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In reply to the discussion: This City Eliminated Poverty, And Nearly Everyone Forgot About It - HuffPo [View all]NewDeal_Dem
(1,049 posts)In 2011, Forget released a paper distilling how Mincome affected peoples health using census data. She found overall hospitalization rates (for accidents, injuries, and mental health diagnoses) dropped in the group who received basic income supplements.
By giving a communitys poorest residents enough to lift their incomes above the poverty line, there was a measurable impact on the health care system. Its this kind of logic that Forget hopes will propel the idea of basic income forward, four decades later.
Im enough of an optimist to believe that eventually were going to end up there. I think we already have part of the program in place, said Forget, referring to existing supplements including the Guaranteed Income Supplement for seniors and the National Child Benefit.
The one gap in the system right now is the working poor: people working in insecure and precarious jobs.
Two years before the Harper government shut down its operations, the National Council of Welfare released a damning report criticizing how welfare rules are trapping people in poverty.
Canadas welfare system is a box with a tight lid. Those in need must essentially first become destitute before they qualify for temporary assistance, said TD Banks former chief economist Don Drummond after the social agencys report was released in 2010.
But the record shows once you become destitute you tend to stay in that state. You have no means to absorb setbacks in income or unexpected costs. You cant afford to move to where jobs might be or upgrade your skills.