Tag: guaranteed income

As a self-confessed health-food eater, I rarely enter fast-food joints, but nostalgia and the feeling that it’s an obligatory childhood experience saw me bring my daughter to a McDonalds. While the novelty of receiving a toy with your food quickly won her over, what struck me most was the automation.

McDonald’s has always been known for its efficiency, but for many teenagers and young adults, it also functioned as a place to get your first job. They would train you, as you gained not only a paycheque, but experience.

But looking at the company’s new self-serve kiosks, I couldn’t help but […]

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Customers use the digital screen to place an order at a McDonald’s restaurant as the companies stock price reached record territory on April 25, 2017 in Miami, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) As a self-confessed health-food eater, I rarely enter fast-food joints, but nostalgia and the feeling that it’s an obligatory childhood experience saw me bring my daughter to a McDonalds. While the novelty of receiving a toy with your food quickly won her over, what struck me most was the automation.

McDonald’s has always been known for its efficiency, but for many teenagers and young adults, it also functioned as […]

Full Post at www.theglobeandmail.com

In Switzerland last June, they held a referendum on a universal basic income that would have given each adult Swiss citizen $2,500 per month. It was a truly universal basic income because it would have gone to everybody, whether they were working or not. The horrified Swiss rejected it by a majority of more than three-to-one.

In Finland in January, the government launched a pilot program for a basic income, but it was a timid little thing that gives the participants in the trial just $600 per month. It certainly isn’t universal because it only goes to jobless people who […]

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In Switzerland last June, they had a referendum on a universal basic income that would have given each adult Swiss citizen US$2,500 (86,450 baht) per month. It would have gone to everybody whether they were working or not and the horrified Swiss rejected it by a majority of more than three-to-one.

In Finland last January, the government launched a pilot programme for a "basic income", but it was a timid little thing that gives the participants in the trial just $600 per month. It certainly isn’t universal: it only goes to jobless people who are receiving the lowest level of […]

Full Post at www.bangkokpost.com

A basic income pilot program will be tested in Thunder Bay and two other Ontario cities. | Photo: WDIO-TV file

Some residents of Thunder Bay will be part of a three-year study by the Ontario provincial government to see if a basic income program is a better solution than existing programs to help people on low incomes.

Under the pilot program, single individuals will receive $16,989 (Canadian) per year and couples will receive $24,027 per year, less 50 percent of any earned income. For example, a single person earning $10,000 per year would receive an additional $11,989 in basic income, for […]

Full Post at www.wdio.com

by Thomas Walkom

Back in the 1970s, a basic income (or guaranteed annual income as it was called then) was seen as way to end poverty.

Those on the right viewed the concept, which in its purest form involves government handing out cheques to everyone below a certain income level, as a way to cut back a debilitating and ruinously expensive welfare system.Those on the left saw it as a simpler and more humane way to transfer money to the needy. Manitoba’s New Democratic government briefly experimented with the idea.There were plenty of needy people in those days. Still, poverty […]

Full Post at morinvillenews.com

Ontario’s new scheme assumes poverty is an inexorable part of the gig economy. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne speaks at the Ford Essex Engine Plant in Windsor, Ont. in March. Ontario is launching a basic income pilot project this spring, aimed at providing financial stability for low-income residents during a time of precarious work and a changing economy. Back in the 1970s, a basic income (or guaranteed annual income as it was called then) was seen as way to end poverty.

Those on the right viewed the concept, which in its purest form involves government handing out cheques to everyone below […]

Full Post at www.thestar.com

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Wynne_pic_cropped.jpg Ontario chooses Thunder Bay, Lindsay and Hamilton

HAMILTON—Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne announced her government’s plan to provide 4,000 residents of Hamilton, Thunder Bay and Lindsay with a guaranteed basic income as part of a pilot study to determine if that approach will assist lower income families improve their job prospects and quality of life.

Under the plan, the province’s working poor and homeless residents would receive a basic income that would pay for their basic needs, food and shelter.Under the pilot project, recipients will be randomly chosen and will begin receiving the funds as soon as this summer. The […]

Full Post at www.manitoulin.ca

Artificial intelligence developer Tom Gruber speaks at TED 2017 — The Future You — in Vancouver. Whether we should fear future “robotic overlords,” job-killing technologies born out of artificial intelligence and automation, will really depend on who is building them and what they’re building them for, according to AI developer Tom Gruber.

Gruber, co-creator of Siri, the voice-command AI feature on Apple iPhones, told the audience at TED Talks that we have a choice to create “humanistic AI” that can enhance human abilities and help people solve problems, not simply take over from them.

“We can choose AI to automate and […]

Full Post at vancouversun.com

Regardless of what happens in the next provincial election, all parties need to pledge allegiance to its full mandate. By choosing Lindsay, Hamilton and Thunder Bay for its basic annual income pilot, the Wynne government has chosen representative sites that mirror the province as a whole: north, central, large, small. “No nation can achieve true greatness if it lacks the courage and determination to undertake the surgery necessary to remove the cancer of poverty from its body politic.”

That’s a useful quote to keep in mind as the Wynne government pushes aside the naysayers, at least for the moment, and […]

Full Post at www.thestar.com