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<!-- you can have any number of categories here --> [[Category:Gilles Séguin]] [[Category:Basic Income]] [[Category:Mincome]] <!-- 1 URL must be followed by >= 0 Other URL and Old URL and 1 End URL.--> {{URL | url = http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/gai.htm}} <!-- {{Other URL | url = }} --> <!-- {{Old URL | url = }} --> {{End URL}} {{DES | des = A crowdsourced scholarly index to [[Basic Income]] (and [[Mincome]] articles, research, conferences, etc. Many, many links. | show=}} <!-- DPL has problems with categories that have a single quote in them. Use these explicit workarounds. --> <!-- normally, we would use {{Links}} and {{Quotes}} --> {{Quotations|Guaranteed Annual Income Links|quotes=true}} {{Text | International Basic Income Links (this link takes you further down on this page ) Links below are organized in reverse chronological order on this page, with the most recently-posted link immediately below this red bar. Mincome Manitoba An end to the perpetual welfare trap? Guaranteed incomes debated http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/an-end-to-the-perpetual-welfare-trap-167004295.html By: Mary Agnes Welch August 22, 2012 Bringing back a discarded government program could save taxpayers millions in health-care and bureaucracy costs and dramatically shrink poverty, just as it did in Dauphin almost 40 years ago. The problem is, even the province's left-leaning NDP government likely doesn't have the political will to use it. That was the feeling Tuesday at a standing-room-only lecture about a hot public-policy idea -- a guaranteed annual income that would replace welfare. It's an idea with roots in Manitoba. Nearly 40 years ago, Dauphin was the site of an experiment on the effects of a guaranteed income. Every low-income person in town, including the working poor and people not eligible for welfare, got a top-up to ensure a basic level of income. At a discussion hosted by Winnipeg Harvest, University of Manitoba researcher Evelyn Forget said the results were remarkable: People had much better health, far more children graduated from high school and people didn't stop working just because they were guaranteed an income. (...) Guaranteed annual income had a rebirth as an interesting, if seemingly radical, policy alternative to the confusing, expensive hodge-podge of welfare systems in Canada. We've already adopted some targeted elements of a GAI, such as the national child benefit and the guaranteed income supplement for seniors. Yukon toyed with a version of the GAI in 2007, and there was an international conference focused on the idea in Toronto in May of this year. - includes an overview of the Mincome Manitoba experiment of the mid-1970s, specifically in Dauphin Manitoba. Source: Winnipeg Free Press http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/ The Manitoba Mincome Experiment http://legalcheckpoint.blogspot.com/2007/11/social-policy-manitoba-mincome.html November 15, 2007 By M. L'Heureux The Mincome Project, also called the Manitoba Basic Guaranteed Annual Income Experiment, was the “first large scale social experiment in Canada and was designed to evaluate the economic and social consequences of an alternative social welfare system based on the concept of negative income tax (NIT)”. The experiment took place between 1975 and 1979 in Winnipeg and Dauphin, Manitoba. The research project was jointly funded by the Federal Government of Canada and the Manitoba Government. Little is known about the experiment as the federal government chose to shelve the report for reasons still unknown to the public. The raw data that was accumulated during the experiment is still relevant to today’s Guaranteed Income debates and is available in some academic libraries and in all provincial legislatures. Source: Legal Checkpoint Blog http://legalcheckpoint.blogspot.com/ Related link: Dauphin's great experiment: Mincome, nearly forgotten child of the '70s, was a noble experiment By Lindor Reynolds November 28, 2009 DAUPHIN — Thirty-five years ago, this pretty town surrounded by farm land and far from big cities was the site of a revolutionary social experiment. For five years, Mincome ensured there would be no poverty in Dauphin. Wages were topped up and the working poor given a boost. The experiment, a collaboration between Ed Schreyer's provincial NDP and the Liberal government of Pierre Trudeau, would cost millions before the plug was pulled. The program saw one-third of Dauphin's poorest families get monthly cheques. In 1971, at a federal-provincial conference held in Victoria, Manitoba expressed interest in being the testing ground for a guaranteed income project. The Schreyer government applied for funding. In June, 1974, Mincome was approved... Source: Winnipeg Free Press --- May 2, 2013 Update from Jim Mulvale of the Basic Income Canada Network: http://biencanada.ca/ ****************************************** The final programme for the Twelfth Annual North American Basic Income Guarantee Congress [ http://goo.gl/p4x0A ], taking place from Thursday May 9th to Saturday May 11th, 2013 at the Sheraton Times Square Hotel, New York City. Schedule and other details: http://www.usbig.net/index.php The most recent edition of Basic Income Studies (Vol. 7 No. 2, Dec. 2012) is now available on-line. It is a special issue on "The Right to Work and Basic Income". http://goo.gl/yqQpv Read about this lively and important debate at: http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/bis.2013.7.issue-2/issue-files/bis.2013.7.issue-2.xml --- Other news on research, debates and developments related to basic income can be found at Basic Income News: http://binews.org/ --- Planning is underway for the 15th International Congress of the Basic Income Earth Network [ http://www.basicincome.org/bien/ ], which will take place in Montreal on 26 - 29 June 2014. Mark your calendars, and stay tuned for further information! --- Our group is an affiliate of the Basic Income Earth Network: http://www.basicincome.org/bien/ For more info on any of the above, please contact Jim Mulvale at the University of Regina : [ Jim.Mulvale@uregina.ca ] Tory senator says time is right for ‘minister for poverty reduction’ http://www.canada.com/Tory+senator+says+time+right+minister+poverty+reduction/8290397/story.html By Jordan Press April 24, 2013 OTTAWA — Conservative Sen. Hugh Segal did something this week that would be expected of a member of the government: He praised the federal budget during debate on the document tabled in March. Then he did something a little unexpected: He said that the budget was only a start and that the government should do more to tackle poverty, specifically create a new ministerial portfolio dedicated to reducing poverty in Canada, and a new tax credit for those whose income was below the poverty line. Source: Canada.com http://www.canada.com/ Full text of Senator Segal's speech (from the Parliamentary website) http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/Sen/Chamber/411/Debates/154db_2013-04-23-e.htm#40 Working Poor (guaranteed annual income) (video, duration 8:54) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2Bdiy8_YNg With Senator Hugh Segal Part 2: Working Poor: Where do they live? (video, duration 8:43) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B11UPqNZYpY With John Stapleton & Michael Menezes NOTE : Both of the above videos include links (in the right margin of the YouTube page) to similar/related videos, including an hour-long video of a lecture on fighting poverty in Canada by Senator Segal that was produced in collaboration with the Literary Review of Canada. Source: Context with Loran Dueck http://www.contextwithlornadueck.com/ Global TV http://www.globaltv.com/ Why Guaranteeing the Poor an Income Will Save Us All In the End http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/hugh-segal/guaranteed-annual-income_b_3037347.html By Hugh Segal, Conservative Senator April 8, 2013 In a world where innovation in service delivery and value for money are ever more vital for government credibility, innovation on poverty reduction is deeply absent. It certainly has been from recent federal and provincial budgets in Canada. [ http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/budgets_2013.htm ] From Washington to Ottawa to London to Paris, austerity, in different measures and calibrations, has taken the place of innovation. We do not and have not taken a fundamental new approach to poverty reduction in a quarter of a century. While the global numbers of people who live on under a dollar a day has been reduced massively worldwide because freer trade has allowed productive economies in Asia to lift tens of millions out of poverty, that happy news has little impact on poverty reduction and its relative failure in the countries of the West. (...) Knowing that poverty is the most reliable predictor of trouble with the law, early use of our health care facilities, lower life span, illiteracy, family violence and unemployment, all of which cost tens of billions of tax dollars at a time when tax dollars are hard to find, should spur innovation. Never mind the core inhumanity of not helping the people whom we need as productive, taxpaying, full participants in our economic mainstream. Source: Huffington Post Canada http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/ Scrapping Welfare : The case for guaranteeing all Canadians an income above the poverty line http://reviewcanada.ca/essays/2012/12/01/scrapping-welfare/ By Hugh Segal December 2012 Federal and provincial governments have argued for decades that poverty is a complex problem. “Complex” is a code word for a problem no one wants to face directly. Poverty is a complex issue, but in the end it is about one thing—a person not having enough money to meet basic needs of food, shelter, clothing and transportation for self or family. (...) A basic income floor, or refundable income tax credit, or basic annual income credit, or guaranteed annual income—call it what you like—would put a floor under all Canadians beneath which they could not fall, one that would see them through to working and earning again. Putting limits on what one can achieve is not what the state should do. We can agree that is excessive overreach. But putting a floor below which no one can fall is both achievable and necessary. In a mixed free market Canadian economy where enterprise, risk, diligence and hard work matter, equality of opportunity is essential if fairness about access to the economic mainstream is to be real for all. A guaranteed annual income would be a serious pillar of that opportunity, as important to us as universal education, safe communities and health insurance. [ Author Hugh Segal is an Ontario senator and former president of the Institute for Research on Public Policy. ] Source: Literary Review of Canada http://reviewcanada.ca/ Related link: A guaranteed income for Canadians would eliminate poverty http://www.vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/Barbara+Yaffe+guaranteed+income+Canadians+would/7767845/story.html By Barbara Yaffe January 2, 2013 While a Canada without poor people may sound like a pipe dream, in fact it is an achievable goal. So says Conservative Sen. Hugh Segal, who makes an argument for a poverty-free country in the Literary Review of Canada. It’s worth noting that Segal, a former chief of staff to Brian Mulroney appointed to the Senate by Paul Martin, is more Red Tory than Harper-style Conservative. Source: Vancouver Sun http://www.vancouversun.com/ Call for Papers and Presentations: Basic Income and Economic Citizenship Twelfth Annual North American Basic Income Guarantee Congress May 9-11, 2013, New York City http://www.usbig.net/index.php [The basic income guarantee (BIG) is a government insured guarantee that no citizen's income will fall below some minimal level for any reason.] --- The Twelfth Annual North American Basic Income Congress, Basic Income and Economic Citizenship, will take place in New York City on Thursday, May 9th through Saturday, May 11th, 2013. The congress is organized by the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network (USBIG) in cooperation with the Basic Income Canada Network (BICN). The deadline for proposals is November 30, 2012. Click either of the two source links below for more information about the event and the call for papers and presentations. Source: U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network (USBIG) http://www.usbig.net/ Basic Income Canada Network (BICN) http://biencanada.ca/ Politics and Poverty Reduction (video, 49 minutes) [ If you can't see the video on the left, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Htjo7Rdb4Cw&feature=plcp ] November 15, 2012 Join Steve Paikin as he explores a perennial question: How do we eliminate poverty? Guests: Andrew Coyne (Columnist, Post Media) Glen Hodgson (Chief Economist, Conference Board of Canada) Hugh Segal (Senator, Kingston-Frontenac-Leeds) Armine Yalnizyan (Senior Economist, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives) This video is part of TVO's 'Why Poverty' series. Why Poverty? http://ww3.tvo.org/whypoverty/main Why Poverty? is a groundbreaking cross-media event reaching more than 500 million people around the world. TVO is proud to be one of 70 participating broadcasters kick-starting national and global debates about poverty in the 21st Century. Links include: * Documentaries * Understanding Poverty * Ending Poverty * Classroom Tools * About More Why Poverty Documentaries http://ww3.tvo.org/whypoverty/docs TVOntario http://www.tvo.org/ --- Related link: Five Reasons Why Income Security Should Remain A Priority http://theagenda.tvo.org/blog/agenda-blogs/guest-post-five-reasons-why-income-security-should-remain-priority Pedro Barata argues social assistance reform should remain a top priority even in a time of austerity. November 21, 2012 (...) Here are five reasons why income security reform should be top of mind for the province: 1. It’s the right thing to do 2. It’s about the economy 3. It’s about expecting results from public policy 4. It’s about investing now, saving later 5. It’s about momentum To build the kind of society that we want, to do the smart thing for our economic prosperity, and to capitalize on social consensus when and where it arises, it is critical that this conversation continues and that reform becomes a reality in Ontario. [ Author Pedro Barata is United Way Toronto’s vice president of communications and public affairs. He has seen social assistance from many angles over the past two decades -- as a recipient and advocate, as community researcher, and as a developer of policy. Most recently, he was a member of the Ontario Social Assistance Review Advisory Council, whose work preceded the establishment of the Lankin/Sheikh Commission. Any reform to help Canada’s poor will probably be incremental and piecemeal — but we’re already part way there http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/reform+help+Canada+poor+will+probably+incremental/7562433/story.html By Andrew Coyne November 16, 2012 For much of the past two years, much of the media has been obsessed with a tiny number of very rich