Looking forward to hosting this meetup with @ericlombardi.ca @commonwealthcanada.bsky.social If you're in the GTA and care about housing, intergenerational fairness, and fixing a system that's holding back builders and workers, come join us. RSVP below.

Natural resources are gifts of nature owned by all citizens. It should benefit all citizens through universal dividends.

"Land values have surged. They're creating winners and losers. How can we soften that imbalance in part by asking those who've benefited to be a bigger part of the solution?" — Dr. Paul Kershaw (UBC & Generation Squeeze) youtube.com/watch?v=5WRTC_QYtXU

UBI is a freedom dividend to citizens as shareholders of the economy.

One of the most brilliant entrepreneurs and investors ever, Vinod Khosla called for UBI and sovereign wealth funds in the AI age. "It could be universal basic income, a wealth fund, services that are near free... I'd be surprised if it doesn't happen before 2040."

University of Toronto awarded a prestigious scholarship for a paper on shifting taxes to land to solve the housing crisis. It cites our research showing that an LVT-funded tax rebate can leave most Canadian households with more disposable income. newsletter.economics.utoronto.ca/is-a-land-va...

"It really seems like UBI is going to be absolutely necessary at the very least as a stopgap measure" — Dave Shapiro, post-labor economics pioneer and author of Labor/Zero

Texas has high property tax but no state income tax. As Canadians grapple over new property tax hikes, it's a good chance to understand this trade-off. Property tax is least damaging and LVT is even better. It could replace more harmful taxes on income.

AI accelerationists support UBI

Microsoft AI CEO and UBI supporter: "Most of the tasks accountants, lawyers and other professionals currently undertake will be fully automated by AI within 12-18 months" Also him: "UBI is a political and economic measure we have to start talking about in a serious way"

The idea of basic income first began as a common wealth dividend — a way to share the value of land, which no individual created. It's also how we share the proceeds of AIs trained on humanity's work.

President of BC General Employees' Union, Paul Finch says it's "relatively inconceivable" that Vancouver can create a housing price shock by supply alone. "There's not enough raw materials and skilled trades people...to build the supply that would create a price shock."

"Chrystia Freeland... she is a Georgist. You're not gonna believe that." — Dr. Frank Peddle, co-editor of The Annotated Works of Henry George. Freeland supports land value tax and has even called for a revival of Henry George's ideas.

Society's not prepared for 30% baseline youth unemployment. Cathie Woods, Peter Diamandis and others have echoed that the path out is entrepreneurship. Besides the fact it's not for everyone, it demands the economic security/freedom UBI would provide. futurism.com/artificial-i...

No coincidence that many experts and independently suggesting social/sovereign wealth funds and UBI-like dividends as a way to spread the gains and mitigate inequality of technology. We're already seeing breakthroughs in agriculture, healthcare, mfg, and many other sectors.

Actually, this IS inevitable in a technologically advancing society. Our economy naturally concentrates wealth in LAND and COMPANIES, away from WORKERS. The key is to give everyone a slice: UBI funded by sovereign wealth funds, land/natural resources, and AI.

He's saying what most politicians still won't about housing. Homeowners are getting wealthy at the expense of future generations. So do we want home prices to go up or down?

Dr. Paul Kershaw (UBC & Generation Squeeze) says Canada's housing policy has avoided hard truths "Housing insecurity finances housing wealth gained by older generations" "We aren't gonna fix housing without an honest conversation... Do we want [home prices] to rise, stall, or fall?"

Our economy today more closely resembles feudalism, rather than a truly capitalist system that rewards productivity and hard work. The housing crisis is the most visible symptom of this disease.

Our language around housing is broken, because the incentives are broken. When homes get more expensive it's celebrated as 'recovery'. Otherwise it's 'sluggish'. No matter what politicians say, homes will never be affordable unless land becomes a worse investment.

Outstanding piece by Matt Bruenig. We already have the economic policy solutions to AI because we've seen these problems before. "The most obvious vehicle for social ownership of this sort would be a dividend-paying social wealth fund like Alaska has" www.theargumentmag.com/p/ai-could-d...

Canada's Standing Committee on Finance got a lesson on how land value tax can make housing affordable, and is better than taxing income or productive capital. "Taxes should come as much as possible from that source [land]."

Thomas Paine approves

This is just what you see in the headlines. But quietly, it's happening throughout the economy, in small businesses everywhere. We'll need less and less labour for the same economic output.

