That's a good question. I've been a proponent of a "Universal Livable Income" in order to really decouple the need for working-for-income with basic survival. But that's more difficult to defend against the "causes inflation", "no-one will ever work", and "where will the money come from" crowds. Not to mention the "they don't deserve it" crowd.
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Universal: yes we mean everyone. Me, you, my rich old great-aunt who's going to leave me her mansion when she dies, even the asshole who was selling his US warehouses to ICE.
Basic: It assures you of adequate calories, livable shelter for your climate, and a week's worth of clean knickers, thrift-store clothes and the toonies for the odd laundry day.
Income: It's cash. It's not coupons, vouchers, charity, a socialist take on crypto, workfare or anything else that leaves a recipient beholden.
@johannab I love the idea of UBI as much as you and everyone, but I've always wondered: what will prevent landlords to just raise their rent and collect all our extra UBI revenues? What will prevent all companies to raise their prices now that we're all slightly richer?
A few things to read and consider about that concern: mattbruenig.com/2017/11/15/w... widerquist.com/will-basic-i... www.scottsantens.com/17-key-varia...
Thanks Scott! Those are better written explainers than I can manage.
I remember being a mathie kid with parents who budgeted carefully and tried to explain money & taxes without loading stress on a 9 yr old. The explanations of “baby bonus” and tax refunds because they deducted too much from Dad’s pay baffled a kid who could do arithmetic.
“Why don’t they just give you the refund first rather than making you fix their math then ask?”
@narF Couple of things make that not happen. Asshole landlords can only be assholes if they know that they can raise the rent because there is someone else who will pay more than you . They will do this if your income is $800/month and the next guy has $3000/month, and they will do this if your income is $2000/month and the other guy is $4200/mnth. They also have no business knowing what your sources of income are or how you use them, they just get to check your credit risk.
@narF we still need rent control and we still need to defenestrate asshole landlords *shrug*.
The other thing though, is that UBI, being Universal and Basic, has to have that structural tie-in to progressive taxation.
If you get $1200 in UBI, and do not have employment income, that is the first $1200 you earn and you pay no tax and you have $1200 to spend. If I don’t get any UBI ( for the thought experiment, ignore that I just broke “universal”) but am employed and get $2400/month..
So, the initials are non-negotiable. Some other things are non-negotiable too. You do not fund it at the expense of any, and I mean *ANY* other social benefit program, and you do not fund it out of *anyone's* pension, or anyone's *registered* savings (RSPs, pension funds, Canada Pension, RDSPs - off the table).
Basically, you cannot trade a *non*universal basic *anything* for the U.
You do not trade anyone's *personal* Basic anything for B.
Cash is cash. no trading the I.
Where's the money? We have it. You shift the structure.
1) are there other benefits to which we have universal *entitlement* but not universal *access*? Those are a *guaranteed* Basic Income, and become absorbed into *universal* Basic Income
-- Old Age Security
-- EI/Federal Disability Leave/parental leave/caregiver leave (with a stipulation that provinces and companies *absolutely are not permitted* to cut their benefits in kind, as those are not Universal nor Basic in the first place).
2) are there top-up, sorta-not-quite-basic programs that only some people can access? CCB, Education grants, I probably don't know all the other tax credits that you can only claim if your 12-year-old plays enough hockey to be scouted by the NHL. Roll all those in, *provided* a UBI assures the same or better to the recipients. That is, you yoink the Canada Education Savings Grant, but yes, *children* get UBI (maybe (?)at a lower, graduated rate in trust to their parents. Maybe not. Options).
