So, saw a post going around about raising the welfare rate in BC from $610.  What a lot of people don’t read and they don’t list in the petition is that they want to raise the rate from $610 to $1,300 (found on the website for the ‘Raise the Rates’ group.

Yup, that’s $1,300 a month.

Don’t get me wrong – I would sign that petition myself, there’s obviously an issue at $610.   Just a plain room in Greater Vancouver these days seem to range from about $425 – $550 (and more).  So, you definitely need to increase it for basic needs.

On the other hand $1,300 a month is ridiculous. That’s close to the $1804 (based on 22 working days and $10.25) a minimum wage worker makes working full time (40 hours a week) – their take home is $1703 after taxes which the welfare recipients don’t pay.

Of course, the fact is that the welfare number of $1,300 comes from the Market Basket Measure.  And what they don’t mention is that the Measure is calculated to give a basic living expense (everything included) for 2 adults with 2 children.

Yeah, so they want to give the family cost to 1 person. So a family of 2 adults then pulls in $2,600 a month or $31,200 a year without paying taxes.

That’ll do great things for the economy.  Of course, to pay for all this they also want to raise the taxes on those earning over $250,000 and cut the corporate tax cuts.  Oh, and raise minimum wage again to $12 an hour. I wonder if they actually ran any numbers to see if this would cover the costs (present market situation).  I’m guessing not but I haven’t either, so won’t point fingers.

I can say that if they started raising minimum wage rates again and our tax rates, it’s going to suck for the economy.  And the business.

God but I hate idiots.  I really, really do.  They ask for stupid, stupid things and make a reasonable suggestion (raise welfare rates) to something that even a moderate like me can’t get behind.

Oh, what I would raise it to? Probably around $900.  Not great, but you could live on that (barely). Which is kind of the point – you do well enough to survive and can then start working on making yourself employable.  You just aren’t comfortable.