With people's employment being stopped by the pandemic, it is time for the government to bring in Basic Income. A minimum amount paid to each to ensure that each has something with which to pursue their life needs.
It is the only fair way to bring in a modicum of effective unemployment relief to allow people to have money for food and cover existing rental agreements/mortgage payments, where savings are insufficient.
The amount is massive though.
Say there are 15M families in Canada.
say 15M people getting even $1000 a month means $15B in each month. This is about three times the amount the the government spent on the pipeline it bought and for which it still has not received one cent in return.
This is a minimum amount. More money being allocated to those with extra mouths to feed would be better. $1000 is not much at all for some in Toronto with high shelter costs. It is hoped that personal savings are sufficient to cover shortfall.
Basic income could use the same mechanism of distribution used for carbon tax rebates, so no new census taking of eligible person would be required.
Using the same amount for all gives the service an appearance of fairness.
Trying to determine who is most in need would be untenable – corporations and the rich could easily create need. Should someone with a mansion they are paying off get more than someone living cheaply in a small house? I can't see that selling well to the general population.
But you and I know that any distribution that give more to some and less to others will mean more to those who live high off the hog and less to struggling families. The rich have the pull and the in; struggling families do not – or they would not be struggling to start with.
Basic Income is anyway a valuable social program.
It puts money into the economy.
It alleviates poverty and poor upbringing for children. This is a goal often professed by government but they are doing little about it.
By doing so it lessens crime, violence, imprisonment and other social ills.
If Covid-19 helps bring about Basic Income, it would be something good anyway to come out of this.
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