this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2023
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You can debate the merits of some work, you can debate the amount people are compensated for that work. But what is absolutely not debatable is that we actually need people to do work for us to contribute to function as a society. Some of that work that's absolutely necessary is both dangerous and nigh impossible to automate. Do we need another Starbucks? No, absolutely not. But we will still need places to be built, and infrastructure maintained. There's really no escaping that.
It will still get done.
Who would work at Starbucks if you get a living wage making shitty art ?
Is there even a quota needed in this? Can I make one piece of art a week that takes ten minutes and I get my living wage ?
Why would I work 40 hours dealing with any customer. Why would I work in a field picking crops or at a construction site ?
I'll join hunter Biden making blow art and getting g paid
It'll increase demand, which should in theory increase wages for those jobs. A universal basic income is "basic" in the sense that it's the minimum to survive in society. There will still be plenty of people who want more and are therefore willing to do those jobs.
Except that people will only pay so much for a cup of coffee. So how much do you need to pay a retail employee to come back to work over what ubi pays and how much will the products rise in cost to off set that
Sounds like you just identified a business that shouldn't exist. If a company can't afford to pay people what they need to survive, and still make a profit, the company needs to change, or shut down. That's supposed to be the essence of the free market
But it's not a free market if the government is giving money to non workers.
FYI this will effect all business across the board.
If people will only pay so much for a cup of coffee, that’s capitalist for “coffee ain’t that big a deal”.
And now think of the ripple effect of all the jobs lost when places like Starbucks go out of business and restaurants go out of business. Then construction sites and so on.
Lmao no. People will still want to eat out, and will still want things built. Get real.
Yes people would want to still do those things. But how many people would want to wait on those people.
While thinking of that. Think of how much a waiter would want to get paid to do such a job when thier bill are already paid ? How about the cooks ? How about the people delivering the food to the restaurants, the bus Boys and so on. Then what does that do to the final bill and how many peoplenwill fund that palatable.
Just as many as want to do it now. Come back to reality, kid.
So almost none ?
I know you don't, but I didn't ask you. People want to work, this is just a fact. We got civilisation started in the first place, didn't we?
No it is not a fact that people want to work. There are many people who if they could would never work a day in thier life.
Amputees exist, and yet "humans have legs" is true.
Probably a lot less than you'd think. With UBI there's no need for a minimum wage so if you're offering a great work environment you could pay next to nothing for labor. If the job that needs done is inherently shitty you might have to pay more, but that's already how it is for quite a few things.
This, and also working part time would become a lot more feasible. I would imagine there would be quite a bit of pressure to improve working conditions as well, which wouldn't exactly be a bad thing. A lot more hours would be spent on things people consider meaningful, and bullshit jobs would have to be compensated appropriately, which to me feels like a win for society collectively.
One caveat though is that for abolishing minimum wages to be safe the UBI has to be high enough to be actually livable, and would likely be a target of constant politicking. A model I've been thinking about would be to set the level of UBI as a percentage of GDP, distributed evenly across the population, which to me would feel fair but may have practical issues I don't see. It would create a sense of everyone benefiting from collective success, which appeals to me.
I think you will find that people will leave low end jobs in mass. Those willing to stay will ask for salaries that are extremely high and then those on ubi will be able to afford even less than before it existed