Quote of the Day: “As an entrepreneur in India put it: ‘Indians have learned from painful experience that the state does not work on behalf of the people. More often than not, it works on behalf of itself.’ ” Thomas Sowell
Luisa D’Amato has a nice, Front Page interview with “Joe the Barber”, Joe Cignelli in his barbershop as he celebrates 50 years in uptown Waterloo. Oh, wait. She must have interviewed him before yesterday because Joe the Barber is now sitting at home since our Dear Leader thinks that barbershops, outdoor restaurant patios (and every other small business) are some sort of COVID super spreader and they have to be destroyed. Pathetic.
Hey – the Editorial today is about the Universal Basic Income (UBI) – the fifth time for an editorial or op-ed on this subject since December. It mentions a report that came out on Wednesday from the Parliamentary Budget Officer that attempted to cost the UBI. Not surprising, the editorial didn’t mention where you could find the report, so here it is: https://www.pbo-dpb.gc.ca/en/blog/news/RP-2122-001-S–distributional-fiscal-analysis-national-guaranteed-basic-income–analyse-financiere-distributive-un-revenu-base-garanti-echelle-nationale Yea, even the URL is in French. Interesting report, very detailed. They even go into the behaviour costs of what might happen if a UBI is implemented. But I noticed two things. The model they used is from the UBI that Ontario cancelled back in March 2019 and is rather incomplete. So, it’s very difficult to take real readings from this single report and try to predict future outcomes. Secondly, and most importantly, there wasn’t a clear description on how the program was going to be funded. The report did not detail or go into the vast array of programs that will (or at least should) be eliminated – like the 182 programs that BC has to help lower income families. Therefore, the total cost of the program is a whopping $85 Billion per year. Clearly, more work needs to be done here…