people — “the one per cent.” Rather less coverage has been devoted to the far greater numbers of the very poor: the bottom 10 per cent. This suggests a certain loss of perspective. Surely if there is a problem that merits our concern, it is not that we have too many rich people, but too many poor. (...) Every so often this enduring problem produces a spasm of reform efforts, usually inconclusive. With federal and provincial finances in their current disarray, and given the premium, as the ranks of the retired swell, on freeing every available person-hour for work, perhaps it is time to try again. Some impetus was provided by the recent report of the Commission for the Review of Social Assistance in Ontario, the first the province has undertaken in more than 20 years. More radically, there is renewed interest in that hardy perennial, the guaranteed annual income, as championed by the indefatigable Sen. Hugh Segal. (...) Most of these programs that the GAI would replace are provincial, and the provinces are notoriously unwilling to give up turf. Moreover, it’s not clear just how many you’d even want to scrap. Some GAI models envisage replacing not only welfare, but employment insurance, daycare and pensions. But these are very different programs, designed for different purposes: EI, for instance, is properly about income replacement, not income support. It’s probable some current social assistance programs are ineffective and unnecessary; it’s not obvious all of them are. So any reform will probably be incremental and piecemeal, rather than the kind of revolution some proponents have in mind. The good news is: We’re already part way there. The Guaranteed Income Supplement for the elderly, the National Child Benefit for parents with children, and the Working Income Tax Benefit for the working poor are all very GAI-like, as is the GST credit available to those on low income generally. Perhaps it’s simply a matter of building on those foundations. Source: Ottawa Citizen http://www.ottawacitizen.com Senator Hugh Segal speaks out in Gananoque against poverty http://www.emcstlawrence.ca/20121101/news/Senator+Hugh+Segal+speaks+out+in+Gananoque+against+poverty November 1, 2012 By Lorraine Payette Senator Hugh Segal, Kingston-Frontenac-Leeds, recently spoke at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Gananoque on the subject of ending poverty in Ontario. "Today, and for 40 years, said the Senator for Kingston-Frontenac-Leeds, I have been campaigning for the kind of economic framework that deals with the worst scourge and most serious social and economic threat that 'a safe place to call home' continues to face - and that is the scourge and plague of poverty,". "Poverty is what makes what should be a strong community weak, makes a potentially unified and coherent society divided and in pain. And here in Canada, while we have made progress, we can do much better." (...) Senator Segal suggested that a basic minimum income would alleviate many of the problems experienced by the poor in Canada. (...) Segal's plan would be to use something like the mid 1970s MINCOME program that was put into place in Dauphin, Manitoba. Over a four-year period, residents of the agricultural community were guaranteed that, if their crops could not keep them at the poverty line or above, they would receive additional funding to bring them to that amount. The entire program, including benefits, researchers and staff to run it, cost only $17 million, and for the most part assisted the working poor. All residents qualified for this aid if needed, there were no substantial clawbacks of funds if a person continued to work, and the rules were manageable. The money could be used as the recipient felt was best. [Author Senator Hugh Segal is a Conservative senator from Kingston Ontario and a long-time proponent of the efficiency, fairness, stability and productivity benefits of a guaranteed annual income.] Source: St. Lawrence EMC http://www.emcstlawrence.ca/ --- Related links: Governments can’t ignore income security forever http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/06/10/hugh-segal-governments-cant-ignore-income-security-forever/ By Hugh Segal June 10, 2012 Source: National Post http://www.nationalpost.com/ --- When the Harper Government™ finally decided that it had a bellyful of Senator Segal's incessant natterings about inequality in Canada and all that guaranteed annual income nonsense [ http://goo.gl/wQehd ], they decided to shift the focus of the Senator's attention and energy to something else less embarrassing for the Harper Government™: Baird Appoints Senator Segal as Special Envoy for Commonwealth Renewal http://www.international.gc.ca/media/aff/news-communiques/2011/386.aspx?view=d News Release December 21, 2011 Source: Foreign Affairs and International Trade http://www.international.gc.ca/international/index.aspx?lang=eng --- That's par for the course, for this government. I, for one, am very happy that, despite this lateral transfer, Senator Segal is pursuing his career-long quest for the most efficient and humane solution to poverty in Canada. Thanks for hangin' in there, Hugh! By Gilles Towards A More Equal Canada (PDF - 2.3MB, 26 pages) http://www.broadbentinstitute.ca/sites/default/files/documents/towards_a_more_equal_canada.pdf October 2012 This report is part of the Broadbent Institute’s Equality Project. Launched in the spring of 2012, the project includes a Broadbent Institute-commissioned Environics poll which showed a majority of Canadians support taking action to reduce inequality, a social media campaign, and an animated video. NOTE: James Mulvale of Basic Income Canada Network Canada [ http://biencanada.ca/ ] points out in an email that guaranteed annual income is discussed on page 21 of the Broadbent Institute report, as follows: "We should consider the idea of a guaranteed minimum income. Tom Kent, the late social policy giant who was the architect behind the Pearson-era reforms that shaped modern Canada, left behind a plea to look at such an approach. Kent argued that we should design a system to ensure a reasonable level of income for every Canadian, building on the basic income guarantee we already provide to seniors. Support would be given in the form of regular payments to those with very low incomes, phased out with rising income reported via tax returns. He believed that the federal economies of scale would provide considerable efficiencies and reduce federal/provincial overlap and friction as provinces would focus on services (Kent 2011). Kent’s blueprints find supporters and detractors among both conservatives and progressives. There are significant issues of cost to be considered, as well as how to provide income support without discouraging work. Perhaps we could begin by providing a guaranteed income to persons with disabilities, including persons who are able to work but cannot do so on a continuing full-time basis." You'll find the Equality Project at http://www.broadbentinstitute.ca Source: Broadbent Institute http://www.broadbentinstitute.ca/ The Broadbent Institute seeks to equip the next generation of progressive thinkers and activists with the ideas and tools they need to build a more progressive Canada. An end to the perpetual welfare trap? Guaranteed incomes debated http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/an-end-to-the-perpetual-welfare-trap-167004295.html By: Mary Agnes Welch August 22, 2012 Bringing back a discarded government program could save taxpayers millions in health-care and bureaucracy costs and dramatically shrink poverty, just as it did in Dauphin almost 40 years ago. The problem is, even the province's left-leaning NDP government likely doesn't have the political will to use it. That was the feeling Tuesday at a standing-room-only lecture about a hot public-policy idea -- a guaranteed annual income that would replace welfare. It's an idea with roots in Manitoba. Nearly 40 years ago, Dauphin was the site of an experiment on the effects of a guaranteed income. Every low-income person in town, including the working poor and people not eligible for welfare, got a top-up to ensure a basic level of income. At a discussion hosted by Winnipeg Harvest, University of Manitoba researcher Evelyn Forget said the results were remarkable: People had much better health, far more children graduated from high school and people didn't stop working just because they were guaranteed an income. (...) Guaranteed annual income had a rebirth as an interesting, if seemingly radical, policy alternative to the confusing, expensive hodge-podge of welfare systems in Canada. We've already adopted some targeted elements of a GAI, such as the national child benefit and the guaranteed income supplement for seniors. Yukon toyed with a version of the GAI in 2007, and there was an international conference focused on the idea in Toronto in May of this year. - includes an overview of the Mincome Manitoba experiment of the mid-1970s, specifically in Dauphin Manitoba. Source: Winnipeg Free Press http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/ July 30, 2012 From Jim Mulvale of Basic Income Canada Network / Réseau Canadien pour le Revenu Garanti: http://biencanada.ca/ ****************************************** 1. It is not too late to register for the 14th Congress of the Basic Income Earth Network. The Congress will take place on 14 - 16 September 2012 in Munich, Germany. The main theme of the Congress deals with "pathways to a basic income". Further details and on-line registration can be found at: http://www.bien2012.de/en ****************** 2. And speaking of pathways to a basic income .... A new book is out entitled: Basic Income Guarantee and Politics: International Experiences and Perspectives on the Viability of Income Guarantee Edited by Richard K. Caputo Palgrave Macmillan, 2012 Further information: http://us.macmillan.com/basicincomeguaranteeandpolitics/RichardKCaputo The book includes a chapter by J. Mulvale & Y. Vanderborght on "Canada: "A Guaranteed Income Framework to Address Poverty and Inequality?" ****************** To subscribe to this mailing list: Email : jim.mulvale@uregina.ca Source: Basic Income Canada Network / Réseau Canadien pour le Revenu Garanti: http://biencanada.ca/ The BIEN Canada vision : All Canadians will have income security, made possible by ensuring every individual has unconditional access to at least a modest but adequate income to meet basic material needs. BIEN Canada is an affiliate of the Basic Income Earth Network: http://www.basicincome.org/bien/ Governments can’t ignore income security forever http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/06/10/hugh-segal-governments-cant-ignore-income-security-forever/ By Hugh Segal June 10, 2012 There is an invisible elephant in the room in the debate around employment insurance reform. Coincidentally, it is the same large elephant hiding among the pots and pans of the Quebec student protest and can even be found on the edges of NDP leader Thomas Mulcair’s angst about the West’s resource-based economic success damaging Ontario’s industrial heartland. And that elephant goes by the name of income security. It is reasonable to have an employment insurance system, funded by contributions from Canadian workers, that provides a financial bridge to those who have lost their jobs and cannot immediately find a replacement. When mildly tightening the eligibility to those who really cannot find work is controversial, however, this shows that EI stands for Extra Income, not Employment Insurance. That the income may be vital to communities, regions and lifestyles tied to seasonal jobs is not in question. But such a system is no longer insurance. It is a basic income floor unrelated to whether or when work was available. (...) Except for Newfoundland and Labrador, all provinces pay welfare rates well beneath the poverty line, helping to feed the costly pathologies of poverty that fill our hospitals, our homeless shelters, our prisons and the tragedies of family violence and substance abuse. A frank discussion about income security, poverty and the kind of income floor that could obviate other programs that are unbalanced, expensive to operate, wasteful and disconnected from reality, is long overdue. The elephant is getting angrier, hungrier and more unfriendly every day. And is becoming far less invisible. [Senator Hugh Segal is a Conservative senator from Kingston Ontario and a long-time proponent of the efficiency, fairness, stability and productivity benefits of a guaranteed annual income.] Source: National Post http://www.nationalpost.com/ --- So what does the Harper Government™ do with "a long-time proponent of the efficiency, fairness, stability and productivity benefits of a guaranteed annual income"? Short answer: Anything that involves a lot of travel to faraway countries. Long answer : Baird Appoints Senator Segal as Special Envoy for Commonwealth Renewal http://www.international.gc.ca/media/aff/news-communiques/2011/386.aspx?view=d News Release December 21, 2011 Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird today announced the appointment of Senator Hugh Segal as Canada’s special envoy for Commonwealth renewal. (...) The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of 54 countries that work together toward shared goals of freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law in its member states. Source: Foreign Affairs and International Trade http://www.international.gc.ca/international/index.aspx?lang=eng COMMENT (by Gilles): I guess the Harper Government™ finally had enough of Senator Segal's incessant natterings about inequality in Canada and all that guaranteed annual income nonsense [ http://goo.gl/wQehd ] to shift the focus of his attention and energy to something else less embarrassing for the Harper Government™. BOO! Invitation to become a member of Basic Income Canada Network (BICN) / Réseau canadien pour le revenu garanti (RCRG): BICN / RCRG is in the process of launching itself as a not-for-profit corporation. The formal incorporation documents were received from the Corporations Branch of Industry Canada in 2011. We are holding our inaugural membership meeting (held virtually, likely by teleconference) on Friday 27 July 2012 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Before this meeting, we must identify an initial list of members. You are invited to respond to the following two questions: -------------------------------------------- 1) are you interested in becoming a member of BICN / RCRG? Yes ____ No _____ 2) if you answered "yes" to Question 1, do you wish to take part in the inaugural membership meeting scheduled for 27 July 2012 at 1 p.m. Eastern Time? Yes ____ No _____ -------------------------------------------- ...and to send your response via email to: pat_evans@carleton.ca The final date for responses is 30 June 2012. For more information about BICN / RCRG objectives, or to reply directly on the BICN / RCRG website, go to: http://biencanada.ca/content/membership-notice To be eligible to become a member of BICN / RCRG, you must be at least 16 years old and "interested in furthering the objects of the corporation." BICN / RCRG objects include: 1. To initiate and participate in research on Basic