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In Canada during covid we deployed non-universal basic income. It was basic income but not everyone got it. This was not that unlike what the democrats did in t

In Canada during covid we deployed non-universal basic income. It was basic income but not everyone got it. This was not that unlike what the democrats did in the USA. During a pandemic I would hope the government would help people through it. Was it the right call? I have the benefit of hindsight. https://tradingeconomics.com/canada/central-bank-balance-sheet https://tradingeconomics.com/canada/central-bank-balance-she... We must now deal with the consequences. https://tradingeconomics.com/canada/money-supply-m0 https://tradingeconomics.com/canada/money-supply-m0 Paper money was increased 400%. https://tradingeconomics.com/canada/government-debt https://tradingeconomics.com/canada/government-debt The government, who had already promised to balance the budget and reduce debt, increased it by historic record breaking amounts. The current prime minister increased debt by more than all previous PM combined. After spending that much money to buy votes. He called a snap election spending even more money expecting to get a majority government and he received weakest minority government in history. Technically even lost the election by popular vote. So where's that inflation at? 5.7% and still climbing. It rose by over 10% in march. https://tradingeconomics.com/canada/inflation-cpi https://tradingeconomics.com/canada/inflation-cpi The government is tabling a budget today. I will literally die of laughter if universal basic income is included. I don't expect it will be, but there is a live bill to make it happen. The budget today I eagerly await the opportunity to read. What do I expect? There's no doubt going to be some crypto regulation. If the budget is as bad as I expect... people will fly to crypto with their savings. They need to hinder that.

littlestymaar 5y ago
There's inflation everywhere in the western world, so pointing at a specific Canadian policy for the inflation there is logically flawed.
- willnonya 5y ago
  Not exactly. Most western economies followed similar policies which increased inflation in their local economies. The part you're missing is that these economies are all linked through both trade and competition over resources.
- incomingpain 5y ago
  >There's inflation everywhere in the western world, so pointing at a specific Canadian policy for the inflation there is logically flawed. There is inflation everywhere there was basic income. The USA: https://www.investopedia.com/government-stimulus-efforts-to-fight-the-covid-19-crisis-4799723 https://www.investopedia.com/government-stimulus-efforts-to-... Switzerland is constitutionally obligated to balance their budget. Where 77% of voters rejected basic income: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36454060 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36454060 They went into some painful deflation during covid and is only at 2.4% inflation and their interest rate is -0.75%. I wish I were able to speak one of the official languages of Switzerland. Just look at that beautiful 2.5% unemployment rate. If you want to say, 'oh they just have lots of people who are off welfare benefits and not participating in the labour market. 84% participation rate! 3rd best in the world. Switzerland is doing great. How about Australia? They traditionally do a great job; In 2009 they had no government debt. They seem to have their inflation under control around 3.5% with just 0.1% interest rate? https://tradingeconomics.com/australia/central-bank-balance-sheet https://tradingeconomics.com/australia/central-bank-balance-... Ouch, they did move over to the pool of printing money. They called it the 'Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment', just looked it up. No wonder their inflation is a bit high. Seems they didn't do as much as Canada or USA.
  - littlestymaar 5y ago
    Cherry picking a few countries is a good way to confirm your bias, but not a good one to make a good argument with. Many places in Europe didn't have a “basic income” equivalent as part of their pandemic response (for instance, France's response has been exclusively targeted at companies, to avoid layoffs and bankruptcy), and it didn't prevent inflation ramping up here too.
    - incomingpain 5y ago
      >Cherry picking a few countries is a good way to confirm your bias, but not a good one to make a good argument with. True, flipside I'm not writing a doctoral thesis over here. >Many places in Europe didn't have a “basic income” equivalent as part of their pandemic response (for instance, France's response has been exclusively targeted at companies, to avoid layoffs and bankruptcy), and it didn't prevent inflation ramping up here too. Lets take a look. France is one that I have been specifically following more about human rights and not economics. France was very interesting, amnesty international wrote up a good article on human right violations in france that have been increasingly problematic. I couldn't even tell you how many protests have been made illegal and crushed. That was before covid even hit. So France is at 4.5% inflation and rising and 0% interest rate. https://tradingeconomics.com/france/unemployment-rate https://tradingeconomics.com/france/unemployment-rate Wow very high unemployment rate. 26.5 corporate tax is dropping. 45% personal. 20% sales. So tax burden went from 98% to 91%. No wonder they are dropping a bit... you work for the government most of the year. https://tradingeconomics.com/france/government-debt-to-gdp https://tradingeconomics.com/france/government-debt-to-gdp Doesn't the EU demand this number be much lower? https://tradingeconomics.com/france/money-supply-m3 https://tradingeconomics.com/france/money-supply-m3 They didnt print money any significant money. But they did? https://tradingeconomics.com/france/central-bank-balance-sheet https://tradingeconomics.com/france/central-bank-balance-she... Where did a trillion euros go? https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/01/business/france-coronavirus-unemployment.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/01/business/france-coronavir... I cant find where that money went. I suspect France's inflation won't be bad and while it does appear not under control at the moment, it probably will level off soon. If I were a journalist in France I would be looking for that trillion euros.
incomingpain 5y ago
Universal basic income will be that much worse compared to this non-universal basic income.
noworld 5y ago
That's called welfare.
bryanlarsen 5y ago
We've learned that deficits are inflationary. We already knew that. It didn't tell us anything about a UBI in a balanced budget.
gruez 5y ago
>So where's that inflation at? 5.7% and still climbing. It rose by over 10% in march. No, it rose "by over 10%" year over year in march. It didn't rise 10% "in march", which suggest a 10% growth in the span of a month.

