Guaranteed Annual Income Links - Canadian Social Research Links

Links appear below in reverse chronological order, with the most recent at the top of the page.

New from Citizens for Public Justice:

Working Through the Work Disincentive (PDF - 396K, 26 pages)
April 8, 2009
Concerns about a possible work disincentive appear to be one of the biggest obstacles to guaranteed livable income. In this paper, presented at the USBIG Congress 2009, policy analyst Chandra Pasma examines the assumptions that underlie the belief in a work disincentive. Experimental evidence suggests that the work disincentive is not a significant concern, but it remains a political issue. Advocates therefore need to be able to frame arguments that counter these fears. Should we be paying people to “do nothing?”

More CPJ resources on
Guaranteed Livable Income - links to 10 reports (three of which appear below):

* A Deeper Look at GLI: But will they work?
By Chandra Pasma
October 27, 2008
- includes links to the roundtable on guaranteed annual income hosted by the Senate Sub-Committee on Cities, and the Basic Income International Congress in Ireland.

* Part II – A Deeper Look at GLI: Can We Pay People to Do Nothing?
By Chandra Pasma
January 5, 2009
- is it okay to let people live in poverty if they don’t work? Or, as the question is more commonly framed, is it right to pay people to do nothing?(...) Does everybody have a right to food, to shelter, to a basic minimum of security, and to clothing? International human rights commitments say yes.

* Part III – A Deeper Look at GLI: Jobs for Everyone?
By Chandra Pasma
February 24, 2009
It is simply not reasonable to assume that every Canadian who wants a job could have a job, let alone a good job that meets their needs and matches their skills and interests. We should therefore be wary of any attempts to allow access to income security be solely determined by participation in the paid labour force. GLI would be one way of ensuring that every Canadian has income security, even when there is no job available to them.

CPJ Blog
- this link takes you to the latest blog entry, where you'll also find links to earlier entries at the bottom of the page.
NOTE : I highly recommend this blog --- the extensive collection of entries is timely, and each entry contains at least a few links to related resources. In this blog, links to resources are bolded (as opposed to underlined and blue, as they are in more traditional websites, like the one you're on right now).

Source:
Citizens for Public Justice
We are a faithful response to God’s call for love, justice and stewardship. We envision a world in which individuals, communities, societal institutions and governments all contribute to and benefit from the common good. Our mission is to promote public justice in Canada by shaping key public policy debates through research and analysis, publishing and public dialogue.
[ Vision and Mission ]

Related links:

Dublin BIEN Congress papers and presentations
Theme: Inequality and Development in a Globalised Economy - The Basic Income Option
- links to over 60 Powerpoint presentations and papers presented at the Dublin BIEN Congress in late June 2008
- sample presentation titles and plenary themes:
[ NOTE: only a few of the titles & themes below are hyperlinked - click the link above to access links to all papers. ]
* What is an appropriate level of minimum income?
* The Case for a Universal State Pension: Lessons from New Zealand for Ireland's Green Paper on Pensions
* Basic Income in Ireland: surveying three decades
* Inequality and Development in a Globalised Economy - WHY Basic Income is a major part of the answer
* Pensions and Basic Income
* Global and Regional Issues
* Gender and Care I: Should Feminists Embrace Basic Income?
* An Institutional Perspective on Basic Income I
* Social Justice and the Meaning of Life
* The Rise and Fall of a Basic Income Guarantee Bill in the U.S. Congress
* Moving to Basic Income - A right-wing political perspective (Word file - 60K, 22 pages) - by Senator Hugh Segal, Canada
* Challenging Income (In)security: Women and Precarious Employment (Word file - 96K, 26 pages) - by Pat Evans (Carleton University, Ottawa)
* The Debate on Basic Income / Guaranteed Adequate Income in Canada: Perils and Possibilities (Powerpoint - 109K, 15 slides) - by James Mulvale (University of Regina, Canada)
* Basic Income-Greater Freedom of Choice Through Greater Economic Security of the Person in a Globalized Economy (Word file - 50K, 15 pages) - by William Clegg (National Anti-Poverty Organisation, Canada)
* much, much more!

