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The "goal" of a low wage job is for an employer to make a profit from someone else's labor, and to only allow them to subsist. UBI promotes subsistence but cru

The "goal" of a low wage job is for an employer to make a profit from someone else's labor, and to only allow them to subsist. UBI promotes subsistence but crucially allows someone enough time to find more substantial opportunities. And UBI won't necessarily kill low-wage work – in some ways, it makes space for it. I'm an EMT, and I make minimum wage, and I work 48-72 hours a week on the ambulance. UBI would make it so that I don't need another job to support a family, and could live healthily and with dignity on just those 48-72 hours a week.

syshum 7y ago
>>The "goal" of a low wage job is for an employer to make a profit from someone else's labor That is the goal of all jobs, high, low, middle Employers are not charity, they do not employ people so they can have a good income. Employers employ people because they need work done to make money off that work, the second you cost your employer more than they make off your work you are out of a job. Sometimes that cut off is more direct (i.e if you make widgets your per hour the rate of manufacture can easily be factored into the cost of making the widget) but if you some do something more nebulous like cleaning the floors, or filing papers, that can be harder to calculate but every business does.
- tehjoker 7y ago
  That's right, but we don't have a society unless people have incomes so maybe this isn't a good model for funding a civil society?
  - syshum 7y ago
    Ahh yes the classic HN blame capitalism for all of society problem. What is a better model. "From each according to their ability, to each according to their need" Personally I like having control over what I choose to sell my labor for, and based on all the other times other models have been tried I would prefer not to have the government assign me a job, or give me bread credits where I have to wait in line for hours to get my "free" government bread
  - rexreed 7y ago
    This is not the case - there's plenty of civil societies that have existed over the millennia that are subsistence economies. They aren't wealthy, but that isn't the point.

syshum 7y ago

>>The "goal" of a low wage job is for an employer to make a profit from someone else's labor That is the goal of all jobs, high, low, middle Employers are not charity, they do not employ people so they can have a good income. Employers employ people because they need work done to make money off that work, the second you cost your employer more than they make off your work you are out of a job. Sometimes that cut off is more direct (i.e if you make widgets your per hour the rate of manufacture can easily be factored into the cost of making the widget) but if you some do something more nebulous like cleaning the floors, or filing papers, that can be harder to calculate but every business does.

tehjoker 7y ago
That's right, but we don't have a society unless people have incomes so maybe this isn't a good model for funding a civil society?
- syshum 7y ago
  Ahh yes the classic HN blame capitalism for all of society problem. What is a better model. "From each according to their ability, to each according to their need" Personally I like having control over what I choose to sell my labor for, and based on all the other times other models have been tried I would prefer not to have the government assign me a job, or give me bread credits where I have to wait in line for hours to get my "free" government bread
- rexreed 7y ago
  This is not the case - there's plenty of civil societies that have existed over the millennia that are subsistence economies. They aren't wealthy, but that isn't the point.