This article reports on the findings of “Mincome” basic income experiment in Dauphin, Canada. The Mincome experiment is the largest ever conducted in North America, lasting over four years. A recent revaluation of the findings by Dr. Evelyn L. Forget,an economist and professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba,found the basic income policy created a decline in doctor visits, an 8.5 percent reduction in the hospitalization rate, and more adolescents continuing into grade 12. Mallet uses these findings, along with the historical support from the libertarian Right, to argue in favor of the adoption of a guaranteed income.
Whitney Mallet, “The Town Where Everyone Got Free Money” Motherboard, February 4, 2015
For years I looked for this data. The Queens Printer did not seem to have anything. I was curious about the idea having tuned in to a TV credit course on taxation from U of Toronto. The lecturer, a prof, was arguing that a guaranteed income is a good way to tax people.. Go figure. He drew his conclusion from, I believe, 3 studies in cities across Canada that demographically represented various populations. Dauphin I remembered. But the other 2? What where they?
The results of these experiments were baffling; unemployment went down, businesses expanded and hired locals, social service claims decreased, etc. People went to work, counter intuitive at the time. I too was perplexed until I realized that the phenomena mirrored my own life. It is simply that one needs a “stake.” Rich or poor, you need a stake.
There is one big hurdle I am sure you realize. What to do with the vast numbers of persons currently employed in good paying jobs in social services and administration of programs and financial services like welfare and EI. They will need
“job training.”. . .