Canada's minimum income experiment and the fight against poverty

Eric Richardson still has the dining table and chairs his parents bought during the Mincome social experiment of the 1970s.

The carpentry instructor, who grew up in the small Manitoba town of Dauphin, was about 12 years old when the four-year guaranteed annual income program was implemented in his rural hometown in 1974.

Dubbed Mincome, the program provided about 1,000 low-income families -- including the Richardsons -- with monthly cheques that topped up their household income to a base amount.

Minimum Income: What You Should Know About The Idea That Could Revolutionize The 21st Century

Imagine the government started handing out $10,000 annually to every adult in the country, or implemented a negative income tax rate so that low earners and people out of work would receive tax money instead of paying it.

Sounds like the ultimate socialist scheme, doesn’t it? Exactly the sort of thing the business community and conservative economists would label a job-killing farce destined to create a nation of lazy, uncompetitive good-for-nothings.