A national Basic Income social dividend for Canada to implement in 2020

I am announcing today the founding of the Black Swan Society whose mission is to provide the federal government with an all-inclusive, zero net cost, Basic Income dividend plan to implement starting in 2020.

This social dividend is a plan for the middle class, and for those working very hard to join it. Our social safety net is crumbling. It is inefficient and does not effectively protect Canadians from the precarious new conditions of the 21st century. It does nothing to address the alarming income inequality which has been growing for a quarter of a century and is still accelerating. Our social safety net costs taxpayers too much considering what it delivers.

We must start replacing it now. The Black Swan Society is an informal bevy of economists and other interested parties who will develop yearly turnkey plans for a Basic Income social dividend:

1. A universal, individual and unconditional dividend goes out to every month to all adults in Canada

2. Every adult receives $100 per month, tax free, to start

3. The social dividend goes up by $100 per month, every year

4. The tax system is adjusted as required so that the total net cost of the Basic Income is kept near zero

5. No public services are affected in any way: healthcare, pharmacare, public schools, etc. remain intact and fully funded since the dividend has no impact on current provincial and federal programs

6. The social dividend gradually replaces means tested programs like welfare and other programs such as pensions and EI when Basic Income overtakes them in generosity

7. It progressively converts a fragile and inefficient safety net into a robust and effective floor

8. Basic Income's incremental redistributive effect will alleviate the shocking income inequality we have witnessed in recent decades.

A dividend is not a handout. It belongs by right to all investors. Every Canadian invests in our country, even children who receive the Canada Child Credit as their dividend. Our ancestors invested their hard work in building this country for our benefit so that we could reap the rewards and have a better life.

The Black Swan Society is committed to providing a sustainable plan to start paying out this social dividend in Year One and scaling up in Year Two and subsequent years. Distinguished Canadian economists and renowned international basic income specialists contribute their knowledge and expertise to forge a solid, realistic, socially feasible and politically advantageous proposal for federal policy makers. Let 2020 be Year One!