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When talking to people who dislike UBI about UBI, they'll often say both that 'people need a purpose in life' and that 'nobody will work if they get free money'.

Those seem incompatible to me.

(UBI means Universal Basic Income, giving everyone a basic income, for free)

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  • I think what they're trying to say is nobody will want to work shit jobs for next to no pay.

    I don't see how that's a bad thing except for employers. If the job is worth doing, the money should be worth it too. People shouldn't be forced to do shitty/dangerous jobs just to survive.

    • That's a common theme most people here overlook. Some people actually enjoy working hard and getting things done. We don't need to support the lazy people.

    • Are there some shitty jobs that don't deserve higher pay because of the value they contribute? Or do you see that being a business that shouldn't exist? So let's take a sewer company or something. Or any maintenance position where it's not clear there's a dollar value on the value being produced.

      For example, restaurant probably aren't possible if waiters and back of house are all paid 30/h.

      I'm mostly trying to understand what you're really trying to get at. I don't think its possible for all jobs to be equally paying or be equally good - there's always going to be inequality there. Unless you're arguing there shouldn't be shitty jobs but there's literally always going to be shitty jobs in any society and economic framework you spin up.

      Society will still need people who perform maintenance on sewers, do construction, clean building etc

      • For example, restaurant probably aren't possible if waiters and back of house are all paid 30/h.

        Somehow in every country other than the US they are able to pay restaurant staff a living wage.

      • From your example, what I'm saying is nobody should be cleaning a sewer for minimum wage. If you need your sewer fixed you can either do it yourself or pay someone enough that they'd be willing to do it.

        If you can't pay someone enough, obviously fixing that sewer wasn't important enough to you.

        I'm not saying everyone should get the same wage. There's a huge difference between flipping burgers and working in a mine, and the pay should reflect that.

169 comments