Income 2. To generate and disseminate information and knowledge on Basic Income 3. To educate for the establishment or augmentation of Basic Income as a means for preventing and alleviating poverty, reducing income and wealth inequality, and promoting income and social security. There is currently no membership fee charged to those who wish to join BICN / RCRG. Thank you. Kelly Ernst, President Jim Mulvale, Vice-President Pat Evans, Secretary-Treasurer Source: Basic Income Canada Network Canada http://biencanada.ca/ THE TOWN WITH NO POVERTY: A history of the North American Guaranteed Annual Income Social Experiments (PDF - 240K, 29 pages) http://www.livableincome.org/rMM-EForget08.pdf By Evelyn L. Forget Community Health Sciences Faculty of Medicine University of Manitoba Source: Livable 4 All (Victoria BC) http://www.livableincome.org/ Livable4All began in 2003 as a group called Livable Income For Everyone (LIFE) to advocate and provide information on the world social movement for Guaranteed Livable Income (GLI) or Basic Income -- formerly known as Guaranteed Annual Income. --- A Town Without Poverty? Canada's only experiment in guaranteed income finally gets reckoning http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/4100 By Vivian Belik September 5, 2011 WHITEHORSE, YK—Try to imagine a town where the government paid each of the residents a living income, regardless of who they were and what they did, and a Soviet hamlet in the early 1980s may come to mind. But this experiment happened much closer to home. For a four-year period in the '70s, the poorest families in Dauphin, Manitoba, were granted a guaranteed minimum income by the federal and provincial governments. (...) Beginning in 1974, Pierre Trudeau's Liberals and Manitoba's first elected New Democratic Party government gave money to every person and family in Dauphin who fell below the poverty line. Under the program—called “Mincome”—about 1,000 families received monthly cheques. Unlike welfare, which only certain individuals qualified for, the guaranteed minimum income project was open to everyone. It was the first—and to this day, only—time that Canada has ever experimented with such an open-door social assistance program. Source: The Dominion http://www.dominionpaper.ca/ The 11th North American Basic Income Guarantee* Congress http://biencanada.ca/content/11th-north-american-basic-income-guarantee-congress-schedule The 11th North American Basic Income Guarantee Congress will take place May 3-5, 2012 at the University of Toronto Theme : Putting Equality Back on the Agenda: Basic Income and Other Approaches to Economic Security for All. [ * Basic income is an income guaranteed by government for all, without condition, means test or work requirement; it's also known as guaranteed annual income. ] Conference Schedule http://biencanada.ca/content/11th-north-american-basic-income-guarantee-congress-schedule Featured speakers will include: * Richard Wilkinson, Professor Emeritus of Social Epidemiology at the University of Nottingham Medical School and co-author of The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better * Charles Karelis, Research Professor of Philosophy at The George Washington University and Author of The Persistence of Poverty: Why the Economics of the Well-Off Can't Help the Poor * Erik Olin Wright, Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin - Madison, author of Envisioning Real Utopias, and American Society: How it Actually Works * Armine Yalnizyan, Senior Economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives * John Rook, Chair of the National Council of Welfare and CEO of Potential Place Society * Evelyn Forget, Professor, University of Manitoba Faculty of Medicine * Trish Hennessy, Director of Strategic Issues for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives * Dan Meades, Director, Vibrant Communities Calgary. The North American Basic Income Guarantee Congress is a joint Conference of the U.S. and Canadian Basic Income Guarantee Networks. For further information contact: Jim Mulvale james.mulvale@uregina.ca Faculty of Social Work University of Regina Source: Basic Income Canada Network BIEN Canada is the Canadian affiliate of the Basic Income Earth Network. BIEN Canada was founded at the 2008 international BIEN Congress to promote dialogue, public education and networking about basic income in Canada. BIEN Canada is composed of individuals and organizations interested in promoting dialogue around basic income. Call for Papers: 14th Congress of the Basic Income Earth Network: Pathways to a Basic income September 14 to 16, 2012 in Munich, Germany http://www.bien2012.de/en Call for Papers, Proposals, and Events: The deadline for submissions is April 15, 2012 The debate about an unconditional basic income has attracted public attention in a number of countries in recent years. Financial, debt, and ecological crises are causing growing numbers of people to look for political alternatives to the existing economy and the way income is distributed within it. With the debate entering this crucial phase, the 2012 BIEN Congress will discuss possible pathways and barriers towards establishing and implementing Basic Income. The conference aims to present an opportunity for an open, interdisciplinary discussion of the problems and questions surrounding Basic Income. Click the link above for more information about the call for papers and about the Congress itself. Register now - early bird discounts! http://www.bien2012.de/en/node/35 Livable Income For Everyone British Columbia-based Livable4All advocates and provides information on the world social movement for Guaranteed Livable Income (GLI) or Basic Income -- formerly known as Guaranteed Annual Income. - incl. links to : * Introduction * Facts First * Key Reports * Key Primer * Rationale * Jobism * Objections * Articles * Links * News * Buried Treasure * Gallery * Remembering Links - 100+ online resources! http://www.livableincome.org/links.htm The Manitoba Mincome Experiment http://legalcheckpoint.blogspot.com/2007/11/social-policy-manitoba-mincome.html November 15, 2007 By M. L'Heureux The Mincome Project, also called the Manitoba Basic Guaranteed Annual Income Experiment, was the “first large scale social experiment in Canada and was designed to evaluate the economic and social consequences of an alternative social welfare system based on the concept of negative income tax (NIT)”. The experiment took place between 1975 and 1979 in Winnipeg and Dauphin, Manitoba. The research project was jointly funded by the Federal Government of Canada and the Manitoba Government. Little is known about the experiment as the federal government chose to shelve the report for reasons still unknown to the public. The raw data that was accumulated during the experiment is still relevant to today’s Guaranteed Income debates and is available in some academic libraries and in all provincial legislatures. Source: Legal Checkpoint Blog http://legalcheckpoint.blogspot.com/ The Town with No Poverty: The Health Effects of a Canadian Guaranteed Annual Income Field Experiment By Evelyn L. Forget (University of Manitoba) This paper has two purposes. First, it documents the historical context of MINCOME, a Canadian guaranteed annual income field experiment (1974 to 1979). Second, it uses routinely collected health administration data and a quasi-experimental design to document an 8.5 percent reduction in the hospitalization rate for participants relative to controls, particularly for accidents and injuries and mental health. We also found that participant contacts with physicians declined, especially for mental health, and that more adolescents continued into grade 12. We found no increase in fertility, family dissolution rates, or improved birth outcomes. We conclude that a relatively modest GAI can improve population health, suggesting significant health system savings. Source: University of Toronto Press BIEN (BASIC INCOME EARTH NETWORK) NEWSFLASH 65, November 2011 (PDF - 136K, 18 pages) November 23, 2011 Table of contents: Editorial: BIEN’s 25th anniversary, by Guy Standing 1. Basic Income News great success 2. New issue of Basic Income Studies 3. Events 4. Glimpses of National Debates 5. Publications 6. New Links 7. About BIEN Source: Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) The Basic Income European Network (BIEN) was founded in 1986 to serve as a link between individuals and groups committed to, or interested in, basic income, i.e. an income unconditionally granted to all on an individual basis, without means test or work requirement, and to foster informed discussion on this topic throughout Europe. BIEN expanded its scope from European to the Earth in 2004. Tough on poverty, tough on crime? By Chandra Pasma May 27, 2011 Earlier this year, Senator Hugh Segal published a great op-ed in the Toronto Star calling for those concerned about crime to get tough on poverty. “Less than 10 per cent of Canadians live beneath the poverty line but almost 100 per cent of our prison inmates come from that 10 per cent. There is no political ideology, on the right or left, that would make the case that people living in poverty belong in jail,” the Senator argued. “To be tough on crime means we must first be tough on the causes of poverty,” he concludes. Segal argues for a Guaranteed Annual Income, also known as a Guaranteed Livable Income, noting that it would take only $12,000-$20,000 annually to bring a person above the poverty line but we spend $147,000 a year per federal prisoner. Source: Citizens for Public Justice (CPJ) Mission : to promote public justice in Canada by shaping key public policy debates through research and analysis, publishing and public dialogue. CPJ encourages citizens, leaders in society and governments to support policies and practices which reflect God’s call for love, justice and stewardship. [ More info about CPJ ] An Oldie Goldie: Improving Social Security in Canada Guaranteed Annual Income: A Supplementary Paper 1994 - This is one of the supplementary papers produced in the course of the 1994 Social Security Review*. Excellent overview of GAI , filled with historical information (check out Appendix A...) and a detailed analysis of both the Negative Income Tax (NIT) and the Universal Demogrant (UD). Highly recommended reading for all social researchers. There's even a four-page chapter on absolute and relative measures of adequacy. PDF version - 150K, 53 pages HTML version - 117K, 37 pages [*See the Canadian Social Research Links CAP/CHST Resources page for more on the 1994 Social Security Review] Christopher Sarlo... ... and guaranteed annual income? I was cleaning up some links on the Guaranteed Annual Income Links page of my site when I got sidetracked re-reading parts of a ten-year-old report on poverty measurement by Christopher Sarlo entitled Measuring Poverty in Canada. Professor Sarlo, the father of the so-called "calorie-from-starvation diet", is the Fraser Institute's poverty poster boy, and his work on poverty in Canada is considered by many to be the Bible of absolute poverty measurement in this country --- the "Sarlo Poverty Line". I decided to highlight the 2001 Sarlo report (the link below) because you (speaking to my leftie buddies here...) might be as surprised as I was to learn in that report that the absolute poverty poster boy advocated a guaranteed annual income as a "more efficient alternative" to what he saw as ineffective programs and policies. Hmmm - when someone from the Fraser Institute endorses a guaranteed income scheme, the Devil must be in the details. Follow the links below if you're curious... Measuring Poverty in Canada July 2001 By Christopher Sarlo Excerpt: "In Canada, there is a vast array of inefficient and employment-reducing programs and policies with overlapping function and jurisdiction: welfare and minimum wage are two examples. A more efficient alternative might be a guaranteed annual income issued as a universal demogrant--a transfer payment to all citizens (or residents) with no conditions on employment, earning, or income. " For more details concerning the Sarlo guaranteed annual income proposal, see p. 55-56 in Part II of the report (the second link below). Complete report in three PDF files: Report Part I (PDF file - 236K, 10 pages) - cover, table of contents, executive summary Report Part II (PDF file - 982K, 50 pages) - main chapters of the report Report Part III (PDF file - 284K, 22 pages) - appendices Source: The Fraser Institute NEW! Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) and affiliates launch Basic Income News [A Basic Income is an income unconditionally granted to all on an individual basis, without means test or work requirement. So Basic Income = Guaranteed Annual Income.] May 25, 2011 Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) and the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network (USBIG) announce the launch of a new website entirely devoted to basic income news. Basic Income News is the online incarnation of the BIEN NewsFlash (see the link below) and affiliated publications, such as the USBIG Newsletter. The BIEN NewsFlash and its predecessor, the BIEN Newsletter, have been in publication since 1986. The USBIG Newsletter has been going since the year 2000. It is the creation of the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network (the USBIG Network), BIEN’s affiliate in the United States. Basic Income News will have frequently updated news stories about Basic Income around the world, provided initially by BIEN and USBIG. We hope soon that many more of BIEN’s affiliates will contribute as well. If you have news about Basic Income that you think should be published in Basic Income News, please contact the editors at <desk@binews.org>. Related links: BIEN NEWSFLASH 64, May 2011 (PDF - 147K, 17 pages) Table of contents: 1. NEW! BIEN and affiliates launch Basic Income News: http://binews.org/ 2. BIEN Congress 2012 will be held in Munich, Germany 3. New Issue of Basic Income Studies 4. Basic income book series: call for proposals 5. Events Seoul, Delhi, Namur, Berlin, Lincoln 6. Glimpses of national debates - EUROPEAN UNION: EU-Parliament in favour of adequate minimum income - FRANCE: Former Prime Minister launches basic income campaign - GREECE: Basic Pension Introduced - IRAQ: Muqtada al-Sadr Endorses Alaskan Policy - ITALY: Activist Movement for basic income - KUWAIT: A Temporary, Partial basic income for Citizens Only - LATIN AMERICA: Head of UN Commission Says Several Latin America Countries Could Implement basic income - UNITED STATES: American Political Science Association Task Force Will Discuss BIG - SWITZERLAND: A referendum on basic income? 