4 ms·

Something that just crossed my mind... I've always been a proponent of a decent minimum wage, because I've argued that eliminating minimum wage would result in

Something that just crossed my mind... I've always been a proponent of a decent minimum wage, because I've argued that eliminating minimum wage would result in a race to the bottom on wages as people become more desperate for work, and the standard of living would hit rock bottom for the people at the bottom. But with UBI, the dynamic changes. If UBI pays for your basic necessities, people only need to work if they want something better than the bare minimum. The power dynamic has changed, and now all employees have leverage. No longer is it "The job pays next to nothing, but if I want a least two meals a day, I still gotta do it", and instead is "I don't need this job to survive, so they need to make it worthwhile." In short, I would happily be in favor of dropping minimum wage laws entirely if UBI was implemented and was enough to survive off of.

0xbadc0de5 3y ago
Who pays the taxes that fund UBI? What happens to that economic activity under UBI? Who grows the food? Who maintains civilization if a not-insignificant percentage of it decide they can't be bothered.
- LordShredda 3y ago
  A lot of people would want more and therefore stay with their job. Society won't just simply throw their paperwork out the window and become hermits.
- Sohcahtoa82 3y ago
  Theoretically, automation takes over much of the manual labor. Let's be real here. We absolutely have the technology to automate most farming jobs. We just need to build the machines to do it. But right now, it's cheaper to pay a bunch of illegal immigrant workers [0] cash under the table to pick crops than to hire a team of robotics and automation experts to develop a robot that does it. The money they save in labor costs can be taxed to fund UBI. Think long term here. Given enough time, most manual jobs can and will be automated. UBI will be a necessity as unemployment goes up as jobs are lost to automation. We're probably still 20+ years away from the tipping point, but it WILL happen. [0] 41% of farmworkers are not authorized to work in the USA: https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/farm-labor/ https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/farm-labor/

0xbadc0de5 3y ago

Who pays the taxes that fund UBI? What happens to that economic activity under UBI? Who grows the food? Who maintains civilization if a not-insignificant percentage of it decide they can't be bothered.

LordShredda 3y ago
A lot of people would want more and therefore stay with their job. Society won't just simply throw their paperwork out the window and become hermits.
Sohcahtoa82 3y ago
Theoretically, automation takes over much of the manual labor. Let's be real here. We absolutely have the technology to automate most farming jobs. We just need to build the machines to do it. But right now, it's cheaper to pay a bunch of illegal immigrant workers [0] cash under the table to pick crops than to hire a team of robotics and automation experts to develop a robot that does it. The money they save in labor costs can be taxed to fund UBI. Think long term here. Given enough time, most manual jobs can and will be automated. UBI will be a necessity as unemployment goes up as jobs are lost to automation. We're probably still 20+ years away from the tipping point, but it WILL happen. [0] 41% of farmworkers are not authorized to work in the USA: https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/farm-labor/ https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/farm-labor/