Basic income schemes are getting seriously discussed in Canada right now (they were first mooted in the 1980's, to no effect, but have been lurking in the backg

Basic income schemes are getting seriously discussed in Canada right now (they were first mooted in the 1980's, to no effect, but have been lurking in the background since then). The concensus amongst economists is that they are very expensive if you provide a genuine living with a reasonably low phase-out (which is required to not have insanely progressive tax rates on the working poor.) Still, these are practical problems that may turn out to be solveable, and the efficiencies that basic income schemes give are potentially large, as they would wipe out a lot of government workers whose sole job it to manage redundant arrays of independent welfare schemes. Some badly formated discussion here: https://storify.com/bis_pilot/canadian-economists-on-basic-income-pilot https://storify.com/bis_pilot/canadian-economists-on-basic-i...