7. Publications 8. New Links 9. About the Basic Income Earth Network --- BIEN's NewsFlash is mailed electronically every two months to over 1,500 subscribers throughout the world. Requests for free subscription should be sent to bien@basicincome.org --- New blogs at USBIG May 19, 2011 The USBIG Network has added the following two blogs to its website. Both have news and opinion on those topics going back to 2000, and both will continue to be updated periodically. Both allow for reader comments and feedback. * The Alaska Dividend Blog The Alaska Dividend, properly called the Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD), is the closest thing to a basic income guarantee that exists in the world today. It is a small, yearly dividend, financed indirectly from oil revenues, paid by the state government to every citizen who lives in Alaska-including all men, women, and children. This blog has news and commentary about the Alaska Dividend as a small basic income that can provide a model to be copied elsewhere. * The Basic Income Guarantee Blog In this blog, Karl Widerquist writes about the Basic Income Guarantee and contemporary U.S. and world politics --- BIEN Canada - Towards Income Security for All Canadians (new website URL) BIEN Canada is the Canadian affiliate of the Basic Income Earth Network. BIEN Canada was founded at the 2008 international BIEN Congress to promote dialogue, public education and networking about basic income in Canada. BIEN Canada is composed of individuals and organizations interested in promoting dialogue around basic income. [ BIEN Canada Resources - incl. links to Basic Income websites, videos, articles, papers, etc.] --- BONUS! Another Oldie Goldie (1985): Royal Commission on the Economic Union and Development Prospects for Canada, 1985 Chair: Donald S. MacDonald - includes links to PDF files for Volumes One, Two and Three along with a short table of contents (PDF - 48K) [ Version française ] In 1985, the Royal Commission on the Economic Union and Development Prospects for Canada (the "MacDonald Commission") recommended, among other fixes, a free-trade agreement between Canada and the U.S. and a universal income security program. - Read the excerpt below, and click the link for more detailed information. Volume Three, Part 2 (PDF - 7.1MB, 163 pages) 1985 Excerpt (page 173) : The centre-piece for Commissioners' proposals ... is establishment of a Universal Income Security Program (UISP), which would entail a universally available income supplement, subject to reduction at a relatively low "tax-back" rate. Such a scheme, delivered either through the federal tax system or by means of direct transfers, appears to fall within federal jurisdiction. The present federal responsibility for Family Allowances, Unemployment Insurance and Old Age Security clearly establishes a broad federal mandate for income security, of which the UISP is a logical development. Moreover, we believe that individual provinces acting alone would not be capable of bringing such a program into operation. To create the UISP, however, would involve a major change in federal-provincial relations, a change which Commissioners think would be healthy for the federal system. (more...) The costs of poverty vs guaranteed annual income: How paying people’s way out of poverty can help us all Anna Mehler Paperny and Tavia Grant May 5, 2011 (...) Despite Canada’s reputation for a strong social safety net, the country is becoming economically polarized. And the decades-old dominant economic dogma that growing wealth among society’s highest earners would trickle down to those less fortunate is being challenged by an alternative approach: Eliminate crushing poverty among the lowest earners, and wealth will trickle up. (...) Homelessness costs taxpayers money – in both foregone wealth and social service spending. As evidence of the social and financial costs of inequality mounts, a growing body of research indicates paying to get people out of poverty can be an economic boon. Calgary’s business community crunched the numbers: It costs four times more to pay for a year’s worth of emergency shelter, emergency-room medical care and law-enforcement for one homeless person than it costs to fund that person’s supportive housing for a year. More recent figures have backed them up when it comes to the costs of poverty: A study earlier this year from Toronto’s St. Michael’s Hospital found homeless patients cost hospitals an average of $2,559 more than their housed counterparts. At the same time, research into projects that guaranteed people a minimum annual income indicated savings in everything from social services and health care to law enforcement. Related link: The high costs of hardship May 5, 2011 Figures in three infographics paint an unsettling picture of Canada's unemployment levels, income gaps and costs associated with homelessness * Percentage of people on low incomes, 2000-2010 * Number of people unemployed for 52 week or longer * Annual household income after tax by income quintile, average. earnings in 1990 and in 2008 Source: Globe and Mail Let’s refocus on a guaranteed annual income Senator Hugh Segal January 19, 2011 It was 40 years ago that a former mayor of Windsor, former provincial minister and Ontario senator issued one of the greatest challenges to Canada’s citizens and leaders. Sadly, however, the centrepiece of the lifelong work of David Croll remains unfulfilled and his challenge remains unaddressed. In the introduction to his 1971 report of the Senate committee on poverty, Mr. Croll stated bluntly: “Poverty is the great social issue of our time. The poor do not choose poverty. It is at once their affliction and our national shame. No nation can achieve true greatness if it lacks the courage and determination to undertake the surgery necessary to remove the cancer of poverty from its body politic.” Mr. Croll, one of Canada’s greatest Liberal parliamentarians, made his clarion call for the establishment of a guaranteed annual income (GAI) in that report. It was, the committee concluded, the most efficient and least wasteful mechanism for lifting millions of Canadians out of poverty. He was right four decades ago, and he is still right today. (...) Forty years ago Mr. Croll said: “The children of the poor (and there are many) are the most helpless victims of all, and find even less hope in a society where welfare systems from the very beginning destroy their chances of a better life.” Forty years later, the time for action on the GAI is upon us. Leaving the challenge of poverty to the side is to deny the essential decency and balance Canadians have always shared. Source: Globe and Mail Related G&M articles: * To end poverty, guarantee everyone in Canada $20,000 a year. But are you willing to trust the poor? (Nov. 19, 2010) * What if we gave the poor $20,000 a year? (Nov. 19, 2010) Goar: Anti-poverty success airbrushed out January 11, 2011 By Carol Goar Sitting tantalizingly in a warehouse in Winnipeg are 2,000 boxes of information about one of the most fascinating social policy experiments in Canadian history. Evelyn Forget, a professor of health sciences at the University of Manitoba, fought for five years to get access to those boxes, owned by Archives Canada. She finally succeeded in 2009, but the bulging files — statistics, completed questionnaires, interview transcripts, all on paper — overwhelmed her. “Until it is computerized, analyzing the data in a systematic way would be incredibly expensive,” she says. Nevertheless, she has been able to piece together part of the story, using the census, public health insurance records and the recollections of researchers and participants. Source: Toronto Star And Another Oldie Goldie: Income Security Reform and the Concept of a Guaranteed Annual Income (PDF - 24MB, 50 pages) Grady, Patrick and Kapsalis, Constantine Government and Competitiveness Project, School of Policy Studies, Queen’s University 1995 This paper is focused on a specific reform strategy - the Guaranteed Annual Income (GAI).It addresses an age-old issue of social welfare programming in a market economy. How do we maintain an incentive to work yet provide a safety net for those shaken loose by large-scale yet seemingly continuous change? Why participate in a losing cause if the consequences of not participating are not all that bad materially? The problem is particularly acute when the financial rewards of work and the type of work available both continue to deteriorate for a very broad class of people, as is happening in Canada. (Source: Abstract ] Basic Income Earth Network Newsflash 63 November 2010 Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) The Basic Income Earth Network was founded in 1986 as the Basic Income European Network. It expanded its scope from European to the Earth in 2004. It is an international network that serves as a link between individuals and groups committed to or interested in basic income, and fosters informed discussion of the topic throughout the world. - incl. links to: * About BIEN * About Basic Income * NewsFlash * Congresses * Papers and Resources * Membership * Links * Contact Latest issue of NewsFlash - the BIEN newsletter: NewsFlash 63, November 2010 (PDF - 173K, 20 pages) Contents: 1. Editorial: BIEN archives 2. Two issues of Basic Income Studies 3. Events (excerpts): CALGARY (CA), 29 March 2010: Conference by Senator Hugh Segal On March 29, 2010, Canadian Senator Hugh Segal spoke to the Sheldon Chumir Foundation for Ethics in Leadership in Calgary. Senator Segal made an impassioned argument for the ethical necessity of a Guaranteed Annual Income as a means of eliminating poverty. His remarks can be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/user/ChumirEthics Further information: http://www.chumirethicsfoundation.ca/ Upcoming North American event: NEW YORK (US), 25 – 27, February 2011: The Tenth Annual North American Basic Income Conference: Models for Social Transformation This conference will be held in conjunction with the Annual Meeting of the Eastern Economic Association (EEA). Attendees at the USBIG conference are welcome to attend any of the EEA’s events. The North American Basic Income Conference was originally 'the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network Conference,' and was organized by the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee (USBIG) Network. It expanded in 2010 to become a joint event of the USBIG Network and the Basic Income / Allocation Universelle Canada (BI/AU Canada). Since then, it has been a North American Conference held on alternate years in the United States and Canada. Chair of the organizing committee: Karl Widerquist: Karl@Widerquist.com For more information, see the USBIG Website: www.usbig.net 4. Glimpses of National Debates (excerpts): CANADA: Yukon government urged to implement a basic income The leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) in Yukon, Steve Cardiff, has put forward a notice of motion for the Yukon Government to introduce a Guaranteed Minimum Annual Income Allowance. According to the official report from Yukon's legislative assembly, he urged "the Yukon government to implement a guaranteed minimum annual income allowance for all eligible Yukon citizens as recommended by Conservative Party Senator Hugh Segal, the Royal Commission on the Status of Women, the Macdonald Commission, the National Council of Welfare, the Special Senate Committee on Poverty and the federal working paper on social security. Yukon Legislative Assembly Motion #438 Mr. Cardiff: May 1, 2008 "THAT this House urges the Yukon Government and the Government of Canada to address the widening gap between rich and poor through arrange of measures including progressive tax changes, introduction of an Annual Guaranteed Income, and creation of a comprehensive Anti-Poverty Strategy." Source: Page 28, Motions Other than Government Motions Yukon Legislative Assembly (First Session, 32nd Legislative Assembly) (PDF - 521K, 110 pages) November 9, 2010 CANADA: Poverty Free Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is one of few provinces in Canada that does not have a formally adopted and detailed plan to tackle poverty. During the International Week for the Elimination of Poverty (17 – 23 October) a new network called Poverty Free Saskatchewan released a discussion paper calling upon the provincial government to develop such a plan, in collaboration with people living in poverty and other community sectors. This paper is entitled “Let’s Do Something about Poverty” and can be found at http://www.povertyfreesask.ca/ Further information: Jim Mulvale, Faculty of Social Work, University of Regina jim.mulvale@uregina.ca 5. Publications 6. New Links * News from BIEN Canada BIEN Canada has adopted a constitution and is in the process of incorporating and registering an official name. The website address is http://biencanada.ca/ 7. About BIEN Source: NewsFlash - newsletter (incl. archives) BIEN's NewsFlash is mailed electronically every two months to over 1,500 subscribers throughout the world. Free subscription : send a request by email to bien@basicincome.org BIEN links to other relevant websites - incl. links to National Affiliates and general GAI/Basic Income resources Source: BIEN - Basic Income Earth Network Guaranteed Annual Income - moved to the front burner? From the Globe and Mail: To end poverty, guarantee everyone in Canada $20,000 a year. But are you willing to trust the poor? By Erin Anderssen November 20, 2010 (...)what if we gave ... poor Canadians something to count on: cash directly in their pockets, with no conditions, trusting people to do what's right for them? It's a bold idea, and it runs counter to the paternal approach to poverty that polices what is done with “our” money and tries to strong-arm the poor into better lives. That approach has had limited success: The wage gap continues to grow, and one in 10 Canadians still struggles below the low-income line. The idea of giving money to the poor without strings is not new. It melds altruism and libertarianism, saying both that the best way to fight poverty is to put cash in poor people's pockets and that people can make their own choices better than bureaucrats can. As a result, it can find support in theory from both left and right. It has been tested with success in other countries, and now it has re-entered the Canadian political conversation. This week, a House of Commons committee on poverty released a report proposing a guaranteed basic income for Canadians with disabilities, on the model already available to seniors. The Senate released a similar report this spring calling for a study of how it would work for all low-income Canadians. [ 1410 comments ] Source: Globe and Mail Earlier related Globe & Mail article: Should Canada have a guaranteed annual income? By Kevin Milligan October 20, 2010 The idea of a guaranteed annual income (GAI) periodically surfaces in Canadian policy discussions as a transformational change to income support programs. Advocates can be found coming both from the left and the right. What is the GAI and should it be adopted? [ 176 comments ] Source: Globe and Mail Basic Income Studies - November 2010 issue (e-journal) November 01, 2010 Berkeley Electronic Press is pleased to announce the following articles recently published in Basic Income Studies. Research Articles: Alternative Basic Income Mechanisms: An Evaluation Exercise With a Microeconometric Model By Ugo Colombino, Marilena Locatelli, Edlira Narazani, and Cathal O'Donoghue Why Cash Violates Neutrality By Joseph Heath and Vida Panitch Near-Universal Basic Income By Nir Eyal Research Notes The Right to Existence in Developing Countries: Basic Income in East Timor By David Casassas, Daniel Raventós, and Julie Wark Baby Steps: Basic Income and the Need