Financial security for all? Our society can afford it

Re Crisis shows value of guaranteed incomes, May 10

UBI. The key word is “basic.” A basic income plan can literally do away with abject poverty.

No more tent cities? No more welfare lifers? No more families desperately wondering where their next meal will come from? Could it be? It’s an idea whose time has finally come. Why? Because, as John Kenneth Galbraith stated in his book “The Affluent Society” just over 60 years ago, we, as a society, can afford it.

And, as Robin Sears states in his excellent article, the CRA have the tools to now make it happen.

The idea was first proposed more than 500 years ago by Sir Thomas More in his book “Utopia.”

And in every place it has been tried since then, people have emerged happier and healthier. Surprise, surprise! Yes, the security blanket of a monthly deposit to your bank account actually works.

The two main arguments against it are it kills the work ethic and it would be hugely inflationary.

Both arguments have been shown to be false. Completely false.

The global bailout after the implosion of 2008 proved that. Every country in the world went into debt, printing money. Including Canada. It then took five years of low interest rates and hard work to restore the job losses and financial system in an orderly fashion.

Michael Smietana, Toronto