As income inequality and economic upheaval take center stage, is a guaranteed minimum income worth considering? Results from a two-year experiment in Finland offer clues. A small increase in employment In the design of the Finnish experiment, the main research question, agreed to by parliament in the enabling legislation, was the impact of a basic … Continue reading
A parliamentarian requested that the PBO estimate the cost of a guaranteed basic income (GBI) program to ensure all Canadians between 18 and 64 have income of at least 75% of the Low-Income Measure (LIM; $24,439 for an individual and $34,562 for a couple) for the last six months of the fiscal year 2020-21. The … Continue reading
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Recent debates of basic income (BI) proposals shine a useful spotlight on the challenges that traditional forms of income support are increasingly facing, and highlight gaps in social provisions that largely depend on income or employment status. A universal “no questions asked” public transfer would be simple and have the advantage that no-one would be … Continue reading
The total annual estimated gross cost of the defined GBI would range between $76.0 billion and $79.5 billion for the period 2018-2023. The guaranteed income for disability would range between $3.2 billion and $3.5 billion. PBO forecasts that more than 7.5 million people would benefit from the basic cost of GBI. Thus, on a per capita basis, the annual cost … Continue reading
In the winter of 2015, the government, which is dominated by the right-leaning Centre Party, announced a formal study, run by Kela, to see if basic income was viable. The public adored the idea. In national polls, almost 70 percent of Finns supported it. Asked what level of income would be sufficient, on average they … Continue reading
Manitoba’s Mincome trial, which ran from 1975 to 1979, is being spoken of respectfully now because guaranteed income has so rarely been tested in a thoughtful way. Mincome was designed consciously as an experiment, applied in two theatres. In the city of Winnipeg, 1,187 households were randomly chosen to receive a “negative income tax,” and … Continue reading
Frans Kerver was working 12-hour days before the money started coming in. For nine years, the 53-year-old freelance copywriter living in Groningen, the Netherlands, would rise at 7 a.m. and fall asleep at 1 a.m. His wife and three kids rarely saw him.When Kerver began receiving a basic income last July, everything changed. Universal basic income … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
In a random sampling of public opinion taken by the Forum Poll™ among 1406 Canadian voters, more than a third favour the introduction of a guaranteed annual minimum income to replace other state supports like social assistance, unemployment and pensions (36%), a sharp increase from the last time we polled this question four years ago … Continue reading
The Finnish example is typical of the fiscal folly. The Finns propose a monthly transfer of €800 ($1,200) a person, which sounds nice until you do the math and figure out this would require a doubling of existing taxes to fund the program. This transfer would barely replace what low-income Finns already get under their … Continue reading
Finland’s government is drawing up plans to pay every citizen a basic income of euros 800 ($1,165) each month, scrapping benefits altogether. Under proposals drafted by the Finnish Social Insurance Institution (Kela), the tax-free payments would replace all other benefit payments, and would be paid to all adults regardless of whether or not they receive … Continue reading
Free cash is in the works for a growing number of Dutch urbanites. After the city of Utrecht announced that it would give no-strings-attached money to some of its residents, other Dutch cities are getting on board for social experiments with “basic income,” a regular and unconditional stipend to cover living costs. Tilburg, a city … Continue reading