About Me

Find out more about me here.

15 February 2017

Addendum to the Post-work Kids-thing

I just posted about how childhood offers a potential answer to the inevitable problem of organizing a world in which work is no longer required of humans. I think a major problem with such a world, though, involves an unanticipated issue with basic income. Basic income is often compared to minimum wage in that both set a basement: everyone makes at least this much. Minimum wage, however, did not do away with inequality. Sure, in theory, it reduces extreme poverty, but even if we raised the minimum wage to a living wage, people would still aspire to higher incomes. In other words, if McDonalds promised to pay me $25,000/year, I still wouldn't want to work there, even if the stress and responsibility of working there is considerably less than at my current job. I probably wouldn't even consider it for $52,000/year. The same is likely to be true of a basic income. People will stratify above and beyond the basic income with additional labor if allowed to do elective paid labor. For that reason, it's probably worth considering a legal prohibition against all paid labor attached to any proposal for basic income.

No comments:

Post a Comment