clout of UBI in a despotic corrupt way.
Their scheme is to reduce old age spending by forcing their kids to support their parents.
UBI is inherently a zero cost program. Government gets no say in what to do with any tax revenue meant for it, and does not pay for administering "eligibility". Its just another (refundable) tax credit that gets paid by higher taxes on others, but who also inherently qualify for UBI.
UBI becomes an easy cost savings program when other programs are eliminated. UBI that is higher than social programs and EI, means programs can be eliminated to the benefit of people both receiving them and not. Unconditionality means no poverty trap preventing them from seeking additional income. Eliminating crime and homelessness is such a massive quality of life increase to all, including tourism related businesses. Massive economic growth and wage (that multiplies economic growth even more) benefits of UBI, means that the rich get richer even after tax hikes.
Hi friends I didn’t actually click the link so my skepticism may be unfounded. But I have a few concerns open to criticism or validation lol
In a primarily private sector “market” supply chain etc does basic income not just put downward pressure on wages in the form of a pseudo business subsidy ick.
Or if everyone has the same level of income before labour income **without pricing control **we end up just raising the floor on the cost of living? Sure there are long tails where only nice to have things get more expensive but in aggregate.
I’m 100% for wealth redistribution and believe heavily in public goods so please don’t at me as a capitalist pig 🐽. Maybe I’m missing the mark but adding more money into our under served areas of society without thoughtful discussion about financial literacy and about where that money inevitability ends up we’ve already lost the plot on the program lol
Thank you if you made it to the end of my poorly punctuated run on mess ❤️
There have been experimental deployments of Universal Basic Income, one of which lasted five years and involved an entire town, and none of those things ever materialized.
Not super well informed on the subject, but the idea is that money looses it's value the more you have. If you're struggling to make ends meet, even a small amount of additional income helps a ton, but if you're already stable, that same amount is inconsequential.
Now for the increase in prices, again "cost of living" is not a single thing, so it can't increase uniformly across the board and affect everyone the same way. The various products have to stay competitive with each other and your local farmer doesn't suddenly need more income either. So I dont expect essentials to get a massive price bump. The one thing we have to be careful with is rent, and that's already an issue.
We need to ban (or tax out of existence) the concept of owning a house you don't stay in. Landlords should be illegal, what value they provide to society is so marginal and so minimal that it would be an overwhelmingly net positive.
That tackles one of the largest worries against a universal income.
I understand the principle behind the concept but believe it lacks depth and is a bandaid for a systemic problem. If you’re struggling to make ends meet there’s been a failure giving you more money isn’t going to solve.
You’re 100% right the cost of living is far to broad to make assumptions about which areas it would impact at scale but the net idea of you increase monetary supply and capitalism does what it does best.
It sounds good in a vacuum but when you take a step back and think about it in aggregate at national scale with monopolistic national supply chains that are poorly regulated I might add see fixing the price of bread 😂 it’s going to be something we can pat ourselves on the back for but is a big nothing burger :(
In a primarily private sector “market” supply chain etc does basic income not just put downward pressure on wages in the form of a pseudo business subsidy ick.
The freedom to say no to job offers, or unfair working conditions, suggests a higher pressure on wages. Getting 5 recruiter calls per day would also raise your wages.
OTOH, people liking their society and wanting to give back might motivate them to work a few hours for beer money. The previous dynamic can mean eliminating minimum wage. You might be happy to work in a library for $3/hour if you feel it is helping educate society, and it doesn't happen to be illegal, as an example.
Can you reword your response to the scale of a country rather than an individual?
Primarily how basic income would increase competition for labour? Stating an anecdotal scenario where you have more opportunity is a nice thought but does little to support or dispose the proposal
I can appreciate the sentiment of wanting to give back to community when you’re grateful and many people do donate and volunteer their time for such causes.
Your point that it could remove the need for minimum wage is a scary thought when you consider the corporate obligation to maximize investor returns.
I don't think it would have to be any different than people getting a bigger tax return at the end of the year. Or like the HST rebates Ontario has been doing where they pay it out I think quarterly?
As it is right now, I've seen the occasional "tax return sale" because businesses know people just got paid a chunk of money and might be impulsive with it. I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing, the demand for everyday items won't change, and people will try and save money regardless of income level.
Please reconsider your example of tax sales with the perspective of a pressure sales tactic designed to extract the extra income from “consumers” lol
Who are woefully undereducated in how to manage their money. When you think about those who are most vulnerable financially your proposal misses the point of the value of a basic income program :(
This sounds really good, for a country that has been growing inflation adjusted per capita GDP the last decade that can afford it.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bOXgOLCm54A
Canada just announced its increasing immigration for the elderly as well, from India and Pakistan. This party will do the same as its done the last decade, capital swallowing while overburdening our infrastructure and services.