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I agree. If we give say everyone 5 dollars an hour for no work. Livable wage is say 10. Then companies only have to pay 5. They can pocket the other 5 or lo

I agree. If we give say everyone 5 dollars an hour for no work. Livable wage is say 10. Then companies only have to pay 5. They can pocket the other 5 or lower their prices. Which is more likely? This also has other knock on effects. It is only possible in the very short term. In the long term inflation will wipe out the extra 5 and things will go back to steady state. It sounds nice, heck I would not mind it personally, but the knock-on effects for something like that could be a terrible creation that would take years to fix. Just first order effects do not seem great.

neilwilson 6y ago
Why not pay them 10 and use the labour in the community? Then if Uber et al wants labour they have to bid it away from the "common good". Once everybody has an alternative job to go to outside the private sector, it no longer matters if Uber decides not to pay people and instead automates all the vehicles. Then everybody wins due to improved productivity - Uber and the people with community jobs.
- sumtechguy 6y ago
  So uber would 'buy' from some central org? Why not just cut out the middle man then and deal directly with their employees? Why create a middle man? Middle man in any economic system tend to destroy wealth. Uber is in itself a middle man between people who want a ride and people who pay for it. They upended a middle man who was less efficient.
  - mvc 6y ago
    Don't see where parent is saying anything about Labor from a central org. He's just saying Uber has to up their bid in order to win the services of said Labor.
- sukilot 6y ago
  Because of the problem of how to decide how they labor is used. Central planning communism has never worked. Free market with regulation and taxation has a much better record.
  - neilwilson 6y ago
    The person decides how their labour is used. They take a guaranteed job or they take a private job. The private job then just has to be better than the guaranteed one and they will get the labour. Where's your central planning in that?
AaronM 6y ago
I prefer UBI to phase out based on how much you make. You give everyone five dollars an hour. if I make 6 dollars an hour, UBI only pays me an extra 1 dollar. So there is no cutoff like with welfare today. I think UBI would function as a replacement for minimum wage, in this case. Why would anyone take a job paying less than 5?

neilwilson 6y ago

Why not pay them 10 and use the labour in the community? Then if Uber et al wants labour they have to bid it away from the "common good". Once everybody has an alternative job to go to outside the private sector, it no longer matters if Uber decides not to pay people and instead automates all the vehicles. Then everybody wins due to improved productivity - Uber and the people with community jobs.

sumtechguy 6y ago
So uber would 'buy' from some central org? Why not just cut out the middle man then and deal directly with their employees? Why create a middle man? Middle man in any economic system tend to destroy wealth. Uber is in itself a middle man between people who want a ride and people who pay for it. They upended a middle man who was less efficient.
- mvc 6y ago
  Don't see where parent is saying anything about Labor from a central org. He's just saying Uber has to up their bid in order to win the services of said Labor.
sukilot 6y ago
Because of the problem of how to decide how they labor is used. Central planning communism has never worked. Free market with regulation and taxation has a much better record.
- neilwilson 6y ago
  The person decides how their labour is used. They take a guaranteed job or they take a private job. The private job then just has to be better than the guaranteed one and they will get the labour. Where's your central planning in that?

AaronM 6y ago

I prefer UBI to phase out based on how much you make. You give everyone five dollars an hour. if I make 6 dollars an hour, UBI only pays me an extra 1 dollar. So there is no cutoff like with welfare today. I think UBI would function as a replacement for minimum wage, in this case. Why would anyone take a job paying less than 5?