for Incremental Organizational Development By Jason B. Murphy [ Most popular papers in the Basic Income Studies series ] Source: Basic Income Studies is the first peer-reviewed journal devoted to basic income and related issues of poverty relief and universal welfare. An exciting venture supported by major international networks of scholars, policy makers, and activists, Basic Income Studies is the only forum for scholarly research on this leading edge movement in contemporary social policy. Guaranteed Annual Income Student Essays On June 1, 2010, the Progressive Economics Forum (PEF) announced the winners of its annual student essay contest for this year. In addition to the winning essay on guaranteed annual income from the Graduate category for 2010 (whose link appears below), the PEF Annual Student Essay Contest page offers links to three essays in the Undergraduate category (one winner and two honourable mentions) as well as links to two honourable mentions in the Graduate category. Click the essay contest link for essays on: * Poverty and HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa * Economic prosperity and democratization in developing countries * An examination of political stability and growth, with special attention to the Kenyan experience * The Russian financial crisis of 1998, uncontrolled markets and weak government * The benefits of international trade liberalization 2010 Graduate Category Winner: Economic Security in the Twenty-First Century – Guaranteed Annual Income (GAI) An ecological, democratic, justice and food security imperative Positive vs. Negative Dividends (PDF - 596K, 30 pages) By Richard Pereira Originally submitted in October 2009 to Athabasca University This paper explores the history of GAI, its modern development and cost and savings aspects of this public policy. The author supports a universal GAI for Canada that maintains and improves existing minimum hourly wage laws, (un)employment insurance (EI) and the CPP (Canada Pension Plan). It is a truism that "we are all one or two events away from poverty." Source: PEF Annual Student Essay Contest BONUS! The PEF Annual Student Essay Contest also includes links to the 25 winning essays since the contest began in 2001. Entries cover a range of subjects related to "political economy, economic theory or an economic policy issue, which best reflects a critical approach to the functioning, efficiency, social and environmental consequences of unconstrained markets." The next link below is one of the 25 essays you'll find at the above link. I'm including it here because it's also about GAI... Ensuring Equality: Guaranteed Annual Income and Democratic Legitimacy (PDF - 362K, 40 pages) By 2008 Undergraduate co-winner Evan Rosevear Original Submission Date: July 19th 2007 In order to facilitate the democratic legitimacy of the Canadian state an institutional system which guarantees the economic security and independence of all Canadians is needed. This guarantee must be universal, and constructed not as a means by which supplicants receive assistance from their supposed betters, but as a right of citizenship. A right which facilitates political engagement. Source: Progressive Economics Forum (PEF) PEF aims to promote the development of a progressive economics community in Canada. The PEF brings together over 125 progressive economists, working in universities, the labour movement, and activist research organizations. Hugh Segal's Guaranteed Annual Income Proposal + The Debate- April 28 (The Agenda - TV Ontario) Hugh Segal: Guaranteed Annual Income, The Proposal | Guaranteed Annual Income Debate April 28, 2010 On Wednesday of this past week, TV Ontario's The Agenda aired an hour-long program on guaranteed annual income (GAI). The first link below is to a video clip of host/moderator Steve Paikin speaking with GAI champion Senator Hugh Segal about his proposal to scrap most of Canada's financial assistance programs and re-assign their budgets to a national, adequate and sustainable guaranteed annual income program. The second link (which is actually part of the first link due to stoopid page layout) is to a debate on the costs and consequences of establishing a GAI in Canada, and it involves a vigorous debate between the Red Tory Senator and a National Post editorial board member. You can tell it's a vigorous debate just from the number of times you hear the debaters say "with due respect" - count 'em... (Have you ever noticed that sometimes "With due respect" comes across as "You're full of crap, you windbag"??) Hugh Segal: Guaranteed Annual Income, The Proposal (video, 18 minutes) Why Canada can afford to ensure every citizen has a guaranteed annual income: The Agenda host Steve Paikin speaks one-on-one with Senator Hugh Segal. The Debate: Guaranteed Annual Income (video, 36 minutes) NOTE: To access the second video, click the link above (to the first video), then click on the tab just above the video screen that says "Guaranteed Annual Income" (Stoopid page layout.) The Debaters: Senator Hugh Segal discusses his proposal for a made-in-Canada guaranteed annual income program with: Tasha Kheiriddin, columnist and member of the editorial board of the National Post Evelyn Forget, professor of Health Economics at the University of Manitoba Ken Battle, President of the Caledon Institute of Social Policy. Steve Paikin moderates (or should I say referees) the discussion. __________________________ Related links from TV Ontario: The links below are from a sidebar on the main page for the GAI videos (the first link under the above red bar) Rethinking Income Support: A Guaranteed Annual Income (PDF - 106K, 10 pages) April 11, 2008 By Ken Battle Source: Caledon Institute of Social Policy --- Yes, Virginia, There is a Guaranteed Annual Income December 2000 By Ken Battle and Sherri Torjman Abstract Commentary (PDF file, 2 pages) Source: Caledon Institute of Social Policy --- Economic Security Fact Sheet #2: Poverty (Undated file, but the latest stats in the fact sheet are for 2004) HTML version PDF (143K, 15 pages) Source: Canadian Council on Social Development --- Guaranteed Annual Income Links - 150+ links to GAI resources online Source: Canadian Social Research --- Guaranteed income, guaranteed dignity By Laurie Monsebraaten March 5, 2007 Source: Toronto Star --- An income for all Canadians by Reginald Stackhouse February 17, 2008 Source: Toronto Star --- Citizen's Income learnings - Senator Hugh Segal's GAI September 2006 Welfare study shows need for guaranteed income By Senator Hugh Segal NOTE: see also: Citizen's Income learnings --- 150+ links to relevant articles by a host of Canadian and international authors Source: Citizen's Income Toronto *Citizen's Income hot links --- 168 links! * CIT Newsletter archive - links to over 20 issues of the Citizen's Income newsletter --- A ticket out of poverty By Father Raymond J. de Souza May 21, 2009 Source: National Post --- In From the Margins: A Call to Action on Poverty, Housing and Homelessness (PDF - 3.8MB, 290 pages) The Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology Report of the Subcommittee on Cities The Honourable Art Eggleton P.C., Chair The Honourable Hugh Segal, Deputy Chair December 2009 [ Executive Summary ] --- Senator urges debate on plight of poor By Bruce Campion-Smith February 11, 2008 Source: Toronto Star --- A Tory joins poverty debate February 14, 2008 Source: Toronto Star --- Source: The Agenda with Steve Paikin [ TV Ontario ] Basic Income at a Time of Economic Upheaval: A Path to Justice and Stability? Conference Montreal, 15 - 16 April 2010 [* "Basic income" = guaranteed annual income] Conference program Times of economic turmoil raise difficult questions but also offer radical new opportunities to rethink and perhaps even rebuild the economic fabric of our society. The current global economic recession is no exception. In recent months a growing number of activists and scholars have promoted the idea of a Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) as a feasible and desirable policy instrument to help us out of the current economic crisis. The prospects and challenges of a BIG policy at a time of economic upheaval is the topic of a 2 day conference held on 15-16 April 2010 at the University of Montréal, hosted by the Centre de Recherche en Éthique de l’Université de Montréal (CRÉUM), BIEN Canada and the US Basic Income Guarantee network (USBIG). This first collaboration between the US and Canadian chapters of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) includes keynote addresses from Dr. Louise Haagh (University of York), Prof. Guy Standing (University of Bath), and Senator Eduardo Suplicy (São Paulo, Brasil), as well as a Political Forum on “The Politics of the Basic Income Guarantee” featuring Senators Art Eggleton and Hugh Segal, Tony Martin MP, Amélie Châteauneuf (spokesperson of FCPASQ), Rob Rainer (Executive Director of Canada Without Poverty), Al Sheahen (Executive Committee Member of USBIG), and Sheila Regehr (Director of National Council of Welfare). In addition there will be 5 panels with more than a dozen papers from scholars and practitioners discussing a variety of issues related to the prospects and challenges of introducing a BIG in Canada or the US. Everyone is welcome to attend and participation is free. To register for the conference please email Jurgen De Wispelaere at bigmontreal2010@gmail.com with your name and institutional affiliation. Organized by CREUM, Universite de Montreal in cooperation with Basic Income Earth Network Canada and United States Basic Income Guarantee Network Related link: Basic Income Earth Network ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Basic Income: An Instrument for Justice and Peace The 13th BIEN Congress 2010 São Paulo, Brazil June 30 - July 2, 2010, Universidade de São Paulo. The 13th International Congress of the Basic Income Earth Network will explore the basic income option from the standpoint of its contribution to social justice and peace. This includes basic income as a means of reducing inequality and poverty, guaranteeing economic security in an increasingly insecure world and addressing citizenship rights directly. Call for Papers: Click the link above for more information on submissions. The deadline for submission of papers and panel proposals is February 25, 2010. Source: Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) The Basic Income Earth Network was founded in 1986 as the Basic Income European Network. It expanded its scope from European to the Earth in 2004. It is an international network that serves as a link between individuals and groups committed to or interested in basic income, and fosters informed discussion of the topic throughout the world. Livable Income For Everyone Livable Income For Everyone (LIFE) is an organization started in British Columbia in 2003 to promote the implementation of universal guaranteed livable income in every country in the world. - incl. links to: * Introduction * Facts First * Key Reports * Key Primer * Rationale * Jobism * Objections * Articles * Links * News * Buried Treasure * Gallery * Remembering Selected site content: * What is a Guaranteed Livable Income? * News - links to 90 articles, studies and reports * Links - over 150 links to relevant sites On Basic Income: Interview with Götz Werner German Millionaire is super advocate for basic income Posted in die tageszeitung / translated 12/09 Götz Werner, founder of a major drugstore chain (1700 stores), is one of the most influential advocates of basic income in Germany. Werner is not only a super advocate for guaranteed income, he is also one of the top 500 richest people in Germany. Why the United States should implement Basic Income By Sam Alexander October 2009 Welfare, food stamps, and homeless shelters (...) explicitly stratify society into classes, enforcing the obsolete notion that the man who doesn't do labor is a less valuable member of society. This is why Basic Income should be absolutely universal- even Warren Buffett and Bill Gates must be given automatic "welfare", for only then can the dole rise above its condescending, humiliating nature. Economic Foundations and Environmental Progress By Alexander Bishop November 2009 (...) The more efficient and technologically advanced the culture, the fewer people they need working. The economy rewards technological stagnation in labour-saving devices and designed obsolescence. The economy suffers when we are healthier, greener, and consume less. The solution is a movement away from job dependant monetary circulation to a guaranteed livable income. This will allow positive change to occur without causing job losses leaving people unable to meet their basic needs. [ other articles on the LIFE site - 60+ links ] For related links, go to the Non-Governmental Sites in British Columbia (D-W) page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/bcbkmrk3.htm Hugh Segal: A real fix for poverty [expired link] Canada’s welfare system is stuck in the Victorian era, wasting billions. It’s time to drop the old, failed approach December 15, 2009 By Senator Hugh Segal Any company, domestic or international, that invested $150-billion annually in a specific project and saw no change in the quality of results would initiate a serious review or serious staff changes at the top. And if it did not, investors, both individual and institutional and shareholders generally would justifiably complain. That is where the federal and provincial governments now find themselves on the challenge of poverty. StatsCan reports that Ottawa and the provinces have, since 2007, spent $150-billion annually on transfers in a range of income security programs unrelated to education and health care. This is serious taxpayer coin — funds that might better be used in tax cuts, defence, research and development and other productive investments for economic or national security in the future. (...) Governments have a rare opportunity to break out of the old path dependency on Victorian-age welfare programs and embrace a simpler, tax-based radical re-cast of how we address poverty. Source: National Post Dauphin's great experiment: Mincome, nearly forgotten child of the '70s, was a noble experiment By Lindor Reynolds November 28, 2009 DAUPHIN — Thirty-five years ago, this pretty town surrounded by farm land and far from big cities was the site of a revolutionary social experiment. For five years, Mincome ensured there would be no poverty in Dauphin. Wages were topped up and the working poor given a boost. The experiment, a collaboration between Ed Schreyer's provincial NDP and the Liberal government of Pierre Trudeau, would cost millions before the plug was pulled. The program saw one-third of Dauphin's poorest families get monthly cheques. In 1971, at a federal-provincial conference held in Victoria, Manitoba expressed interest in being the testing ground for a guaranteed income project. The Schreyer government applied for funding. In June, 1974, Mincome was approved... Source: Winnipeg Free Press How to make real progress against poverty The spread of food banks shows the dysfunction in Canadian income security programs November 17, 2009 By Conservative Senator Hugh Segal (...) A minimum income allowance for all