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A thought experiment: You’re currently working in a call center making $9 an hour. You have no degree and marketable skills. Then you find out you’re now eligi

A thought experiment: You’re currently working in a call center making $9 an hour. You have no degree and marketable skills. Then you find out you’re now eligible for a paycheck that is equal to or more than you currently earn. What do you do?

abstractbeliefs 9y ago
Are you concerned that suddenly, no one would man the phones? These people will find that they suddenly live a much better quality of life. Some people will decide they want a quality of life even higher. With a lack of skills elsewhere, they may choose to continue their work, making $9/hr more than they would on UBI alone. If you think that no one would do this, if they could live on $9/hr before (even meager, miserly conditions), it would be the equivalent of erasing their previous cost of living with some cash on the side. Yes, they wouldn't work the same soul crushing job they had before. We'll see equally huge shifts in how we work, and how much is automated. For some people who didn't, perhaps they would now have the critical need to work remove and go to college, and develop those marketable or degree level skills and contribute far more.
TheAdamAndChe 9y ago
Poverty is incredibly stressful. I've been stuck working a minimum wage job living on my own while trying to go to college. That paycheck would be the difference between having panic attacks daily because I don't know if my scooter will last another month and being able to focus on school. While having some basic income to pay for necessities would be nice, it's not like the drive to improve myself and my income would go away. I'd bet college completion would go up significantly if UBI became the norm.
RobLach 9y ago
I'd probably quit my second night-shift job since now I can afford rent for my studio apartment with just one.
- lin_lin 9y ago
  I'd imagine that rents would rise in line with everyone getting an extra $x pm... Unless proper controls were put in place.
thescriptkiddie 9y ago
Quit the call center job and enroll full-time at the local community college?
- digitalzombie 9y ago
  Seriously, call center job is a dead end job. If you had the opportunity to go to college and get a trade or degree for a better one this is a good move.
  - Broken_Hippo 9y ago
    Honestly, I've been in jobs that are much more dead-end. The one I worked at provided a really good education benefit with fairly clear ways to get promoted and transferred. I took advantage of those, and eventually got outside the call center. This could be, however, because I worked at a phone company instead of something like a small sales or collection agency.
    - sopooneo 9y ago
      I think the definition of a "dead end job" is one that does not provide clear ways to get promoted.
jackvalentine 9y ago
I would reduce my hours at the call centre to perhaps half days, so I can still get more money than the 'default'. With the other half of the day I'd then relax, hang out, perhaps study if that was my desire.
xxSparkleSxx 9y ago
50 trust fund babies are moved to an island with nothing but access to their bank account. How much does the first person to do any work charge?
sokoloff 9y ago
UBI would be very unlikely to be that high a figure. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13622341 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13622341 has some order-of-magnitude figuring I did a while ago. It suggests (to me) that the maximum UBI that might be achievable is more in the range of $500/mo/adult. If you're working 160 hours/month at $9/hr, your UBI will make you feel a little more secure, a little less likely to take a never-ending river of shit from your boss, but it's not going to let you quit your job and play Call of Duty all the rest of your days.
regulation_d 9y ago
Seems pretty reasonable to compliment a UBI with something like an EIC.

abstractbeliefs 9y ago

Are you concerned that suddenly, no one would man the phones? These people will find that they suddenly live a much better quality of life. Some people will decide they want a quality of life even higher. With a lack of skills elsewhere, they may choose to continue their work, making $9/hr more than they would on UBI alone. If you think that no one would do this, if they could live on $9/hr before (even meager, miserly conditions), it would be the equivalent of erasing their previous cost of living with some cash on the side. Yes, they wouldn't work the same soul crushing job they had before. We'll see equally huge shifts in how we work, and how much is automated. For some people who didn't, perhaps they would now have the critical need to work remove and go to college, and develop those marketable or degree level skills and contribute far more.

TheAdamAndChe 9y ago

Poverty is incredibly stressful. I've been stuck working a minimum wage job living on my own while trying to go to college. That paycheck would be the difference between having panic attacks daily because I don't know if my scooter will last another month and being able to focus on school. While having some basic income to pay for necessities would be nice, it's not like the drive to improve myself and my income would go away. I'd bet college completion would go up significantly if UBI became the norm.

RobLach 9y ago

I'd probably quit my second night-shift job since now I can afford rent for my studio apartment with just one.

lin_lin 9y ago
I'd imagine that rents would rise in line with everyone getting an extra $x pm... Unless proper controls were put in place.

thescriptkiddie 9y ago

Quit the call center job and enroll full-time at the local community college?

digitalzombie 9y ago
Seriously, call center job is a dead end job. If you had the opportunity to go to college and get a trade or degree for a better one this is a good move.
- Broken_Hippo 9y ago
  Honestly, I've been in jobs that are much more dead-end. The one I worked at provided a really good education benefit with fairly clear ways to get promoted and transferred. I took advantage of those, and eventually got outside the call center. This could be, however, because I worked at a phone company instead of something like a small sales or collection agency.
  - sopooneo 9y ago
    I think the definition of a "dead end job" is one that does not provide clear ways to get promoted.

jackvalentine 9y ago

I would reduce my hours at the call centre to perhaps half days, so I can still get more money than the 'default'. With the other half of the day I'd then relax, hang out, perhaps study if that was my desire.

xxSparkleSxx 9y ago

50 trust fund babies are moved to an island with nothing but access to their bank account. How much does the first person to do any work charge?

sokoloff 9y ago

UBI would be very unlikely to be that high a figure. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13622341 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13622341 has some order-of-magnitude figuring I did a while ago. It suggests (to me) that the maximum UBI that might be achievable is more in the range of $500/mo/adult. If you're working 160 hours/month at $9/hr, your UBI will make you feel a little more secure, a little less likely to take a never-ending river of shit from your boss, but it's not going to let you quit your job and play Call of Duty all the rest of your days.

regulation_d 9y ago

Seems pretty reasonable to compliment a UBI with something like an EIC.