Dialogue City Episode #004: Darrell Howard and Brian Dodd on Basic Income

“Poverty is not just about income but always about income.”

Could you imagine for a moment that if you were an individual in poverty, you no longer had a restricted mental bandwidth focused almost solely on worrying about where your next meal or dollar came from? Could you imagine a world where all types of families were not tied down by poverty and could spend more time with their children? What if you could upgrade yourself, go back to school, or network and not have to worry about having to be in survival mode all the time?

Grant and Jeremy recently sat down with Darrell Howard from Vibrant Communities Calgary and Brian Dodd from Engineers Without Borders and Basic Income Calgary to talk about the concept of a basic or guaranteed minimum income.

We explore the concept of basic income and get into the primary principles of Basic Income Calgary (which you can find further down in the post). We look at the dichotomies of what basic income can do for society and some of the following questions that are raised during the conversation (and you can comment on them too!):

• Are we a society that is focused on a charitable mode of giving or a rights model of giving?
• Are we providing choice when it comes to poverty alleviation or are we leaving society’s most marginalized group is extreme vulnerability?
• Do we leave those in poverty to just the very basic needs that need to be met or are we giving them their own future story?
• Are we just looking at those who are already in poverty or do we widen our scope to those who are at risk or are borderline going to slip into the poverty cycle?
• Do we look at poverty alleviation from just one standpoint, or do we look at how it will reduce healthcare, reduce criminal justice costs, and a variety of societal issues?
• Is there just an automatic default back to society’s traditional social safety nets like families, relatives, and governments, or is there a thirst for community connection and hubs?
• Is basic income the only answer or is it part of a complex system of poverty reduction?
• Are we making it very easy for Calgarians to be generous and charitable, but failing to structure other methods that would easily facilitate the same kind of generosity from Calgarians?

We end this post off with some interesting quotes that were brought up during the conversation:

• “My neighbour’s strength is my strength. My neighbour’s success is my success. My neighbour’s failure is my failure” — Naheed Nenshi
• “ We are the only species on the planet without full employment” — Kathleen Dean Moore

We want to thank Darrell, Brian, and Arash Minhas (our secret audience member!) for taking time out of their day to come chat with us. We also especially thank Darrell for sharing her personal stories on our podcast as well. You can find more information on the work that Basic Income Calgary is doing by visiting their website, Facebook, and Twitter.

You can find this episode and more on iTunes, Google Play, Soundcloud, Stitcher, and TuneIn. Reach us on Twitter, Facebook, and via email at dialoguecity@gmail.com.

Show notes

1. Enough for All is Calgary’s poverty reduction strategy with Vibrant Communities Calgary as the primary facilitator in implementing the strategy. You can read the strategy here.
2. Manitoba had a guaranteed income pilot called Mincome in the 1970s. Its data and outcomes can be found here.
3. Three to four other US states also piloted the basic income concept in the form of negative income tax.
4. Richard Nixon came very close to implementing basic income. A brief overview of this can be found in the subsection of Wikipedia’s Guaranteed Minimum Income article.
5. Current basic pilots are happening in three communities in Ontario: Thunder Bay, Lindsay, and Hamilton. In this CBC article, Prince Edward Island is currently exploring the possibility of implementing a basic income pilot, and this Guardian article goes over Finland’s plan to trial a national basic income pilot.
6. LICO stands for low income cut off, and is defined by Statistics Canada as “the income thresholds below which a family will likely devote a larger share of its income on the necessities of food, shelter and clothing than the average family.” More information at http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/75f0002m/2009002/s2-eng.htm
7. AISH stands for assured income for the severely handicapped. It is a form of financial assistance and health benefit in Alberta for those who have a disability.
8. OAS and GIS stand for old age security and guaranteed income supplement. Old age security pension is Canadian federal government’s basic monthly pension for those 65 or older. Guranteed income supplement is a monthly non-taxable addition for seniors who are low income, on top of their old age security pension
9. Art Eggleton is a Canadian senator who is a major proponent of basic income. You can read more of his thoughts in this article: http://www.caseforbasicincome.com/the-basics-on-basic-income/
10. Mahatma Gandhi was the leader of the Indian independence movement when India was under British rule. He is is credited with the following quote: “Poverty is the worst form of violence.”
11. Poverty Talks is a group of individuals who are currently living in poverty, lower incomes, or those who have lived experiences in poverty. They also do advocacy work around bringing awareness to poverty.