The following article is reprinted courtesy of the Hamilton Spectator, McMaster University’s partner in the Science in the City Lecture Series.
Thirty some years ago, a little prairie town was the subject of a radical social experiment everyone was talking about -- guarantee all families an annual income and see what happens.
Would residents be happier, healthier? Would children stay in school longer?
But the experiment, which was paid for by the federal and provincial governments and cost $17 million at the time for two sites, ran out of funding midway through.
The data was shelved and largely forgotten.
Economist and professor Evelyn Forget is coming to Hamilton Thursday evening to reveal the results and tie those into how poverty impacts health.
The University of Manitoba professor will discuss the experiment as part of the first of three lectures with an anti-poverty theme called Social Science in the City.
The experiment, called MINCOME, was conducted in Dauphin, Man., between 1974 and 1979. Winnipeg was the second site.
It targeted the low-income population and ensured everyone had benefits and at least a welfare-level income. The project aimed to see if people reduced their work hours or stopped working altogether.
Forget says results from the Winnipeg site showed people with regular, full-time jobs made virtually no change in their work hours. She says the only people who made big changes were married women and teenagers.
"Married women effectively used the guaranteed income to buy themselves longer maternity leaves, so they extended the period of time they were out of the workforce ... and adolescents reduced their number of hours worked substantially... they didn't quit school and take full-time jobs. We had a lot more kids continuing to Grade 11 and 12."
She added there was a "dramatic" reduction in hospital admissions, especially for mental health.
Forget doesn't know exactly why but, based on her knowledge of the study, thinks it may have been a result of less stress associated with managing a family on a low income.
Accidents and injuries were also reduced, she believes, because people were less likely to be needy enough to have to take dangerous jobs.
"(In) all of the indicators I could find for quality of life, people did better."
905-526-3404
Need to know
The Town with No Poverty
Thursday, Feb. 25
Hamilton Spectator Auditorium, 44 Frid St.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
Lecture at 7 p.m.
Admission is free.
Reserve a seat by e-mailing sciencecity@mcmaster.ca or call 905-525-9140 ext. 24934.