Weighing trade-offs on poverty
June 20, 2008
By Carol Goar
OTTAWA–The longing for a simple, affordable plan to reduce poverty runs deep. It has propelled the idea of a guaranteed annual income onto the national agenda no fewer than five times since the 1970s. But no proposal has ever had enough momentum to overcome the political and practical barriers that stand in the way of implementation.Senator Hugh Segal believes Canada is close to the breakthrough point. "Our current programs haven't made a jot of progress (in reducing poverty)," he says. "We've tried everything else. Why don't we try a basic income floor?" Segal, a Conservative, was addressing the Senate committee on cities chaired by Art Eggleton, a Liberal. Despite Ottawa's fiercely partisan climate, the Senate remains an oasis of civil and informed debate.
[ more columns by Carol Goar ]
Source
The Toronto Star

More from Hugh Segal:

Guaranteed annual income:
why Milton Friedman and Bob Stanfield were right (PDF - 172K, 6 pages)
By Hugh Segal
April 2008
[Abstract] In this article, former IRPP president Hugh Segal considers the merits of a guaranteed annual income or a negative income tax, an idea whose time may never come, but which always generates a good debate. It?s a concept where thinkers on the left and right have found some common ground, from conservative economists such as Milton Friedman in the United States, to Red Tories such as Robert Stanfield in Canada. "If it is done right," Segal argues, "instituting a basic floor income could diminish federal-provincial and labour-management tensions" and could even, "over time, reduce the net burden of state spending while increasing aid to, and the privacy and dignity, of those who fall behind."

Beyond Freefall: Halting Rural Poverty
Final Report of the Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry (PDF - 2.3MB, 408 pages)
June 2008 (report tabled June 16/08)
Contents:
Section I: Putting rural Canada back on the policy agenda
Section II: Re-invigorating rural economies to reduce poverty
Section III : Rethinking social policy:
*** Building a Poverty Reduction Strategy Around a Guaranteed Annual Income
***Making Work Pay and Helping Families
*** An Enhanced Canada Child Tax Benefit (CCTB)
*** Easing the Tax-Filing Burden
*** Food Banks – Tax Measures to Encourage Donations
*** Developing Better Measures of Rural Poverty
*** Education - rural housing - crime and justice - health care
Section IV: The healthy community approach

USBIG NEWSLETTER VOL. 9, NO. 47 - WINTER 2008
- newsletter of the US Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) Network
Table of Contents of issue # 49:
1. USBIG Congress takes place later this week (March 7-9, 2008)
2. Conservative U.S. presidential candidate endorses a small BIG
3. Editorial: A Basic Income Supporter’s view of the sales tax movement
4. BIG News from Around the World
5. Upcoming Events
6. Recent Events
7. Basic Income Studies releases its fourth issue
8. New Publications
9. New Discussion Papers
10. New Members
11. New Links
12. Links and Other Info

Source:
US Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) Network
"... promotes the discussion of the basic income guarantee (BIG) in the United States. BIG is a policy that would unconditionally guarantee at least a subsistence-level income for everyone."

US BIG Links to BIG Websites (145+ links)
This page contains links to websites with information about BIG. The pages differ considerably in their point of view. Some promote a BIG, some promote it as part of a larger strategy; some promote variations on the idea; some oppose it altogether. The fact that these websites are listed here is not considered a recommendation of their program, simply a location to find information.

Newsflash #49 - January 2008
CONTENTS
1. 12th BIEN Congress June 2008
2. Basic Income Studies
3. Events
4. Obituary: Andrew Glyn
5. Glimpses of national debates
6. Publications
7. New Links
8. About BIEN

Source:
BIEN - Basic Income Earth Network (Belgium)
The Basic Income Earth Network was founded in 1986 as the Basic Income European Network. It expanded its scope from Europe to the Earth in 2004. It serves as a link between individuals and groups committed to or interested in basic income, and fosters informed discussion on this topic throughout the world.

