Archive for the ‘Social Security Debates’ Category
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It’s time for politicians to take food insecurity and poverty seriously
Thursday, August 16th, 2018
One of the biggest challenges in effectively tackling poverty is that we have made it the responsibility of charity. Our over reliance on food banks and corporate food charity as our default response has proven ineffective at achieving long-term change. Also consider that 21 per cent of food banks report having had to turn people away because there was no food to give out. We need to focus on food as a human right and building a food system that includes the elimination of poverty and food insecurity.
Tags: budget, disabilities, Health, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
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The Case for Universal Basic Income
Saturday, August 11th, 2018
Less bureaucracy, more dignity, less poverty, more security. Unlike traditional welfare, which can create a disincentive to work by reducing welfare payments as income rises, universal basic income is just that: it’s universal. People want to work, but if they spend all day in welfare lines, or if their welfare is reduced when they do work, then a job is far less feasible and far less attractive.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living, tax
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The Case Against a Universal Basic Income
Saturday, August 11th, 2018
With the UBI the focus is paying all people. All people get paid, no incentives to work, and few resources left over for the major retraining that is required for displaced workers. But we can’t afford to just hope that these recipients will find the appropriate training for the jobs of the future and decide to enter the workforce… The other main problem with the UBI is its cost. Estimates show that, depending on the design, it would cost as much as $300-400 billion a year, more than the whole federal budget.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, jurisdiction, tax
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Who really rides the gravy train? Not those who were on basic income
Tuesday, August 7th, 2018
The same week that the basic income project was scuttled, a new report outlined how wealth is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few Canadians, how those fortunes are amassed over generations, and how the country’s tax system helps protect and enlarge those fortunes… “In general, Canada’s tax system is set up to encourage concentration of wealth at the very top,” the report says. That includes a lack of tax on inheritances, low taxes on capital gains and an acceptance of tax-avoiding loopholes. These too are government handouts; we’re just trained not to think of them that way.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax
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‘I may end up homeless again’: Six Ontarians talk about their life before, after and, once again, without basic income
Friday, August 3rd, 2018
Close to 1,000 Hamiltonians are being left in the lurch after the new Progressive Conservative government announced it is scrapping a basic income pilot program less than one year after it launched… The Hamilton Spectator spoke to six people enrolled in the basic income program, which cost $50 million a year, and heard from several others about what the project meant to them… [and] what’s next?
Tags: budget, economy, Health, homelessness, participation, poverty, standard of living
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Doug Ford speaks ‘For the People’ – just not low-income people
Thursday, August 2nd, 2018
… for this particular brand of Progressive Conservatives, “fairness” or “the people” are terms that exclude the 10 per cent of Ontarians who live below the poverty line… Has Lisa MacLeod defined Ford Nation conservatism as the ultimate in exclusionary “avoid the evidence” public policy? Premier Ford deserves better. And so do Ontarians… The pilot project was testing an approach that treated those below the poverty line with respect, as human beings who can manage their own lives.
Tags: budget, disabilities, economy, featured, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
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It’s in everyone’s interests to finish Ontario’s basic income pilot project
Thursday, August 2nd, 2018
Does it make people better off? Does it encourage people to quit jobs? Or does a certain level of income help people sort out training, or health, or other struggles, and work? Does it reduce other public costs, like health care? … The price tag seems huge… skepticism about basic income is practical, but… there are key empirical questions to be answered – not just whether it affects people’s health, or whether they work, but by how much. The information would have been valuable… even if such a program isn’t viable.
Tags: budget, disabilities, featured, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
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Shameful to pick on poor and disabled
Thursday, August 2nd, 2018
Cancelling the project mid-stream wastes the money spent to date and prevents any evidenced-based data on which to make sound decisions. Ms. MacLeod’s claim the project was not succeeding is disingenuous; how would the government know without completing the project? This decision is short-sighted and lacks compassion for the poorest and most vulnerable in our communities — people who often cannot object and cannot advocate for themselves.
Tags: budget, disabilities, featured, Health, ideology, mental Health, participation, poverty
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MacLeod’s policy changes will keep Ontarians trapped in poverty
Thursday, August 2nd, 2018
The purpose behind these important rule changes was to stop social assistance from forcing people into complete destitution before they become eligible for help. It is this entrenched destitution model that keeps people on social assistance for years. The rule changes that would help to dismantle that model are now being revoked. As a result, MacLeod can now expect to see a costly set of programs become even more expensive as recipients continue to face the same long road out of destitution.
Tags: budget, disabilities, featured, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
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Addressing poverty, not policing, is solution to gun violence
Thursday, July 19th, 2018
Providing opportunities, programs and social supports for daycare aged children as young as two, all the way through to assisting youth to pursue post-secondary education, it is resources rather than enforcement that go a long way to address poverty… Decades of research… all highlight the need to support and not punish our communities.
Tags: child care, crime prevention, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living, youth
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