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We need #UBI to be enacted & implemented.
@PhoenixSerenity
It certainly would help me out incredibly. And everyone else I know. And well, everyone. 
@murdoc Yup. Every 2-3 months, I'm stressed out over deciding between buying essential medications that isn't covered or paying an essential bill. We don't spend much on groceries & are anti-consumerism. We still struggle to stay afloat in our family home
@WTL It was on my mind this morning because I'm 3 weeks away from next payday & am stressed out over medication costs for me & Mom again. Her fair Pharmacare application hasn't been approved yet so I'm still paying hundreds for her ongoing meds. Her recent 2 gout flare-ups & meds for that set me back a lot for this month & early April. Those pills cost $1/each & she needs 2/day for 4 months. My HRTs & supplements for menopause & osteoporosis aren't covered & cost me over $300 every 2 months. I'm stressed out. Trying to get some more side gigs to pay for all meds & the endless household bills. At least all my huge municipal bills have been paid in full!
@PhoenixSerenity I can relate. UBI (and pharmacare) would make life much more manageable for so many Canadians.
UBI is such a common sense solution to so many issues; a dignified and compassionate expression of basic humanist principles.
@DavidM_yeg Yes. I'm one of the disabled working poor & have constant poverty anxiety. Pretty sure that contributes to increased stress & health instability.
@PhoenixSerenity
Yes... so long as it's not used as an inadequate replacement for existing programs and benefits.
@freediverx If we had UBI - some of those other welfare programs wouldn't be needed. Those programs are inadequate bandaids, while UBI provides more stability so people can actually lift themselves up because they're not over-stressed about paying basic bills & being able to feed themselves/family.
Under existing disability benefits - disabled people & their partners are punished by government if they cohabitate - benefits cut off or severely reduced. Many disabled people suffer due to that & disability advocates like me have been trying to get that cruel ableist policy removed for over 20 years.
@PhoenixSerenity
Potentially, yes. But it all depends on the implementation details. There is no magic bullet solution that can't be rendered useless by bureaucratic meddling.
@freediverx Bureaucratic red tape destroys a lot of great things. I know. Seen the insides of government, decades ago. It's become more rotten since.
@freediverx UBI essentially empowers citizens & that's the biggest reason governments have stayed far from it. Our governments don't want the citizens to become less financially stressed & more empowered. It goes against their capitalist corrupt power plans.
@PhoenixSerenity
I’m in favor of UBI in concept. I am suspicious of some of the political leaders who've promoted it (see: Andrew Yang).
@freediverx Anarchists who have built/support multiple mutual aid communities tend to have a better idea of how UBI can be implemented to benefit citizens as a whole, more than any politician. I'm pretty anti-government for many reasons but mostly because it's a corrupt capitalist system.
@PhoenixSerenity
True, a difficult lesson that took me too long to learn. See the Iron Law of Institutions.
@freediverx I became an anarchist in the 90s when I first saw how evil, corrupt & greedy our governments are. In late 90s, I stopped believing any colonial courts here would help to change things for the better. That's when I first witnessed severe injustices in BC Supreme Court, where violent loggers who almost killed an environmentalist comrade & put her into a coma with multiple broken ribs/other brutal injuries, got zero jail time.
we get other disability benefits that we would lose with UBI. it can also stagnate just like minimum wage, welfare, and disability have all done. most people could now not live on $3000/mo because at least 50% of that would go to rent, but more likely 75%, which already raises another problem of how much is it really just a landlord subsidy?
14 years of begging politicians both for a higher minimum wage and UBI didn't move the needle. it existed for about thirty seconds then was yanked out from under the people relying on it.
i think we might have try a different course of action. there are many effective ways which have been used before to raise material conditions, and begging the ruling class to solve the problems their power causes has never been one of them.
@burnitdown @freediverx
What other disability benefits would be lost in BC under UBI? I'm not aware of any & haven't been alerted to any by our local Action Committee for People With Disabilities in Victoria. I used to do paralegal work for them in the early 2000s.
In BC, people who get provincial disability benefits receive less than $2000/month. People cannot survive on that.
idk about BC, but in Ontario we get prescription, dental, and eye coverage. it's not great coverage for the latter two, nor does it pay out enough. but it's a stable, established system that needs improvement, not replacement with a thing that gets yanked out from under us on a whim.
material conditions don't change until people get fed up, refuse their labour, throw sand in the gears, putting pressure on the capitalists to give us our due wealth. letting them steal our wealth and then demanding some back through bureaucratic channels is not a recipe for victory.
@PhoenixSerenity I don’t see UBI as a replacement for disability support or a replacement for a push to change/improve the current healthcare systems, but rather the base minimum for everyone no matter their health conditions, employment or relationship status.
If anyone says it *is* a replacement then it’s not the kind of Universal Basic Income I’m interested in. If $3000/month is the amount then that’s what it needs to be plus disability accommodations.
I totally see your point @burnitdown about knocking on the bureaucratic door of the so-called ruling class. Many people already don’t work but can’t get disability benefits and don’t have much energy to throw sand in the gears. It’s a limbo of poverty.
I don’t think there’s a perfect solution. UBI might even just be a temporary one but cultural shifts towards community care take a long time and many people can’t wait.
@stephaniepixie @PhoenixSerenity
i think it will be a case of "you get one or the other, not both", since i already can't get the national dental care due to already collecting ODSP. they like to fuck us around like this. it's almost as if capitalists profit from abusing disabled people or something. we are surplus labour, they do not value our labour at all but still profit from our misery.
a lot of harm was caused by Doug Ford ripping out UBI from the people receiving it. one person had given up alcohol, after being an alcoholic for years. if there is anything would trigger a recovering alcoholic back into using, that would do it.
there's no perfect solution, but the longer we keep saying we can't do it, the longer it won't get done, the longer their power will last.
@burnitdown @stephaniepixie That's the thing though - if UBI is to be implemented on larger scales, it has to be part of perpetual policy to maintain basic levels of living. We can build a better system while still trying our best to survive in a very inequitable & inhumane situation.
@stephaniepixie @burnitdown
"I don’t see UBI as a replacement for disability support or a replacement for a push to change/improve the current healthcare systems, but rather the base minimum for everyone no matter their health conditions, employment or relationship status.
If anyone says it *is* a replacement then it’s not the kind of Universal Basic Income I’m interested in. If $3000/month is the amount then that’s what it needs to be plus disability accommodations."
This is how I feel too. In fact - this is what I've been discussing with local disability advocates here for awhile.
