Keeping the bailiff from repossessing your car: the case for a basic income

In their new book The Case for Basic Income, Jamie Swift and Elaine Power vigorously demonstrate that basic income programs have been tried and measured in several countries. In Canada, they have been tested in Manitoba and Ontario—with clearly positive results.

The basic income amounts delivered in the Ontario pilot clearly are not a silver-bullet solution, but as in other test programs, the results were clear. Instead of having to hock their possessions to stave off eviction or pay an overdue utility bill, families were investing in their children, writes Jim Creskey.Unsplash photograph by Alexander Dummer

Feature

BY JIM CRESKEY

June 9, 2021

A basic income for all Canadians, an unconditional, guaranteed income floor below which no one’s income can fall, is an idea that has been growing in refinement and acceptance since the early 1900s. It has some enthusiastic opponents, but unlike other policy ideas, the enemies of basic income come...

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