I'm surprised that no one has picked up on the basic income link. In the 1970's a small town in Manitoba just gave everyone money, rather than a mish-mash of different social assistance programs. (broken link removed to http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/4100).
From Wikipedia Basic Income: "In studies of the Mincome experiment in rural Manitoba, the only two groups who worked less in a significant way were new mothers, and teenagers working to support their families. New mothers spent this time with their infant children, and working teenagers put significant additional time into their schooling.
[9] Under Mincome, "the reduction of work effort was modest: about one per cent for men, three per cent for wives, and five per cent for unmarried women."
[10]
From Wikipedia Mincome: "A final report was never issued, but Dr. Evelyn Forget (/fɔrˈʒeɪ/) conducted an analysis of the program in 2009 which was published in 2011.
[4][5] She found that only new mothers and teenagers worked substantially less. Mothers with newborns stopped working because they wanted to stay at home longer with their babies, and teenagers worked less because they weren't under as much pressure to support their families, which resulted in more teenagers graduating. In addition, those who continued to work were given more opportunities to choose what type of work they did. Forget found that in the period that Mincome was administered, hospital visits dropped 8.5 percent, with fewer incidences of work-related injuries, and fewer emergency room visits from car accidents and domestic abuse.
[6] Additionally, the period saw a reduction in rates of psychiatric hospitalization, and in the number of mental illness-related consultations with health professionals.
[7][8]"
It makes sense to me. There is a lot of money spent on administering social assistance programs. Why not have a Mincome instead? It is all wrong that social assistance often pays more than minimum wage, therefore gov'ts have to subsidize people working minimum wage jobs so that they're not better off on welfare. Have a Mincome and any work you do is on top of the basic amount that everyone gets.
Oh, and before you ask, the 1% can pay for it. They can afford it after all
.