Dear Editor,

In "Basic Income isn't the answer to the AI job crisis", journalist Doug Saunders argues that the Basic Income is not an answer to the shift towards more inequality that AI has been triggering and will continue to in the future. Of course, as Saunders alludes to, it would be much better to choose equality as a fundamental value in our society and deeply overhaul the economy to achieve that, but there is no hope to even make even one step forward if thinkers like Saunders continue to write from their own priviledged position where they consider that the Ontario current "welfare" system is the same as a basic income.

Our social assistance programs named Ontario Disability Program (ODSP) and Ontario Works (OW) are massively different from a (Universal) Basic Income as defined by the international community: ODSP and OW are not universal, they are intimately means-tested and designed to attach their recipients with more than 800 rules also called "strings attached". They tax our incomes at 50% as soon as we pass the $200 mark. They trap us in poverty so deep that it is insanely difficult to live, if not survive, and they rewire our brains.

More details? Did you know that: - were i to snap out and fall in love with another human being and move in with them, they would have to provide for me after 3 months already? - were i to loose my home, i would loose $489 of my allowance (shouldn't it be the opposite so that i can find another home?)? - were i to have an extra room in my place and would want to rent it for money, i would have to give 60% of this income to ODSP? - those with the Board and Lodge rate on ODSP get only $896/month? - those on OW get only $733/month?- were you to fall under the definition of disabled, you would have to give access to your bank account to ODSP and spend most of your assets, including all your non-locked-in RRSP and life insurance before even qualifying for the medical steps of your application? - were you to be on ODSP and have to go through a medical review, there is a high chance that you would develop suicidal thoughts? - were I to run my own disability-adjusted business at home, i would not be allowed to hire anybody unless this person would strictly be there for my disability?

Did you know that most of my current conversations with ODSP recipients end up with our sincere desire to know that we would have unconditional access to assisted suicide were things to become worse under Doug Ford? It is high time for the Globe and Mail to open its eyes.

claude wittmann
Toronto