An income for all Canadians
A guaranteed income program would lift more than 1.5 million people out of poverty
February 17, 2008
Comment by Reginald Stackhouse
Some ideas are rejected in the public forum not because they have been tried and found wanting but because they have been found challenging and not tried. One of them is a proposal that can really make poverty history in this country – no, not by increasing any or all of our existing social programs. Just the opposite.They will be replaced by a basic income policy, a.k.a. guaranteed annual income or negative income tax. It will provide all Canadians with an annual income, regardless of what other income they enjoy, earned or unearned.
Source:
The Toronto Star

A Tory joins poverty debate
February 14, 2008
For decades, the notion of a guaranteed annual income has been raised in Canadian social policy debates. A basic floor income for all Canadian adults was first advanced in Canada 35 years ago by Senator David Croll, a progressive Liberal. It was touted again in the 1985 report of a royal commission headed by Donald Macdonald, another Liberal. More recently, the Green party has embraced the concept. It is refreshing, then, to see a Conservative, Senator Hugh Segal, urging the study of a guaranteed income as a replacement for the myriad social and anti-poverty programs in Canada.
Source:
The Toronto Star

Guarantee income for poor, Kingston senator urges; Segal filed motion to top up those below poverty line
Febrary 8, 2008
Canadian politicians have tried without success for close to 40 years to introduce a guaranteed annual income for poor people. Kingston Senator Hugh Segal is hoping he's the one who can finally make it happen. On Wednesday, Segal filed a motion in the Senate asking the Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology to study the feasibility of using the tax system to provide a guaranteed annual income for individuals living below the poverty line.
Source:
The Kingston Whig-Standard

Guaranteed income, guaranteed dignity - March 5, 2007
Myriam Canas-Mendes loves her job as an outreach worker at the Stop Community Food Centre where she organizes public forums, connects recent immigrants to government services and helps out in the centre's breakfast and lunch programs. The pay is between $10 and $12 an hour depending on the task. That's considered fair by advocates who are pushing Queen's Park to raise the provincial minimum wage to $10 from $8.The problem is the single mom of two doesn't get enough hours to make ends meet. And so the 34-year-old Canas-Mendes has to rely on welfare to supplement her income. Except that doesn't provide enough money to live on either.
Source:
War on Poverty - from The Toronto Star
- ongoing series of articles and editorials about the plight of Canada's needy and possible reforms to the social programs that assist them.

Signs of Life in Canada’s
Guaranteed Annual Income (GAI) Movement
December 14, 2006
Posted by Arun DuBois
It is the policy that dare not speak its name. For the better part of the last 20 years, the idea of a guaranteed annual income (GAI), a government funded unconditional annual income floor below which no family or individual can fall, has been met with ridicule, dismissal, silence and, more often than not, legislation that does the exact opposite of what GAI activists want.
Source:
Relentlessly Progressive Economics
[A Blog of the Progressive Economics Forum]

Pondering a Guaranteed Annual Income
September 7, 2006
Posted by Marc Lee
Senator Hugh Segal reviews the history and the need for a Guaranteed Annual Income.
Canada’s on-again, off-again relationship with a guaranteed annual income (GAI) has made the rounds for many years. The most renowned recommendation for the GAI came out of the 1985 report of the Royal Commission on the Economic Union and Development Prospects for Canada, chaired by Donald Macdonald, known as the Macdonald Commission. The report stated unequivocally that a universal income security program is “the essential building block” for social security programs in the 21st century.

Women’s Economic Justice Project:
An Examination of How Women Would Benefit from a
Guaranteed Livable Income (British Columbia)
April 2006 Revised June 2006
"The report documents discussions that formed a sort of grassroots women's think tank to examine the benefits, particularly to women, of a Guaranteed Livable Income. The project intended to look beyond current, and almost universally dominant, proposed solutions to poverty -- economic growth, jobs, daycare and welfare."

HTML version - table of contents with links to the individual sections of the report
PDF version (465K, 72 pages)

Source:
Women's Economic Justice Project
("In July 2005 the Women's Livable Income Working Group (c/o SWAG) began an 18 month project funded by Status of Women Canada to examine how women would benefit from a Guaranteed Livable Income.")
[ Status of Women Action Group ]

Income Insecurity:The Basic Income Alternative
by John Tomlinson
School of Humanities & Human Services
Queensland University of Technology
Australia
2001
"If freedom, security and productivity are the desired out comes of a modern welfare state then this book argues that a Basic Income is the most efficient way to achieve it."

