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The appeal of "minimum income" or "universal basic income" is that it's an abstract undefined concept, so people read what they want into it. As soon as we start talking specifics, it becomes clear that there are costs and winners and losers. 1/5 https://twitter.com/ArmineYalnizyan/status/1252930350046679040
The appeal of "minimum income" or "universal basic income" is that it's an abstract undefined concept, so people read what they want into it. As soon as we start talking specifics, it becomes clear that there are costs and winners and losers. 1/5 https://twitter.com/ArmineYalnizyan/status/1252930350046679040
Economics teaches you that people aren't stupid. Yet some of the minimum income debate seems to assume, implicitly, that policy makers are stupid - that there was this great policy alternative out there all the time, and they just didn't see it. Sorry, not the case. 2/
We've been moving in the minimum income direction for years. Seniors have had one for decades through the Guaranteed Income Supplement. Canada child benefit is a minimum income for kids, and the Canada workers benefit is another step towards a min inc 3/
But there are good arguments against scrapping current programs in favour of a min inc, like the ones @ArmineYalnizyan talks about - housing costs vary widely across the country. Some people have low incomes and high wealth. Temporary need is different from permanent need. 4/
People's lives are complicated. That means income support tends to be complicated too. 5/ end thread.
