Canada is about to give 4,000 households free money for three years

Want some free money from the government? Move to Canada!

No, It's not a joke!

Canada is actually going to experiment with a universal basic income, offering up to $24,000 to eligible Canadian households.

The province of Ontario has announced plans to study basic income through a three-year pilot project, where it will provide the funding to 4,000 households selected at random.

Ontario's experiment will involve 4,000 low-income citizens between the ages of 18 and 64 selected at random from three cities — Hamilton, Thunder Bay, and Lindsay.

The plan calls for single persons to receive up to $17,000, minus half of any income earned.

Couples could be eligible for up to $24,000, and persons with disabilities could receive $6,000 more.

The last time the theory was put to the test in North America was a program in the Canadian province of Manitoba in the late 1970s.