Livable Income For Everyone
"Livable Income For Everyone (LIFE) is an organization started [in British Columbia] in 2003 to promote the implementation of universal guaranteed livable income in every country in the world."
- incl. links to Introduction - Evidence - Articles - Questions - Buried Treasure - Links - LIFE - Email

Yes, Virginia, There is a Guaranteed Annual Income
December 2000
Ken Battle and Sherri Torjman
Caledon Institute
Abstract
Commentary(PDF file, 2 pages)

International Basic Income Links (Guaranteed Annual income = Universal Income= Support Income=Citizens' Income)

On Welfare and the Alternatives (U.S.)
Welfare reform was a good idea in theory but hasn't quite worked out the way NEWT (Gingrich) and Bill Clinton thought it would.
March 1, 2007
"(...)if you want to decrease the size of government while making people self-sufficient and in doing so leaving the family unit intact, there is a rather simple solution that has been batted around since the Nixon administration. The Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) is a government ensured guarantee that no one's income will fall below the level necessary to meet their most basic needs for any reason. As Bertrand Russell put it in 1918, "A certain small income, sufficient for necessities, should be secured for all, whether they work or not, and that a larger income should be given to those who are willing to engage in some work which the community recognizes as useful. On this basis we may build further." Thus, with BIG no one is destitute but everyone has the positive incentive to work. BIG is an efficient, effective, and equitable solution to poverty that promotes individual freedom and leaves the beneficial aspects of a market economy in place. (...) I believe in dismantling the entire welfare system, Medicaid/care included and replacing it with the above BIG. This is the conservative solution without making judgments or convoluting it with man-managed bureaucracies as this would be the domain of the US Treasury department.
Source:
411mania.com ("pop-culture since '96")

What is the Basic Income Guarantee?
[For a discussion of BIG as a solution to poverty see "An Efficiency Argument for the Basic Income Guarantee"]
[For cost estimates of BIG See Garfinkel, Huang, and Naidich (2002) or Clark (2002)]
[For a History of USBIG 1999 to 2004, see The first five years of the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network]
[For a discussion of the diversity of BIG proposals see, "The Many Faces of Universal Basic Income." (Reprinted by permission from the Political Quarterly 75 (3), 2004, pp. 266-274.0)]
Source:
U.S. Basic Income Guarantee (USBIG) Network

The Basic Income European Network (BIEN)
Founded in 1986, the Basic Income European Network (BIEN) aims is to serve as a link between individuals and groups committed to, or interested in, basic income, i.e. an income unconditionally granted to all on an individual basis, without means test or work requirement, and to foster informed discussion on this topic throughout Europe.

BIEN's NewsFlash newsletter contains up-to-date information on recent events and publications related to BIEN or basic income more generally. The NewsFlash is mailed electronically every two months to over 1,500 subscribers throughout Europe and beyond, and simultaneously made available for consultation or download at BIEN Online.
[ past issues of the Newsflash ]

Citizen's Income (U.K.)
"Citizen's Income is an unconditional, non-withdrawable income payable to each individual as a right of citizenship. The Citizen's Income Trust plays a vital role in building democracy, promoting pluralism, improving justice, addressing poverty and correcting and complementing the roles of the state and the economic market place."

A Basic Income for All
Philippe Van Parijs
"If you really care about freedom, give people an unconditional income."
Source:
Boston Review - "A Political and Literary Forum"
[This article was originally published in the October/ November 2000 issue of the Boston Review]

U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network (USBIG)
USBIG aims to encourage discussion on the basic income guarantee in the United States and to serve as a link between supporters.

Universal Income Trust (New Zealand)
"Universal Income Trust is a non-profit, registered, educational charity. Its purpose is to inform people about the social, environmental, and economic benefits of universal income systems i.e. economic systems that fulfil the minimum basic requirements inherent in the International Bill of Human Rights."

Guaranteed Annual Income

Revenu annuel garanti