Archive for the ‘Social Security Debates’ Category
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The time for a Guaranteed Annual Income might finally have come
Tuesday, August 4th, 2015
So why are such a broad group of people – finance ministers, mayors and medical officers of health – pushing such a program? Poverty, substantial evidence now tells us, is one of the best predictors of poor health. And poor health costs everyone… whether it’s our calculations or those done by other organizations, a GAI is definitely doable. And it is clear that the potential benefits are substantial.
Tags: economy, featured, Health, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living, tax
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Harper Is Right: This Election Is about Security Versus Risk
Monday, July 27th, 2015
Governments have gradually jettisoned their responsibility for economic security, slowly but surely handing this critical feature of every Canadian’s life over to the “market” for determination. Economic policy has been surgically excised from government responsibility to citizens and is now in the singular category of “facilitating investment”… we have been convinced that we (even those of us with full time, low-paying jobs headed for the food banks to make ends meet) are somehow to blame.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, poverty, privatization, tax
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OAS must be increased
Tuesday, July 7th, 2015
Between 2007 and 2010, as poverty rates were falling in many OECD countries… in Canada they actually rose about two percentage points. Statistics Canada reported in December 2014 that 600,000 seniors live in poverty, including more than one in four singles. A senior who receives the maximum permitted for the CPP (Canada Pension Plan), OAS (old age security) and GIS (guaranteed income supplement) lives below the poverty line, yet the federal government won’t place on its agenda an increase to OAS. For shame.
Tags: budget, ideology, pensions, poverty, standard of living
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Making poverty a priority
Sunday, June 28th, 2015
Poverty is not a moral condition, but a defect in the economic distribution system. Isn’t it simpler to change that distribution system than make a multitude of grand gestures that have a long history of failing to correct the situation? … Successful poverty reduction plans elsewhere have always involved the participation by the national government… We are shamefully behind many countries.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, poverty, rights, standard of living, tax
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Where’s the anti-poverty strategy?
Wednesday, June 24th, 2015
What better way to justify the government’s inaction in addressing the basic levers that produce poverty than staking out the position that local solutions to poverty are the key to poverty reduction in Ontario? Creating a fund of $50 million to be made available to local anti-poverty strategy initiatives is an excellent way to shift the focus to local action rather than the failures of the current provincial government. Even better, it offers a way to silence critics by offering monies that forces them to endorse the government’s unwillingness to address poverty.
Tags: budget, child care, disabilities, homelessness, ideology, mental Health, participation, poverty, standard of living
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Minimum income would only keep workers out of the labour market, if history is any guide
Thursday, June 18th, 2015
… the Speenhamland Law… initiated in England 1795-1834… provided a basic wage support linked to the price of corn (similar to the current Consumer Price Index)… wage subsidies discouraged rural employers from paying decent wages since their employees were already receiving financial support from the government… a guaranteed minimum income is very likely to discourage people from seeking more productive employment in other more economically vibrant areas.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
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Let’s give the negative income tax a proper try and learn from its failure
Monday, June 15th, 2015
… why have a bunch of different programs each with their own costly bureaucracy and sometimes irrational eligibility criteria? Why not just give people money because they’re poor and take some of it back if they get less poor? … we could keep the positive income tax as it is. But it would make things much simpler and more effective for low-income earners… the NIT is a bad idea. The real problem with welfare programs isn’t bad design, insufficient funding or bureaucracy. It’s that incentives matter and welfare, broadly defined, rewards the wrong things.
Tags: budget, disabilities, economy, featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living
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Simcoe Muskoka health unit first in Ontario to call for basic-income guarantee
Saturday, June 13th, 2015
The organization is pushing a campaign to ask provincial and federal governments to study ways of making a basic-income program a reality. It would mean people whose wages fall below the poverty line would receive extra money “to meet their basic needs and live with dignity… Issues such as poverty and income inequality are “very clearly linked to a whole range of health concerns,” such as increased rates of chronic and infectious diseases, mental illness and infant mortality
Tags: budget, economy, Health, ideology, mental Health, poverty, standard of living
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Basic income guarantee would lessen poverty
Friday, June 12th, 2015
Research shows that most hungry Canadians never even go to a food bank. And even those who do can never get enough food to keep them from being hungry… Food drives cannot solve hunger because they do not address the underlying problem of poverty. Over time, a basic income guarantee would more than pay for itself with savings in health care, education and the justice system. And once there were no more hungry Canadians, a basic income guarantee would mean that food banks could finally close.
Tags: economy, featured, Health, ideology, mental Health, poverty, standard of living
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Canadians are in better financial shape than the pessimists think
Monday, June 8th, 2015
Taken as a whole, the Statscan numbers provide substantial grounds for optimism… the household saving rate is not a measure of the amount workers collectively contribute to their retirement accounts… working Canadians are actually putting away about 14 per cent of their paycheques toward retirement savings when you include the amounts that employers contribute to retirement plans on behalf of employees
Tags: economy, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | 1 Comment »
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