Dr. Paul Kershaw (UBC & Generation Squeeze) says Canada's housing policy has avoided hard truths “Housing insecurity finances housing wealth gained by older generations" "We aren't gonna fix housing without an honest conversation... Do we want [home prices] to rise, stall, or fall?"

Canada's not even on the chart, yet we're one of the most resource-rich nations what are we even doing? Every Canadian should be getting dividends from sovereign wealth funds

We have to move to broader capital ownership ASAP as AI wipes out wages. Basic income is just one part of a portfolio of households' post-labor income, including sovereign wealth funds, equities, ESOPs, and land value return.

It's official. It's the end of work as we know it. We sat down with Dave Shapiro, author of Labor/Zero and the leading thinker on post-labor economics, to talk about the world after wage labor and why UBI is necessary. Watch: https://youtu.be/8RcYXGKvg44

I backed Dave Shapiro's book Labor/Zero, a 180K-word treatise for a world after wage labor, when machines can do most of our work. It was fully funded in 2 hours. Liberate humanity from drudgery. Anyone interested in the future of work/UBI should check it out. www.kickstarter.com/projects/dav...

🫰 South Korea also rolled out basic income pilots across 10 other counties. The current President is pro-shorter workweeks from AI productivity, land value tax, and UBI.

South Korea county gave everyone UBI - regardless of age, income, or assets - in their local currency Muju Love Gift Certificates ('Muju Sarang'🫰) "we expect this to offer practical help to the lives of residents and also serve as a catalyst to reinvigorate the local economy"

JUST IN: Conservatives and Liberals work together to make Basic Income happen in PEI. "Poverty is a policy choice. Let's choose a different policy." GBI can cost 5% of what poverty costs, with virtually 0 work impact. PEI's Progressive Conservative leadership has been for it.

Canada is launching a $2B Critical Minerals Sovereign Wealth Fund that takes equity stakes in projects. Great—we're still on track to lose 80% of our $1T minerals wealth. Imagine if Canadians actually saw this value back in dividends & public services, like Norway/Alaska/Texas.

Andrew Yang says we should stop taxing workers, and tax AI instead. "We should try to stop taxing labor." Let's take it a step further: shift income taxes to land and pay dividends, as Sam Altman has proposed. Land gets more valuable as AI makes us more productive.

In Canada, real estate (60-90% land value) is by far the #1 source of rising net worths. It's not even close. To restore the link between work and wealth, The Economist Editorial Board says build more housing and tax land value. We need leaders who will heed this call.

No politicians ever talk about this Your wages are taxed more than that parking spot

Good for capitalism: reward productivity (tax incomes and buildings less) Bad for capitalism: reward holding stuff (land) waiting for prices to go up

BC's property assessment was designed so we could tax land rents more, and productivity less. It's the best place to do it with the best available data.

The cost of housing comes mostly from land values, which are shaped by the work society does around it. It's fair for that value to be shared with the larger society that created it.

Bloomberg article makes the case for land value tax. "LVTs don't punish homeowners for construction, renovation, or improvement...they make underutilized land more expensive than productive land, encouraging development and deterring land speculation."

BREAKING: Canada suffers worst job loss since 2022, when economists were expecting a job GAIN - Canada lost net 84K jobs in one month, pushing unemployment to 6.7% - Youth unemployment surges to 14% When labour is at risk, we should stop taxing work. Tax AI and fund UBI.

[BREAKING:] Andrew Yang says we should stop taxing workers, and tax AI instead. That can fund UBI. "We should try to stop taxing labor."

"What we've seen in the past decade is the largest transfer of wealth from the public to the private sector since the province was founded." — Paul Finch, President of BC General Employees' Union Tax the land.

Norway's sovereign wealth fund reflects a shared belief that the value of nature is something owned in common. It's time Canadians shared this mindset of safeguarding, not squandering, our natural resource wealth.

"By taxing land rather than buildings, we can incentivize much-needed housing development... this approach facilitates a comprehensive solution to restore housing affordability." https://www.commonwealth.ca/blog/thestar-oped-want-real-action-on-housing-tax-the-land

The only real answer is UBI as a dividend to citizens as shareholders

UBI is the collective bargaining of the AI economy. It’s no longer workers against employers -- it’s humans against machines.

Humanoids are already in our factories and it's only going to ramp up from here. In the 90s-2000s, globalization and automation displaced millions in manufacturing, including my dad and uncle whose incomes never recovered. The impact of humanoids is going to be way bigger.

"Wealthy on paper, but poorer as a society. That is the paradox of Canada’s housing market." www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...