- Andrew Jackson examines the effect of a federal minimum wage - and how it would benefit both workers and employers.
- Dylan Matthews offers a primer on a basic income, featuring this on how a secure income has little impact on individuals' willingness to work:
As noted above, a real basic income has never been implemented across a whole country, which makes macroeconomic effects hard to predict. But we do have some experimental evidence on the question of work effort, drawn from the negative income tax experiments in the US and Canada in the 1970s. Those studies found that work effort declined when a negative income tax was imposed, as predicted, but that the effect was quite small. Moreover, most of the reduction in work effort appeared to come from people taking longer stints of unemployment. That can be a bad thing, but it can also mean that people aren't settling for second-best jobs and holding out for ones that are better fits for them. That'd actually be good, economically. Additionally, the work effect reduction for young people appeared to come entirely from increased school attendance— also a desirable outcome.- Sean Holman reveals how British Columbians have been kept in the dark as to the dangers of mining activity. And Damien Gillis notes that so far, the only person punished in the wake of the Mount Polley environmental disaster was the whistleblower who lost his job for pointing out that Imperial Metals' tailings pond was about to fail.
Another factor is underreporting. Negative income taxes provide an incentive for beneficiaries to underreport their incomes so as to get a bigger benefit — and that's exactly what happened in the US negative income tax experiments. For the experiment in Gary, Indiana, when participants' reported incomes were cross-referenced with official government data on their earnings, the reduction in work effort went away entirely.
- Finally, Carol Goar discusses how Canada's remand system represents both a glaring waste of money, and an all-too-common form of indefinite detention for people who haven't had a chance to answer the charges against them.
The catastrophic dam burst at Mount Polley was from, pure, unadulterated greed. Harper, Clark and Imperial Metals wear this one.
ReplyDeleteOf course the whistle blower would be fired. Someone has to be blamed, for telling the truth and warning of a disaster to come, Surely you don`t expect Harper, Clark and Imperial Metals, to own up for their lies, deceit, corruption, and greed, in that catastrophic dam burst at Mount Polley.
All of those disgusting criminal scum, should be kicked right off the planet. Their stench reeks, right up to the space station.
I wonder who will be blamed, for the mine dam leak near Kamloops.