would end poverty, expand human dignity and build Canadian society. And the savings in hospitals, prisons and police work, where the poor are wildly overrepresented, would produce real savings, less waste and a much more productive use of taxpayer money. Source: The Globe and Mail More thoughts on guaranteed income from Hugh Segal: Moving to Basic Income - A right-wing political perspective (Word file - 60K, 22 pages) June 2008 Guaranteed annual income: why Milton Friedman and Bob Stanfield were right (PDF - 172K, 6 pages) April 2008 The View From Here: How a Living Wage Can Reduce Poverty in Manitoba (PDF - 1.8MB, 38 pages) November 2009 The living wage is calculated as the hourly rate at which a household can meet its basic needs, once government transfers have been added to the family’s income (such as the Universal Child Care Benefit) and deductions have been subtracted (such as income taxes and Employment Insurance premiums). (...) There is a paradox when, despite steady economic growth and consistently low unemployment rates, we have the second highest level of child poverty in the country and the third highest poverty rate. The living wage provides a way to address this paradox. It provides a means for ensuring that individuals and families with children can live with dignity and therefore fully participate in their communities and at work. Source: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives --- Possibilities and Prospects: The Debate Over a Guaranteed Income (PDF - 361K, 38 pages) By Margot Young and James P. Mulvale October 30, 2009 The idea of a guaranteed income has a long and respectable history in Canadian political and economic thought. Recently, in the face of both wide criticism of the Canadian income security system and growing recognition of the unacceptability of current poverty rates, there has been a resurgence in calls for implementation of a Canadian guaranteed income. But the idea is a controversial one; progressive activists, academics, and politicians disagree about the desirability and the practicality of a guaranteed income. This report traces the history of guaranteed income proposals in Canada, reviews the arguments in favour and against, and suggests a number of other social welfare measures that should be central elements of any reform program, but that guaranteed income debates often ignore. Source: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Petition for a Canadian Guaranteed Annual Income (GAI) : Citizen's Income Sign if you support: - the GAI (Guaranteed Annual Income) - also known as CI (Citizen’s Income) - as a solution to persistent poverty in Canada. - the full maintenance and improvement of the EI (Employment Insurance) and CPP (Canada Pension Plan) programs toward full universality. - the elimination of means-tested welfare to be replaced by the GAI as a universal social right of Canadian citizenship. - the belief that this is a requirement for Canada to meet the UDHR (Universal Declaration of Human Rights) objectives in achieving income security, social inclusion and human dignity for all of its citizens. I signed, because I support these views. Gilles October 11, 2009: Photos from the Basic Income Earth Network Ottawa conference Chandra's blog : BIEN Canada Ottawa conference a success! October 5, 2009 Related links: Income Security for All Canadians: the Potential for a Guaranteed Income Framework for Canada Workshop October 1-2, 2009 (Ottawa) "The purpose of this workshop is to share perspectives and build understandings about approaches to Guaranteed Income. BIEN Canada believes that such sharing will aid the continued growth and mobilization of a network of individuals and organizations in Canada committed to realizing an expanded basic/guaranteed income system for Canada, and thus to realizing income security for all Canadians. The workshop is designed to both inform and engage participants in discussion of a variety of approaches and models for achieving Guaranteed Income and universal income security. The target audience includes “first voice” persons (those with the lived experience of poverty), academics and researchers, social justice movements, community organizations, social and economic policy analysts, and government officials and politicians." Program (PDF - 141K, 3 pages) Updated to September 28, 2009 Background paper: Income Security for All Canadians: Understanding Guaranteed Income (PDF - 181K, 12 pages) This paper provides an introduction to guaranteed or basic income, highlighting the policy debates and the history of the idea in Canada. Participants in the BIEN Canada Ottawa conference should read this paper to provide context for the detailed policy discussions and conversations of the conference. Sponsored by Basic Income Earth Network Canada (BIEN Canada) Hosted by: Citizens for Public Justice New from Citizens for Public Justice: Working Through the Work Disincentive (PDF - 396K, 26 pages) April 8, 2009 Concerns about a possible work disincentive appear to be one of the biggest obstacles to guaranteed livable income. In this paper, presented at the USBIG Congress 2009, policy analyst Chandra Pasma examines the assumptions that underlie the belief in a work disincentive. Experimental evidence suggests that the work disincentive is not a significant concern, but it remains a political issue. Advocates therefore need to be able to frame arguments that counter these fears. Should we be paying people to “do nothing?” More CPJ resources on Guaranteed Livable Income - links to 10 reports (three of which appear below): * A Deeper Look at GLI: But will they work? By Chandra Pasma October 27, 2008 - includes links to the roundtable on guaranteed annual income hosted by the Senate Sub-Committee on Cities, and the Basic Income International Congress in Ireland. * Part II – A Deeper Look at GLI: Can We Pay People to Do Nothing? By Chandra Pasma January 5, 2009 - is it okay to let people live in poverty if they don’t work? Or, as the question is more commonly framed, is it right to pay people to do nothing?(...) Does everybody have a right to food, to shelter, to a basic minimum of security, and to clothing? International human rights commitments say yes. * Part III – A Deeper Look at GLI: Jobs for Everyone? By Chandra Pasma February 24, 2009 It is simply not reasonable to assume that every Canadian who wants a job could have a job, let alone a good job that meets their needs and matches their skills and interests. We should therefore be wary of any attempts to allow access to income security be solely determined by participation in the paid labour force. GLI would be one way of ensuring that every Canadian has income security, even when there is no job available to them. CPJ Blog - this link takes you to the latest blog entry, where you'll also find links to earlier entries at the bottom of the page. NOTE : I highly recommend this blog --- the extensive collection of entries is timely, and each entry contains at least a few links to related resources. In this blog, links to resources are bolded (as opposed to underlined and blue, as they are in more traditional websites, like the one you're on right now). Source: Citizens for Public Justice We are a faithful response to God’s call for love, justice and stewardship. We envision a world in which individuals, communities, societal institutions and governments all contribute to and benefit from the common good. Our mission is to promote public justice in Canada by shaping key public policy debates through research and analysis, publishing and public dialogue. [ Vision and Mission ] Related links: Dublin 2008 BIEN Congress papers and presentations Theme: Inequality and Development in a Globalised Economy - The Basic Income Option - links to over 60 Powerpoint presentations and papers presented at the Dublin BIEN Congress in late June 2008 - sample presentation titles and plenary themes: [ NOTE: only the first few titles below are hyperlinked - click the link above to access links to all papers. ] * Moving to Basic Income - A right-wing political perspective (Word file - 60K, 22 pages) - by Senator Hugh Segal, Canada * Challenging Income (In)security: Women and Precarious Employment (Word file - 96K, 26 pages) - by Pat Evans (Carleton University, Ottawa) * The Debate on Basic Income / Guaranteed Adequate Income in Canada: Perils and Possibilities (Powerpoint - 109K, 15 slides) - by James Mulvale (University of Regina, Canada) * Basic Income-Greater Freedom of Choice Through Greater Economic Security of the Person in a Globalized Economy (Word file - 50K, 15 pages) - by William Clegg (National Anti-Poverty Organisation, Canada) * What is an appropriate level of minimum income? * The Case for a Universal State Pension: Lessons from New Zealand for Ireland's Green Paper on Pensions * Basic Income in Ireland: surveying three decades * Inequality and Development in a Globalised Economy - WHY Basic Income is a major part of the answer * Pensions and Basic Income * Global and Regional Issues * Gender and Care I: Should Feminists Embrace Basic Income? * An Institutional Perspective on Basic Income * Social Justice and the Meaning of Life * The Rise and Fall of a Basic Income Guarantee Bill in the U.S. Congress * much, much more [ Basic Income Ireland Conference website ] --- Transcript of the Senate Roundtable on Guaranteed Income (51 printed pages) June 13, 2008 Highly recommended reading! On 13 June 2008, the Senate Sub-Committee on Cities held a Roundtable on the topic of "Guaranteed Annual Income: Has Its Time Come?" --- valuable insights on guaranteed income from recognized experts in the field of guaranteed annual income, including Derek Hum (father of Mincome Manitoba), Senator Hugh Segal, Sheila Regehr (Director, National Council of Welfare), Rob Rainer (Executive Director, National Anti-Poverty Organization), professors Lars Osberg and Jim Mulvale, Michael Mendelson of the Caledon Institute of Social Policy, Marie White (Council of Canadians with Disabilities) and many others. The Citizen's Income Toronto (CIT) resources page - includes links to online resources and to relevant books, along with a "Readings" section where you'll find essays by CIT site owner/administrator Terry Rourke of Toronto and to documents about CIT from a number of other sources. Citizen's Income Toronto Newsletter <===click for the content of the latest issue. - the content of this link changes each time the newsletter is updated with the latest news and views on citizen's income in Canada, along with links to the international CIT network [ back issues of the newsletter ] NOTE: Like the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, CIT is not a supporter of the 25 in 5 Network for Poverty Reduction, as stated in the latest (April 13) CIT newsletter: "...the '25 in 5' thing is something thought up by social agencies who most impoverished people despise." GAI and the 2008 federal election: On September 17, the Green Party of Canada released its platform for the 2008 federal election. For more detail, see the 2008 federal election page of this site: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/politics_2008_fed_election.htm#green Related links: From the Toronto Star: Party battles 'tree-hugger' myth September 13, 2008 Green Party Leader Elizabeth May isn't shy about touting her party's conservative credentials. For some, the party's name conjures images of left-wing tree huggers. But May emphasizes a picture of a socially progressive group with fiscally conservative ideas. Even members of the Conservative party's natural constituency, she believes, would feel at home with the Greens. (...) Election pledge re. eliminating poverty * Remove income taxes on those living below the poverty line. * Increase Guaranteed Income Supplements to seniors by 25 per cent. * As a first step to a guaranteed annual income, give an additional $5,000 a year to adults currently on welfare and strike deals with provinces so it doesn't get clawed back. From the Green Party of Canada: September 8,.2008 Green Party will eliminate poverty and promote local food OTTAWA – Green Party leader Elizabeth May today highlighted both the need to eliminate poverty in Canada and promote local food on her first election campaign stop in Ottawa. (...) To eliminate poverty and hunger, the Green Party would look at introducing a Guaranteed Livable Income for Canadians. As a regular annual payment, negotiation with the provinces could allow Guaranteed Livable Income supplements to be set regionally. Setting the payment at a level adequate for subsistence will still encourage additional income generation." Senate Convenes Roundtable on Guaranteed Income On 13 June 2008, the Senate Sub-Committee on Cities held a Roundtable on the topic of "Guaranteed Annual Income: Has Its Time Come?" Transcript of the proceedings of the roundtable (51 printed pages) June 13, 2008 Highly recommended reading --- valuable insights on guaranteed income from recognized experts in the field of guaranteed annual income, including Derek Hum (father of Mincome Manitoba), Senator Hugh Segal, Sheila Regehr (Director, National Council of Welfare), Rob Rainer (Executive Director, National Anti-Poverty Organization), professors Lars Osberg and Jim Mulvale, Michael Mendelson of the Caledon Institute of Social Policy, Marie White (Council of Canadians with Disabilities) and many others. