Projects

Canada’s prior experiment with a BIG [(Basic Income Guarantee)], the Mincome experiment in Manitoba in the 1970s, found that a BIG did not cause people to stop working — with two important exceptions. The first was women with infants at home, who effectively used the BIG to purchase maternity leave. We should expect a different response from women in modern-day Canada, where maternity leave benefits are much more extensive. But where child care and other supports for working parents are insufficient, we may see responses to a BIG that will show us those cracks in the system.
The other group whose employment levels decreased under Mincome was teenage boys. A closer look reveals that with a basic income guarantee, male high school students were more likely to make the decision to stay in school until graduation. Given the Ontario government’s aim of increasing graduation rates and the need for a highly educated population, it will be important to understand how people’s labour market decisions interact with other important decisions, like the decision to improve their skills and buy a better long-term future for themselves and their families.

> We Should Applaud Ontario’s Plans To Pilot A Basic Income Guarantee | Laura Anderson

The last few years of my life have been the best so far by a wide margin. On its own, 2015 was an incredible year for me, and I’m lucky to have been able to ring in the new year with *many* of my very good friends!

Thanks for ringing in the New Year with me, friends!
A video posted by Rob Attrell (@robattrell) on Jan 1, 2016 at 1:04pm PST

I’ve made a lot of different things for the Internet, starting around 2011, but this past year might have been my most prolific. Writing for my own blog, making podcasts with my network, Unwind Media, and videos for Sons of Pluto, and most recently, starting to write for MobileSyrup, has kept me in love with being creative and making things.

In addition to the things I made this year, I also got married, and I weigh 35 pounds less than I did at the beginning of last year. The first ~6 months of marriage has been a supremely fun and enjoyable time, and I’m reassured every day that I made the right choice.

My friends are also a huge part of my life, and I’m so thankful that they’re around for all the ups and downs life throws at each of us. I am supremely lucky to have met so many incredible people, and to get the chance to spend as much time with them as I get.

For 2016, I have been mulling over a goal (as we all do this time of year), and since I’ve had so much success sharing my goals online, I’m going to do the same this year. I considered delaying the start of this challenge until my life stabilized a little bit, but that would defeat the whole purpose.

Starting today, with this blog post, I am challenging myself to make something EVERY SINGLE DAY, for a year, or for as long as I can or feel I need to. Some days, it will be a video. Others, probably a podcast episode. On a day like today, it will be a written blog entry like this (even though each day’s creation will be logged here on robattrell.com).

I thought this morning about the arbitrary nature of starting the year on January 1st, and thought that in light of recording an episode of Feedback tomorrow, and Future Chat the day after, and Ottawhat on the 5th, maybe I could just wait and start next week. But this whole project is going to be about not making any excuses.

There’s always an excuse, and I’ve made a lot of them to myself. Part of this project is also going to be about finding employment. I plan to showcase some of the skills I’ve learned in the last few years, and perhaps even highlight and discuss in more detail why I think I would make a good addition to any company or organization.

Some days, I may address, answer, or discuss a question or topic, but in general I will just be sharing some of my thoughts and feelings about the world and my place in it. There is a lot of bad and a lot of good in the world, and I want to make the good better, and the bad less so.

This is going to be all over the place. I’m excited. Follow along on my journey by subscribing to this blog, to any of my podcasts at unwindmedia.com, or just follow me on Twitter @RobAttrell.