Canadian bishops from the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada have written an open letter insisting that the government pay everyone a ‘basic income’ whether they work or not.
Where is the money going to come from? They don’t say: presumably from people who are working. Why work if you are paid not to work? They don’t say, although they are probably suffering from the woolly liberal delusion that people are innately good and will naturally want to work to support those who find laziness too tempting to resist – like me.
What is really behind this? I expect they are all afraid of losing their jobs and have an uneasy feeling that they would be unemployable in any other profession.
A Public Letter on Guaranteed Basic Income
By General Synod Communications on May 3, 2020
Dear Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister Morneau:
Subject: COVID-19 Pandemic – Guaranteed Basic Income
We write from across our country – from the tundra of the high Arctic, the out-ports of the Atlantic coast, from French and English speaking Canada, from urban to rural, the Prairies, the Rockies and coastal mountains and from the Pacific coast; we write as Indigenous people and as non-Indigenous. We write from across denominational traditions. As bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Anglican Church of Canada we write, compelled by our shared faith convictions and moral obligation to care for the human condition of all.
Although we represent great diversity, we write to you because we are united, and morally bound in a singular message: Canada needs Guaranteed Basic Income for all. We need it today.