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- BIEN (Basic Income Earth Network) Canada Founded A group of 18 people from Canada met at the Congress of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) that was held in Dublin, Ireland in late June 2008. (See the link to 60+ conference papers and presentations below.) After some discussion, a motion was made and supported unanimously to petition BIEN to recognize our group as their national affiliate for Canada. This recognition was in fact granted the next day at the BIEN General Assembly. (At this meeting, three other groups from Mexico, Italy, and Japan were also recognized as new national affiliates of BIEN.) Basic (or guaranteed) income is a model of economic security that BIEN has discussed, researched, and promoted since its founding in 1986. This model calls for the granting by the state of an assured and adequate income for all, without any requirements for means testing or compulsory labour market attachment. More information about Basic Income and BIEN can be found at http://www.basicincome.org With the establishment and recognition of BIEN Canada, a Steering Group is now setting to work on such tasks as extending the membership of the network, putting our group on a firm organizational footing, and planning ongoing activities and future events. Two well-known Canadian politicians concerned about poverty reduction were part of the initiative to establish BIEN Canada - Senator Hugh Segal and Member of Parliament Tony Martin. The National Anti-Poverty Organization also took part in the founding of BIEN Canada, as well as numerous researchers, social policy analysts, and advocates. If you wish to be added to the BIEN Canada e-mail list, please contact: jim.mulvale@uregina.ca (Jim Mulvale, Dept. of Justice Studies, University of Regina) Related links: Dublin BIEN Congress papers and presentations Theme: Inequality and Development in a Globalised Economy - The Basic Income Option - links to over 60 Powerpoint presentations and papers presented at the Dublin BIEN Congress in late June 2008 - sample presentation titles and plenary themes: [ NOTE: only a few of the titles & themes below are hyperlinked - click the link above to access links to all papers. ] * What is an appropriate level of minimum income? * The Case for a Universal State Pension: Lessons from New Zealand for Ireland's Green Paper on Pensions * Basic Income in Ireland: surveying three decades * Inequality and Development in a Globalised Economy - WHY Basic Income is a major part of the answer * Pensions and Basic Income * Global and Regional Issues * Gender and Care I: Should Feminists Embrace Basic Income? * An Institutional Perspective on Basic Income I * Social Justice and the Meaning of Life * The Rise and Fall of a Basic Income Guarantee Bill in the U.S. Congress * Moving to Basic Income - A right-wing political perspective (Word file - 60K, 22 pages) - by Senator Hugh Segal, Canada * Challenging Income (In)security: Women and Precarious Employment (Word file - 96K, 26 pages) - by Pat Evans (Carleton University, Ottawa) * The Debate on Basic Income / Guaranteed Adequate Income in Canada: Perils and Possibilities (Powerpoint - 109K, 15 slides) - by James Mulvale (University of Regina, Canada) * Basic Income-Greater Freedom of Choice Through Greater Economic Security of the Person in a Globalized Economy (Word file - 50K, 15 pages) - by William Clegg (National Anti-Poverty Organisation, Canada) * much, much more! Weighing trade-offs on poverty June 20, 2008 By Carol Goar OTTAWA–The longing for a simple, affordable plan to reduce poverty runs deep. It has propelled the idea of a guaranteed annual income onto the national agenda no fewer than five times since the 1970s. But no proposal has ever had enough momentum to overcome the political and practical barriers that stand in the way of implementation.Senator Hugh Segal believes Canada is close to the breakthrough point. "Our current programs haven't made a jot of progress (in reducing poverty)," he says. "We've tried everything else. Why don't we try a basic income floor?" Segal, a Conservative, was addressing the Senate committee on cities chaired by Art Eggleton, a Liberal. Despite Ottawa's fiercely partisan climate, the Senate remains an oasis of civil and informed debate. [ more columns by Carol Goar ] Source The Toronto Star More from Hugh Segal: Guaranteed annual income: why Milton Friedman and Bob Stanfield were right (PDF - 172K, 6 pages) By Hugh Segal April 2008 [Abstract] In this article, former IRPP president Hugh Segal considers the merits of a guaranteed annual income or a negative income tax, an idea whose time may never come, but which always generates a good debate. It?s a concept where thinkers on the left and right have found some common ground, from conservative economists such as Milton Friedman in the United States, to Red Tories such as Robert Stanfield in Canada. "If it is done right," Segal argues, "instituting a basic floor income could diminish federal-provincial and labour-management tensions" and could even, "over time, reduce the net burden of state spending while increasing aid to, and the privacy and dignity, of those who fall behind." Source: Policy Options - April 2008 issue (free online magazine) [ Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP) ] Senate report on Rural poverty: Beyond Freefall: Halting Rural Poverty Final Report of the Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry (PDF - 2.3MB, 408 pages) June 2008 (report tabled June 16/08) Contents: Section I: Putting rural Canada back on the policy agenda Section II: Re-invigorating rural economies to reduce poverty Section III : Rethinking social policy: *** Building a Poverty Reduction Strategy Around a Guaranteed Annual Income ***Making Work Pay and Helping Families *** An Enhanced Canada Child Tax Benefit (CCTB) *** Easing the Tax-Filing Burden *** Food Banks – Tax Measures to Encourage Donations *** Developing Better Measures of Rural Poverty *** Education - rural housing - crime and justice - health care Section IV: The healthy community approach Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry 39th Parliament, 2nd Session (October 16, 2007 to date) NOTE : includes links to all nine reports of this Standing Committee tabled during this Parliamentary session [ Parliament of Canada website ] An income for all Canadians A guaranteed income program would lift more than 1.5 million people out of poverty February 17, 2008 Comment by Reginald Stackhouse Some ideas are rejected in the public forum not because they have been tried and found wanting but because they have been found challenging and not tried. One of them is a proposal that can really make poverty history in this country – no, not by increasing any or all of our existing social programs. Just the opposite.They will be replaced by a basic income policy, a.k.a. guaranteed annual income or negative income tax. It will provide all Canadians with an annual income, regardless of what other income they enjoy, earned or unearned. Source: The Toronto Star A Tory joins poverty debate February 14, 2008 For decades, the notion of a guaranteed annual income has been raised in Canadian social policy debates. A basic floor income for all Canadian adults was first advanced in Canada 35 years ago by Senator David Croll, a progressive Liberal. It was touted again in the 1985 report of a royal commission headed by Donald Macdonald, another Liberal. More recently, the Green party has embraced the concept. It is refreshing, then, to see a Conservative, Senator Hugh Segal, urging the study of a guaranteed income as a replacement for the myriad social and anti-poverty programs in Canada. Source: The Toronto Star Guarantee income for poor, Kingston senator urges; Segal filed motion to top up those below poverty line February 8, 2008 Canadian politicians have tried without success for close to 40 years to introduce a guaranteed annual income for poor people. Kingston Senator Hugh Segal is hoping he's the one who can finally make it happen. On Wednesday, Segal filed a motion in the Senate asking the Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology to study the feasibility of using the tax system to provide a guaranteed annual income for individuals living below the poverty line. Source: The Kingston Whig-Standard Guaranteed income, guaranteed dignity - March 5, 2007 Myriam Canas-Mendes loves her job as an outreach worker at the Stop Community Food Centre where she organizes public forums, connects recent immigrants to government services and helps out in the centre's breakfast and lunch programs. The pay is between $10 and $12 an hour depending on the task. That's considered fair by advocates who are pushing Queen's Park to raise the provincial minimum wage to $10 from $8.The problem is the single mom of two doesn't get enough hours to make ends meet. And so the 34-year-old Canas-Mendes has to rely on welfare to supplement her income. Except that doesn't provide enough money to live on either. Source: War on Poverty - from The Toronto Star - ongoing series of articles and editorials about the plight of Canada's needy and possible reforms to the social programs that assist them. Signs of Life in Canada’s Guaranteed Annual Income (GAI) Movement December 14, 2006 Posted by Arun DuBois It is the policy that dare not speak its name. For the better part of the last 20 years, the idea of a guaranteed annual income (GAI), a government funded unconditional annual income floor below which no family or individual can fall, has been met with ridicule, dismissal, silence and, more often than not, legislation that does the exact opposite of what GAI activists want. Source: Relentlessly Progressive Economics [A Blog of the Progressive Economics Forum] Related Link, also from Relentlessly Progressive Economics: Pondering a Guaranteed Annual Income September 7, 2006 Posted by Marc Lee Senator Hugh Segal reviews the history and the need for a Guaranteed Annual Income. Canada’s on-again, off-again relationship with a guaranteed annual income (GAI) has made the rounds for many years. The most renowned recommendation for the GAI came out of the 1985 report of the Royal Commission on the Economic Union and Development Prospects for Canada, chaired by Donald Macdonald, known as the Macdonald Commission. The report stated unequivocally that a universal income security program is “the essential building block” for social security programs in the 21st century. The Manitoba Mincome Experiment http://legalcheckpoint.blogspot.com/2007/11/social-policy-manitoba-mincome.html November 15, 2007 By M. L'Heureux The Mincome Project, also called the Manitoba Basic Guaranteed Annual Income Experiment, was the “first large scale social experiment in Canada and was designed to evaluate the economic and social consequences of an alternative social welfare system based on the concept of negative income tax (NIT)”. The experiment took place between 1975 and 1979 in Winnipeg and Dauphin, Manitoba. The research project was jointly funded by the Federal Government of Canada and the Manitoba Government. Little is known about the experiment as the federal government chose to shelve the report for reasons still unknown to the public. The raw data that was accumulated during the experiment is still relevant to today’s Guaranteed Income debates and is available in some academic libraries and in all provincial legislatures. Source: Legal Checkpoint Blog http://legalcheckpoint.blogspot.com/ Dauphin's great experiment: Mincome, nearly forgotten child of the '70s, was a noble experiment By Lindor Reynolds November 28, 2009 DAUPHIN — Thirty-five years ago, this pretty town surrounded by farm land and far from big cities was the site of a revolutionary social experiment. For five years, Mincome ensured there would be no poverty in Dauphin. Wages were topped up and the working poor given a boost. The experiment, a collaboration between Ed Schreyer's provincial NDP and the Liberal government of Pierre Trudeau, would cost millions before the plug was pulled. The program saw one-third of Dauphin's poorest families get monthly cheques. In 1971, at a federal-provincial conference held in Victoria, Manitoba expressed interest in being the testing ground for a guaranteed income project. The Schreyer government applied for funding. In June, 1974, Mincome was approved... Source: Winnipeg Free Press A guaranteed annual income: From Mincome to the millennium (PDF file - 5 pages, 35K) by Derek Hum and Wayne Simpson In the January-February 2001 Issue of Policy Options policy magazine Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP) - Go to Policy Options -"Canada's premier public policy magazine" - Go to the Institute for Research on Public Policy Whatever happened to Canada's guaranteed income project? Derek Hum and Wayne Simpson Undated (early-to-mid-1990s) ------------------------ - Go to the Guaranteed Annual Income Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/gai.htm Women’s Economic Justice Project: An Examination of How Women Would Benefit from a Guaranteed Livable Income (British Columbia) April 2006 Revised June 2006 "The report documents discussions that formed a sort of grassroots women's think tank to examine the benefits, particularly to women, of a Guaranteed Livable Income. The project intended to look beyond current, and almost universally dominant, proposed solutions to poverty -- economic growth, jobs, daycare and welfare." Complete report: HTML version - table of contents with links to the individual sections of the report PDF version (465K, 72 pages) Source: Women's Economic Justice Project ("In July 2005 the Women's Livable Income Working Group (c/o SWAG) began an 18 month project funded by Status of Women Canada to examine how women would benefit from a Guaranteed Livable Income.") [ Status of Women Action Group ] Income Insecurity:The Basic Income Alternative by John Tomlinson School of Humanities & Human Services Queensland University of Technology Australia 2001 "If freedom, security and productivity are the desired out comes of a modern welfare state then this book argues that a Basic Income is the most efficient way to achieve it." Why Women Would Gain from a Guaranteed Livable Income March 2003 by Cindy L'Hirondelle Source: Victoria Status of Women Action Group Le revenu de citoyenneté : Revue des écrits et consultation des experts (French version only) François Blais et Jean-Yves Duclos Université de Laval Septembre 2001 (Fichier PDF - 7,6Mo, 295 pages) Sites connexes: CRÉFA - Centre de recherche en économie et finance appliquées (Université de Laval) Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la société et la culture A guaranteed annual income: From Mincome to the millennium (PDF file - 5 pages, 35K) by Derek Hum and Wayne Simpson Whatever happened to Mincome Manitoba? In the January-February 2001 Issue of Policy Options policy magazine Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP) - Go to Policy Options -"Canada's premier public policy magazine" - Go to the Institute for Research on Public Policy Yes, Virginia, There is a Guaranteed Annual Income December 2000 Ken Battle and Sherri Torjman Caledon Institute Abstract Commentary(PDF file, 2 pages) DEBATE: Should Canadians be guaranteed a Basic Income? November 2000 Sally Lerner, C.M.A. Clark and W.R. Needham say "Yes" CAW's Jim Stanford says "NO"--- or at least not this kind. Source : Articles From The CCPA Monitor Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives - BC Office International Basic Income Links (Guaranteed Annual income = Universal Income = Support Income = Citizens' Income ) (the links below are organized in reverse chronological order) Call for Papers and Presentations: Basic Income and Economic Citizenship Twelfth Annual North American Basic Income Guarantee Congress May 9-11, 2013, New York City http://www.usbig.net/index.php [The basic income guarantee (BIG) is a government insured guarantee that no citizen's income will fall below some minimal level for any reason.] --- The Twelfth Annual North American Basic Income Congress, Basic Income and Economic Citizenship, will take place in New York City on Thursday, May 9th through Saturday, May 11th, 2013. The congress is organized by the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network (USBIG) in cooperation with the Basic Income Canada Network (BICN). The deadline for proposals is November 30, 2012. Click either of the two source links below for more information about the event and the call for papers and presentations. Source: U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network (USBIG) http://www.usbig.net/ Basic Income Canada Network (BICN) http://biencanada.ca/ May 25, 2011 NEW! Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) and affiliates launch Basic Income News [A Basic Income is an income unconditionally granted to all on an individual basis, without means test or work requirement. So Basic Income = Guaranteed Annual Income.] May 25, 2011 Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) and the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network (USBIG) announce the launch of a new website entirely devoted to basic income news. Basic Income News is the online incarnation of the BIEN NewsFlash (see the link below) and affiliated publications, such as the USBIG Newsletter. The BIEN NewsFlash and its predecessor, the BIEN Newsletter, have been in publication since 1986. The USBIG Newsletter has been going since the year 2000. It is the creation of the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network (the USBIG Network), BIEN’s affiliate in the United States. Basic Income News will have frequently updated news stories about Basic Income around the world, provided initially by BIEN and USBIG. We hope soon that many more of BIEN’s affiliates will contribute as well. If you have news about Basic Income that you think should be published in Basic Income News, please contact the editors at <desk@binews.org>. Related links: BIEN NEWSFLASH 64, May 2011 (PDF - 147K, 17 pages) Table of contents: 1. NEW! BIEN and affiliates launch Basic Income News: http://binews.org/ 2. BIEN Congress 2012 will be held in Munich, Germany 3. New Issue of Basic Income Studies 4. Basic income book series: call for proposals 5. Events Seoul, Delhi, Namur, Berlin, Lincoln 6. Glimpses of national debates - EUROPEAN UNION: EU-Parliament in favour of adequate minimum income - FRANCE: Former Prime Minister launches basic income campaign - GREECE: Basic Pension Introduced - IRAQ: Muqtada al-Sadr Endorses Alaskan Policy - ITALY: Activist Movement for basic income - KUWAIT: A Temporary, Partial basic income for Citizens Only - LATIN AMERICA: Head of UN Commission Says Several Latin America Countries Could Implement basic income - UNITED STATES: American Political Science Association Task Force Will Discuss BIG - SWITZERLAND: A referendum on basic income? 7. Publications 8. New Links 9. About the Basic Income Earth Network --- BIEN's NewsFlash is mailed electronically every two months to over 1,500 subscribers throughout the world. Requests for free subscription should be sent to bien@basicincome.org New blogs at USBIG May 19, 2011 The USBIG Network has added the following two blogs to its website. Both have news and opinion on those topics going back to 2000, and both will continue to be updated periodically. Both allow for reader comments and feedback. * The Alaska Dividend Blog The Alaska Dividend, properly called the Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD), is the closest thing to a basic income guarantee that exists in the world today. It is a small, yearly dividend, financed indirectly from oil revenues, paid by the state government to every citizen who lives in Alaska-including all men, women, and children. This blog has news and commentary about the Alaska Dividend as a small basic income that can provide a model to be copied elsewhere. * The Basic Income Guarantee Blog In this blog, Karl Widerquist writes about the Basic Income Guarantee and contemporary U.S. and world politics Source: U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network (USBIG) Bolsa Familia (Brazil) Oportunidades (Mexico): To Beat Back Poverty, Pay the Poor January 3, 2011 By Tina Rosenberg (...) A single social program is transforming how countries all over the world help their poor. The program, called Bolsa Familia (Family Grant) in Brazil, goes by different names in different places. In Mexico, where it first began on a national scale and has been equally successful at reducing poverty, it is Oportunidades. The generic term for the program is conditional cash transfers. The idea is to give regular payments to poor families, in the form of cash or electronic transfers into their bank accounts, if they meet certain requirements. The requirements vary, but many countries employ those used by Mexico: families must keep their children in school and go for regular medical checkups, and mom must attend workshops on subjects like nutrition or disease prevention. The payments almost always go to women, as they are the most likely to spend the money on their families. The elegant idea behind conditional cash transfers is to combat poverty today while breaking the cycle of poverty for tomorrow. (...) Outside of Brazil and Mexico, conditional cash transfer programs are newer and smaller. Nevertheless, there is ample research showing that they, too, increase consumption, lower poverty, and increase school enrollment and use of health services. Source: New York Times Opinion pages Related links: Bolsa Familia This site is in Portuguese - use Google Language Tools to translate. Source: [Brazil] Ministry of Social Development and Fight Against Hunger Oportunidades (English home page) Source: Government of Mexico (English Home Page) ------------ From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: * Bolsa Familia (Brazil) * Oportunidades (Mexico) A minimum income standard for the UK in 2010, (PDF - 355K, 27 pages) July 2010 By A. Davis et al Source: Joseph Rowntree Foundation Minimum Income Standard (Britain) - incl. links to: * Detailed results 2008 * 2009 update * Work in progress * The team * Publications * Links * Join our mailing list * Contact us A Minimum Income Standard for Britain is an ongoing programme of research to define what level of income is needed to allow a minimum acceptable standard of living in Britain today. Funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, it is a collaboration between the Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP) at Loughborough University and the Family Budget Unit at York University. It brings together two approaches to setting budget standards: the "consensual" negotiation of budgets by panels of ordinary people, and budgets based on research evidence and expert judgements. In MIS, members of the public negotiate budgets and experts check these decisions and advise where they think there is a case for amending them. The first results of MIS were posted in July 2008, and the results were updated in July 2009; links to both reports appear below. --- A minimum income standard for Britain: What people think (PDF - 236K, 64 pages) July 2008 By Jonathan Bradshaw et al. "(...) Poverty is currently being measured in three main ways, but none of these is producing a socially agreed minimum standard. 1. Relative income measures... 2. Measures of deprivation... 3. Budget standards..." --- A minimum income standard for Britain in 2009 (PDF - 427K, 24 pages) July 2009 By Donald Hirsch, Abigail Davis and Noel Smith Published on 1 July 2009, this report is the first annual update of the Minimum Income Standard for Britain (MIS), originally published in 2008. The standard is based on research into what members of the public, informed where relevant by expert knowledge, think should go into a budget in order to achieve a minimum socially acceptable standard of living. The report considers two aspects of uprating the standard for 2009: changes in prices that influence the cost of a minimum ‘basket’ of goods and services, and changes in living standards that may influence what items should be included in that basket. Related links: Joseph Rowntree Foundation "We seek to understand the root causes of social problems, to identify ways of overcoming them, and to show how social needs can be met in practice." Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP) (Loughborough University) Family Budget Unit (York University) Basic Income Earth Network Founded in 1986, the Basic Income European Network (BIEN) aims to serve as a link between individuals and groups committed to, or interested in, basic income, i.e. an income unconditionally granted to all on an individual basis, without means test or work requirement, and to foster informed discussion on this topic throughout Europe. US Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) Network "... promotes the discussion of the basic income guarantee (BIG) in the United States. BIG is a policy that would unconditionally guarantee at least a subsistence-level income for everyone." US BIG Links to BIG Websites (145+ links) This page contains links to websites with information about BIG. The pages differ considerably in their point of view. Some promote a BIG, some promote it as part of a larger strategy; some promote variations on the idea; some oppose it altogether. The fact that these websites are listed here is not considered a recommendation of their program, simply a location to find information. USBIG NEWSLETTER VOL. 10, NO. 51 Winter 2009 This is the Newsletter of the USBIG Network (www.usbig.net), which promotes the discussion of the basic income guarantee (BIG) in the United States. BIG is a policy that would unconditionally guarantee at least a subsistence-level income for everyone. Selected Content: * The Eighth Congress of the USBIG Network: New York February 27-March 1 * The Effects of Alaska’s BIG on Growth and Equality in Alaska * Alaska’s BIG Suffers from the Global Financial Crisis *. The Income Security Institute * New Issues of Basic Income Studies (journal) * BIG News From Around the World (including CANADA) * Recent and Upcoming Events * Upcoming Events * Recent Publications * New Members / New Links [ earlier issues of the newsletter - back to 2000 ] To subscribe to the email version of this newsletter, please email Karl@Widerquist.com IncomeSecurityForAll.org - a portal of information about BIG and the host site for the Income Security Institute; the Institute is a new nonprofit organization dedicated to education and research into income security through a Basic Income Guarantee. - incl. links to: * Home * Blog * Campaign * Institute (About) * Resources (history, articles, books, annual BIG Congress) * Events * Links * Contact us * Donate Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) The Basic Income Earth Network was founded in 1986 as the Basic Income European Network. It expanded its scope from European to the Earth in 2004. It is an international network that serves as a link between individuals and groups committed to or interested in basic income, and fosters informed discussion of the topic throughout the world. - incl. links to: * About BIEN * About Basic Income * NewsFlash * Congresses * Papers and Resources * Membership * Links * Contact NewsFlash - the BIEN newsletter: NewsFlash 59, December 2009 (PDF - 146K, 18 pages) December 15, 2009 * Editorial: Call for Papers, BIEN Congress July 2010 * Events * Glimpses of National Debates --- including Canada * Publications * New Links * About BIEN Source: NewsFlash - newsletter (incl. archives) BIEN's NewsFlash is mailed electronically every two months to over 1,500 subscribers throughout the world. Free subscription : send a request by email to bien@basicincome.org BIEN links to other relevant websites - incl. links to National Affiliates and general GAI/Basic Income resources Source: BIEN - Basic Income Earth Network On Welfare and the Alternatives (U.S.) Welfare reform was a good idea in theory but hasn't quite worked out the way NEWT (Gingrich) and Bill Clinton thought it would. March 1, 2007 "(...)if you want to decrease the size of government while making people self-sufficient and in doing so leaving the family unit intact, there is a rather simple solution that has been batted around since the Nixon administration. The Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) is a government ensured guarantee that no one's income will fall below the level necessary to meet their most basic needs for any reason. As Bertrand Russell put it in 1918, "A certain small income, sufficient for necessities, should be secured for all, whether they work or not, and that a larger income should be given to those who are willing to engage in some work which the community recognizes as useful. On this basis we may build further." Thus, with BIG no one is destitute but everyone has the positive incentive to work. BIG is an efficient, effective, and equitable solution to poverty that promotes individual freedom and leaves the beneficial aspects of a market economy in place. (...) I believe in dismantling the entire welfare system, Medicaid/care included and replacing it with the above BIG. This is the conservative solution without making judgments or convoluting it with man-managed bureaucracies as this would be the domain of the US Treasury department. Source: 411mania.com ("pop-culture since '96") What is the Basic Income Guarantee? [For a discussion of BIG as a solution to poverty see "An Efficiency Argument for the Basic Income Guarantee"] [For cost estimates of BIG See Garfinkel, Huang, and Naidich (2002) or Clark (2002)] [For a History of USBIG 1999 to 2004, see The first five years of the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network] [For a discussion of the diversity of BIG proposals see, "The Many Faces of Universal Basic Income." (Reprinted by permission from the Political Quarterly 75 (3), 2004, pp. 266-274.0)] Source: U.S. Basic Income Guarantee (USBIG) Network The big holes in the net : structural gaps in social protection and guaranteed minimum income systems in 13 European Union countries (PDF file - 112K, 22 pages) April 2004 Source: Higher Institute for Labour Studies (Catholic University of Leuven) The negative income tax The idea of a negative income tax: Past, present, and future (PDF file - 447K, 8 pages) Summer 2004 (September) by Robert A. Moffitt Robert J. Lampman and the Negative Income Tax Experiment (an extract from an oral history) Source: Institute for Research on Poverty [ University of Wisconsin-Madison ] Citizen's Income (U.K.) "Citizen's Income is an unconditional, non-withdrawable income payable to each individual as a right of citizenship. The Citizen's Income Trust plays a vital role in building democracy, promoting pluralism, improving justice, addressing poverty and correcting and complementing the roles of the state and the economic market place." In the Shadow of Speenhamland: Social Policy and the Old Poor Law (PDF file - 257K, 41 pages) 2003 Source: Fred Block (Professor, University of California, Berkeley) A Basic Income for All Philippe Van Parijs "If you really care about freedom, give people an unconditional income." Source: Boston Review - "A Political and Literary Forum" [This article was originally published in the October/ November 2000 issue of the Boston Review] U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network (USBIG) USBIG aims to encourage discussion on the basic income guarantee in the United States and to serve as a link between supporters. The First Congress of the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network: Fundamental Insecurity or Basic Income Guarantee? March 8-9, 2002, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York - incl.links to 35 papers presented at this Congress Universal Income Trust (New Zealand) "Universal Income Trust is a non-profit, registered, educational charity. Its purpose is to inform people about the social, environmental, and economic benefits of universal income systems i.e. economic systems that fulfil the minimum basic requirements inherent in the International Bill of Human Rights." CANADIAN SOCIAL RESEARCH LINKS HOME PAGE PAGE D'ACCUEIL - SITES DE RECHERCHE SOCIALE AU CANADA }}
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