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RE: Basic Income must be global or it will fail.

in #basicincome8 years ago (edited)

Interesting perspective. I disagree with the idea that employers pay their employees based on what their work is worth. Maybe I'm misinterpreting the point you were trying to make, but the productivity of american workers has tripled in the last 30 years, yet the employee has benefited almost nothing from that. Our work has certainly become more valuable. It has more to do with supply and demand, which is the whole purpose of requiring a minimum wage . Its only a matter of time before automation floods the supply side of the job market, driving wages down, which has nothing to do with the utility they provide to their employer.

But as you mentioned, is it such a bad thing, as long as we are guaranteed basic income? I think it certainly could be if it causes the wealth gap to continue to explode at the rate that it currently. Human beings strive for purpose, I think most people do indeed want to work, but it is pretty demoralizing if you don't even get a small fraction of the fruits of your labor

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While there are a lot of good-guy employers which care about the situation of their employees, the big businesses dominate the markets and force those wages.

But why do employees accept them? Only because they're forced to. You're not free to value your own work, take what you're offered or be a dirty welfare sucker.

While a basic income doesn't solve this by itself, it offers a great possibility to change the mindset of the workers. When they're not just working to feed their kids and pay the state, they could have a chance to start fulfilling their own dreams. That's when people become their best anyway. It could even result in an entrepeneurial spirit which makes it hard to find regular employees unless you pay them very well.

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