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> It is totally fine if some people don't work as long as enough work that we can produce enough to meet demand. That's precisely the point: it creates a marke

> It is totally fine if some people don't work as long as enough work that we can produce enough to meet demand. That's precisely the point: it creates a market for labor that does not currently exist. If there were not enough workers to meet demand, the suppliers would have to increase salaries until enough of them decided the money was worth going to work. A UBI allows natural market forces to do things that we have to do with regulation now. Minimum wage could be eradicated with a UBI, for example, since everybody enough to live on. Real wages for unskilled workers would be forced much higher, which I think would be a very good thing for the economy as a whole.

dllthomas 13y ago
I mostly agree, I think. "That's precisely the point: it creates a market for labor that does not currently exist." I'm not sure how there is not currently a market for labor, it's just presently tilted in favor of employers because employees have too much trouble "going out of business" when there isn't sufficient demand for them. "A UBI allows natural market forces to do things that we have to do with regulation now." Right. "Minimum wage could be eradicated with a UBI, for example, since everybody enough to live on." With a sufficiently high UBI, this is clearly the case; I'm not completely convinced that "a sufficiently high UBI" is not so high that it would cause other problems, though that seems likely. "Real wages for unskilled workers would be forced much higher," Real wages for unskilled workers would certainly rise. Whether they would be "much higher" doubtless depends on the size of the UBI. "which I think would be a very good thing for the economy as a whole." Possibly. It would certainly motivate more automation, which is probably good. Forcing them too high too fast would likely mean some significant problems as society figures out how to adapt.

dllthomas 13y ago

I mostly agree, I think. "That's precisely the point: it creates a market for labor that does not currently exist." I'm not sure how there is not currently a market for labor, it's just presently tilted in favor of employers because employees have too much trouble "going out of business" when there isn't sufficient demand for them. "A UBI allows natural market forces to do things that we have to do with regulation now." Right. "Minimum wage could be eradicated with a UBI, for example, since everybody enough to live on." With a sufficiently high UBI, this is clearly the case; I'm not completely convinced that "a sufficiently high UBI" is not so high that it would cause other problems, though that seems likely. "Real wages for unskilled workers would be forced much higher," Real wages for unskilled workers would certainly rise. Whether they would be "much higher" doubtless depends on the size of the UBI. "which I think would be a very good thing for the economy as a whole." Possibly. It would certainly motivate more automation, which is probably good. Forcing them too high too fast would likely mean some significant problems as society figures out how to adapt.