by Andre Coelho | Aug 17, 2016 | News
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has recently announced a revamped Child Benefit program, as reported by Tania Kohut on Canada Global News. This new program replaces the Canada Child Tax Benefit, Universal Child Care Benefit and income splitting.
According to Trudeau’s government, this new program will cover nine out of ten families with children, and will be targeted to disburse more money to low-income families than to higher income ones. The increase in child benefits will be as much as 64% for some families, since they will be eligible for up to 6400 CAN$ per year per child under six years old, and up to 5400 CAN$ per child up to seventeen years old (values on average). This is comparison to an average of 3600 CAN$ per year in previous years.
The new Child Benefit program will represent about 18% of the Canadian median income, and 58% of the poverty line (as defined by the top income of those living in poverty according to Canada Without Poverty). The program is almost universal in giving out benefits to families with children, although it is designed more like a negative income tax than a universal basic income, since the benefit value gets automatically reduced with increasing income. This, according to Trudeau, will lift about 300 000 children out of poverty, in Canada.
Like previous child benefit programs, the new grant is conditional in nature – taking into account household income and the number and age of children. However, it has been enlarged in value and in population coverage, which are definitely steps towards universality and covering basic needs. In this respect, this social security policy revamp is in line with all recent developments in Canada, which has seen increasing interest and support for social policies like basic income. Trudeau’s government and Canada’s regional authorities (especially in Ontario) are consistently showing signs of eagerness to change the social security paradigm in Canada, through both enlarging and expanding conditional benefits and preparing experiments with basic income.
More information at:
Tania Kohut, “Canada Child Benefit: Everything you need to know“, Global News, July 19th 2016
Statistics Canada, “Individuals by total income level, by province and territory”, July 2016
by Josh Martin | Feb 18, 2015 | News
Santens writes extensively on the question of what motivates us to work and whether or not anybody today can work for reasons other than for survival. He outlines three choices: working for others, working for ourselves, or doing zero work. Santens argues that under the current system only the first option is possible, but that with a basic income people could finally reach option two or three.
Scott Santens, “If we no longer force people to work to meet their basic needs, won’t they stop working?”, Scott Santens, 27 January 2015.
by Peter Knight | Dec 19, 2023 | News, Research
Abstract: “What would be the consequences of a long-term commitment to provide everyone enough money to meet their basic needs? We examine this hotly debated issue in the context of a unique eld experiment in rural Kenya. Communities receiving UBI experienced substantial economic expansion|more enterprises, higher revenues, costs, and net revenues|and structural shifts, with the expansion concentrated in the non-agricultural sector. Labor supply did not change overall, but shifted out of wage employment and towards self-employment. We also compare the effects to those of shorter-term transfers delivered either as a stream of small payments or a large lump sum. The lump sums had similar, if not larger, economic impacts, while the short-term transfers had noticeably smaller effects, despite having delivered the same amount of capital to date. These results are consistent with a simple model of forward-looking lumpy investment, and more generally with a role for savings constraints, credit constraints, and some degree of (locally) increasing returns, among other factors.”
Read a summary of the report.
Read the full report.
by Peter Knight | Dec 5, 2023 | News
“Imagine a world where not a single child has to grow up in poverty.
This vision may not be as far off as one might imagine. A new study by Abt Associates shows how guaranteed income pilots improve children’s wellbeing and strengthened families.
The paper, titled “My kids deserve the world”: How children in the Southeast benefit from guaranteed income, uses qualitative data from MGI mayor-led guaranteed income pilots in four Southern U.S. cities: Atlanta, GA, Birmingham, AL, Louisville, KY, and Shreveport, LA. Researchers identified five key benefits:
- Providing for Basic Needs
- Better Educational Outcomes and Children’s Development
- Work-Life Balance
- Enrichment, Parent-Child Bonding, and Parental Confidence
- Parents’ Mental Health”
Read the summary here.
Read the full report here.
by Karl Widerquist | Sep 18, 2023 | Opinion, The Indepentarian
My main perspective is an argument with four premises:
1. It’s wrong for anyone to come between anyone else and the resources they need to survive in almost all circumstances.
2. Freedom is the power to say no.
3. A private property economy (or a socialist economy) without basic income interferes with people as they try to use resources to survive.
4. By doing 3, economic rules take people’s freedom away.
5. (Conclusion): private property or socialist economies require a basic income large enough to meet people’s basic needs.
I’ve written a lot justifying each of these premises, explaining & exploring what they mean, justifying the connection between these premises and the conclusion, replying to potential objections, making addition arguments for basic income, and exploring other conclusions that follow from my basic moral perspective, but–near as I can tell–this is the heart of my political theory.
