Quote:
A universal basic income would not only lift more than 3.2 million Canadians out of poverty, it would also create hundreds of thousands of new jobs, grow the economy by tens of billions of dollars and eventually pay for itself with increased tax revenues.
The first, a guaranteed minimum income based on the design of Ontario’s cancelled basic income pilot project, would ensure a minimum income of $24,000 for individuals and $34,700 for couples. The second program, based on a proposal by UBI Works, would guarantee a minimum income of $24,000 for individuals and $36,000 for couples, while also paying a $6,000 “universal dividend” to all adults.
The bad:
Quote:
But UBI is a flawed idea, not least because it would be prohibitively expensive unless accompanied by deep cuts to the rest of the safety net. In the U.S. (population: 327 million), a UBI of just $1,000 per month would cost around $4 trillion per year, which is close to the entire federal budget in 2018.
Without major cost savings, federal tax revenue would have to be doubled, which would impose massive distortionary costs on the economy. And, no, a permanent UBI could not be financed with government debt or newly printed currency.
Sacrificing all other social programs for the sake of a UBI is a terrible idea.