Equal protection under the law is already present.
And no, it would not solve simple poverty. And no, it is not market friendly to take money from a person who earns it and produces for the market and giving it to another person who produces nothing and does not earn it. The capital will circulate in either case, so the production of the person is the deciding factor.
Neither of you has the first clue what you're talking about. You're both looking at unemployment as a "choice", when in fact, it most often is not a choice.
Where I live, both employers and employees pay into an "Employment Insurance" ("EI") fund, which is used to fund periods of unemployment due to layoffs, plant closures, extended illness, maternity leave, or downsizing. All of the ways in which an employee can be unemployed which are NOT their fault. If you are fired "for cause" you cannot collect EI, but if you are fired because your boss is a capricious asshole, you can collect. If you quit to move or for other valid reasons, including your health or your boss really is a capricious asshole, you are not chained to your job., especially since health care is universally covered through OHIP.
Benefits paid = 55% of your gross income, to a maximum of $562. which equals minimum wage. You have to work for 1 full year to qualify for benefits. So yes, you can sit on your ass at home and collect the equivalent of minimum wage in Canada, provided you worked for one full year, and you lost your job through no fault of your own.
Why wouldn't I sit on my ass at home and collect $2200 per month? Because $2200 per month would barely cover our housing and utilities in downtown Toronto. And because in order to qualify for the maximum benefit, I would have had to be earning twice that amount, plus benefits. In my case, "benefits" included profit sharing bonuses, Christmas Bonus, overtime at time and a half for more than 7 hours work per day, full premium medical package with eyeglass allowances, braces for the kids, short and long term disability, all set up to align with and fill in the gaps of my husband's coverage, matching contributions to pension plans, health club membership, meals and car service if working past 9:00 p.m., one month's paid vacation. That's why!
Or I could use the EI "start your own business option", which gives you income and support for starting your own business, included unversity level business training, and a mentorship program. Or take a $5000 tuition grant for retraining, in your chosen field.
This is why Canada, Norway, and most of Europe managed to survive quite nicely with off-shoring our low end manufacturing. Because instead of hanging the working men and women in our countries out to dry, as Americans have done, while siding with the corporations and the shareholder classes 100% on these issues, Canadians and Europeans encouraged our people to go into jobs which would have higher demand in the coming economy. Instead of looking at what was lost, and trying to get it bck, we've looked at what was ahead. Where the jobs are in the current economy.
Instead of focusing on turning our good little white conservatives, our schools are focusing on the skills and tools required for 21st Century work. Twenty years ago, Canada invested in a coast to coast wireless network to bring the internet to every village and hamlet in Canada. Today, we have small Canadian business operations shipping to the world, from the comfort of anywhere in Canada. That includes artisans in Nunavit, and Labrador.
My county has embraced wind technology, which puts $60,000 per year into the bank accounts of farmers throughout the county. That's per windmill. These aren't large concentrated wind farms, just random windmills. Some big farms have a couple of them. This has stabilized our farm incomes, and helped everyone in the county.
There is so much that Trump could be doing for your economy, but instead states outbid one another for "jobs", while sticking their citizens with huge infrastructure bills for corporate construction. Corporate welfare has got to stop. The investor class is getting all the tax breaks, all of the income, and they're not even working. CEO's used to make a few hundred thousand dollars, not millions.
Corporations need to pay their own workers, pay for their own infrastructure, and stop freeloading off the working and middleclass.