Ontario throws in the towel on Universal Basic Income: Kennedy
Socialism has taken a direct hit! The canadian cash grab in Ontario, Canada has been a bust and the province is discontinuing it's Universal Basic Income program that was doling out about $12,000 looneys a year. Social services minister Lisa MacLeod said the plan was "not sustainable", probably because UBI never *replaces* existing welfare programs, it just augments them. It's like giving Stormy Daniels a boob job.
UBI has misguided fans on both sides of the aisle who see the purpose of government as perpetuating poverty through dependency, all while heartlessly sticking middle income earners with the bill for benefits they'll never see. Taxes go up, and those most deserving of economic mobility are the ones deprived of it. At the same time these *crumbs* do little to address the avenues that force people onto onerous welfare programs that are, by and large, poorly run and paternalistic.
Finland, that great petri dish of phony utopian socialism, also slammed the brakes on UBI as they found the pilot program was doing more to hurt the economy than eradicating poverty.
Stockton, California is next, their UBI kicks in next year and will likely kick already overburdened taxpayers in the teeth as fiscally challenged citizens will be asked to fork over more money in a state where they're already overtaxed with so many barriers to employment it's a miracle there's a tax base left.
If politicians wanted to get bold they would scrap the 120 welfare programs that are already in place, and swap out a monthly check for the multitude of agencies that moralize and actively judge. That will never happen. This dangerous trend of endless handouts cannot continue if the country plans on existing in 50 years. We already spend too much, and a debt service bill is looming that will gobble up so much of the budget there won't be room for military or entitlement spending, let alone this irresponsible government joy ride known as UBI.