littlestymaar 5y ago

There's inflation everywhere in the western world, so pointing at a specific Canadian policy for the inflation there is logically flawed.

willnonya 5y ago
Not exactly. Most western economies followed similar policies which increased inflation in their local economies. The part you're missing is that these economies are all linked through both trade and competition over resources.
incomingpain 5y ago
>There's inflation everywhere in the western world, so pointing at a specific Canadian policy for the inflation there is logically flawed. There is inflation everywhere there was basic income. The USA: https://www.investopedia.com/government-stimulus-efforts-to-fight-the-covid-19-crisis-4799723 https://www.investopedia.com/government-stimulus-efforts-to-... Switzerland is constitutionally obligated to balance their budget. Where 77% of voters rejected basic income: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36454060 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36454060 They went into some painful deflation during covid and is only at 2.4% inflation and their interest rate is -0.75%. I wish I were able to speak one of the official languages of Switzerland. Just look at that beautiful 2.5% unemployment rate. If you want to say, 'oh they just have lots of people who are off welfare benefits and not participating in the labour market. 84% participation rate! 3rd best in the world. Switzerland is doing great. How about Australia? They traditionally do a great job; In 2009 they had no government debt. They seem to have their inflation under control around 3.5% with just 0.1% interest rate? https://tradingeconomics.com/australia/central-bank-balance-sheet https://tradingeconomics.com/australia/central-bank-balance-... Ouch, they did move over to the pool of printing money. They called it the 'Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment', just looked it up. No wonder their inflation is a bit high. Seems they didn't do as much as Canada or USA.
- littlestymaar 5y ago
  Cherry picking a few countries is a good way to confirm your bias, but not a good one to make a good argument with. Many places in Europe didn't have a “basic income” equivalent as part of their pandemic response (for instance, France's response has been exclusively targeted at companies, to avoid layoffs and bankruptcy), and it didn't prevent inflation ramping up here too.
  - incomingpain 5y ago
    >Cherry picking a few countries is a good way to confirm your bias, but not a good one to make a good argument with. True, flipside I'm not writing a doctoral thesis over here. >Many places in Europe didn't have a “basic income” equivalent as part of their pandemic response (for instance, France's response has been exclusively targeted at companies, to avoid layoffs and bankruptcy), and it didn't prevent inflation ramping up here too. Lets take a look. France is one that I have been specifically following more about human rights and not economics. France was very interesting, amnesty international wrote up a good article on human right violations in france that have been increasingly problematic. I couldn't even tell you how many protests have been made illegal and crushed. That was before covid even hit. So France is at 4.5% inflation and rising and 0% interest rate. https://tradingeconomics.com/france/unemployment-rate https://tradingeconomics.com/france/unemployment-rate Wow very high unemployment rate. 26.5 corporate tax is dropping. 45% personal. 20% sales. So tax burden went from 98% to 91%. No wonder they are dropping a bit... you work for the government most of the year. https://tradingeconomics.com/france/government-debt-to-gdp https://tradingeconomics.com/france/government-debt-to-gdp Doesn't the EU demand this number be much lower? https://tradingeconomics.com/france/money-supply-m3 https://tradingeconomics.com/france/money-supply-m3 They didnt print money any significant money. But they did? https://tradingeconomics.com/france/central-bank-balance-sheet https://tradingeconomics.com/france/central-bank-balance-she... Where did a trillion euros go? https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/01/business/france-coronavirus-unemployment.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/01/business/france-coronavir... I cant find where that money went. I suspect France's inflation won't be bad and while it does appear not under control at the moment, it probably will level off soon. If I were a journalist in France I would be looking for that trillion euros.

incomingpain 5y ago

Universal basic income will be that much worse compared to this non-universal basic income.

noworld 5y ago

That's called welfare.

bryanlarsen 5y ago

We've learned that deficits are inflationary. We already knew that. It didn't tell us anything about a UBI in a balanced budget.

gruez 5y ago

>So where's that inflation at? 5.7% and still climbing. It rose by over 10% in march. No, it rose "by over 10%" year over year in march. It didn't rise 10% "in march", which suggest a 10% growth in the span of a month.