{"id":237,"date":"2015-02-17T13:24:00","date_gmt":"2015-02-17T13:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rf.podcastfixit.com\/index.php\/2015\/02\/17\/new-income-security-coalition-unites\/"},"modified":"2015-06-01T19:40:36","modified_gmt":"2015-06-01T19:40:36","slug":"new-income-security-coalition-unites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newscoverage.org\/index.php\/2015\/02\/17\/new-income-security-coalition-unites\/","title":{"rendered":"New income security coalition unites left and right"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Joel Ceausu
\n

\nFew things unite the right and left in Canada, Tim Hortons and hockey notwithstanding, but a not-so-radical idea might be one of them.
\n

\nMention \u201cguaranteed income\u201d and most people think \u201chandout.\u201d But there\u2019s a lot more to it, says Jonathan Brun, spokesperson for the Basic Income Canada Network and co-founder of Revenue de base Qu\u00e9bec, working to get Canada to adopt a basic income scheme.
\n

\n\u201cIt appeals to everyone because it addresses the burgeoning government bureaucracy and maintains a solid social safety net while changing the way government transfers wealth between taxpayers.\u201d
\n

\nThe notion is certainly not new, having been first espoused in antiquity, nor the exclusive domain of the left, when in the 1970s its most prominent promoters were economist Milton Friedman, U.S. President Richard Nixon and U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, says Brun.
\n

\n\u201cGuaranteed income would be universal. Everybody gets it, unconditionally: regardless of wealth, assets or income, and is paid to individuals not households.\u201d That differentiates it from welfare, he says, whose benefits depend on roommates, marital status, family and more.
\n

\n\u201cThat\u2019s very expensive to administer, but a basic income goes into our account at very low cost. The higher cost becomes the money we give to citizens rather than the bureaucratic expense of running social programs.\u201d
\n

\nA Montreal Web entrepreneur, Brun says a Quebec initiative could work with about $800 a person. \u201cIt\u2019s a little higher than welfare\u2014just enough for low-cost housing and some food \u2013 but not enough to just sit and do nothing. It encourages the person to get some sort of productive activity to generate more revenue and more personal wealth.\u201d
\n

\nAlso unlike welfare, recipients aren\u2019t penalized for earning income, \u201cwhich only encourages people to stay home unless they find full-time employment, which is hard in this economy.\u201d What\u2019s more, he says allowing more people to work makes the workforce more flexible by sharing labour across a larger pool in these days of offshoring and workplace automation.
\n

\nJust closing down programs like welfare, student loans, family allowance, arts grants and child tax credits would eliminate much of the very expensive system to run it. \u201cGovernments look at expenditures and revenues but these are not expenses, these are investments in our population. This gives power back to citizens and we\u2019ll see more economic growth.\u201d
\n

\n\u201cBetween the federal and Quebec governments there over 600 programs just to fund entrepreneurs. We can collapse all of it. Take the money out of bureaucracy and put it in citizens\u2019 pockets so they can support their business or start something on the side, and create wealth.\u201d
\n

\nHe says most Canadians would probably spend on their home, education, business and family, to change the lives of parents, children, of people close to them. \u201cBut don\u2019t think about what others would do with the money,\u201d he says. \u201cThink about what you would do.
\n

\nBrun says those who would benefit most would be lower middle class families and the working poor, adding that pilot projects in the U.S. and Manitoba in the 1970s showed more benefits. \u201cHealthcare costs decreased as people sought more preventative care; there were fewer desperate people dealing with the stress of not knowing if they can make the rent, fewer high school dropouts and less crime.\u201d
\n

\n(Switzerland will hold a non-binding plebiscite on the issue by the end of next year.)
\n

\nAdvocates are buoyed by the fact that Quebec\u2019s current Minister of Employment and Social Solidarity Fran\u00e7ois Blais wrote a book on the subject and is a personal proponent. Brun says it could work in Quebec whose multiple entitlements and groaning bureaucracy are buttressed by a strong sense of social solidarity.
\n

\n\u201cWe are building a citizens\u2019 movement to pressure government and see policy changes.\u201d It can be a tough sell: \u201cIf you listen for 30 seconds, it seems like another handout, but if you listen for five minutes, you\u2019ll see it\u2019s an extension of the same philosophy that brought us Medicare.\u201d
\n

\n\u201cInstead of treating symptoms with prisons, health care and big programs, we address the root of the problem, which is a lack of personal freedom to pursue dreams and ambitions by being deprived of resources. Instead of looking it as a social safety net,\u201d in other words, \u201ctry to view it as a floor for everyone to stand upon.\u201d
\n\/30
\n

\nThe official launch of Revenue de base Qu\u00e9bec takes place next month. For information visit: www.revenudebase.quebec<\/a> or the Basic Income Canada Network www.biencanada.ca<\/a><\/p>\n

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By Joel Ceausu Few things unite the right and left in Canada, Tim Hortons and hockey notwithstanding, but a not-so-radical idea might be one of them. Mention \u201cguaranteed income\u201d and most people think \u201chandout.\u201d But there\u2019s a lot more to it, says Jonathan Brun, spokesperson for the Basic Income Canada Network and co-founder of Revenue<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nNew income security coalition unites left and right - Newscoverage<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/newscoverage.org\/index.php\/2015\/02\/17\/new-income-security-coalition-unites\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New income security coalition unites left and right - Newscoverage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Joel Ceausu Few things unite the right and left in Canada, Tim Hortons and hockey notwithstanding, but a not-so-radical idea might be one of them. 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