Would UBI Kill Low Paying Jobs?

 

I don’t think UBI would hurt unskilled employment and might even help.

Anthony Lawrence (Pcunix)
Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash

One of the many claims against Universal Basic Income is that businesses wouldn’t be able to find people willing to work for low wages.

I’m not sure that’s true. If you have enough UBI to be secure, a job is extra money, money you don’t need. Maybe you have impediments that eliminate higher-paying jobs, maybe you don’t want to travel far, maybe you actually enjoy customer service. Maybe you are just bored.

People work really crappy volunteer jobs right now, so money isn’t always the motivation.

If you can get extra money for something that you enjoy, but can afford to quit the minute you don’t enjoy it, your attitude and your employer’s attitude change.

I think it would be true that low pay workers under UBI would expect more respect, would not put up with being treated as throwaway tools, but the plus side for the employer is that they’d get more conscientious and committed workers.

But there’s another reason: In my view, if your business cannot afford to give all of its employees a living wage, you are not a business: you are a leech on society because those employees will have to be supported by the rest of us. Some will need welfare assistance, some will require emergency room visits that they can’t pay for, driving up costs for all of us. Some will have trouble maintaining their automobiles, creating safety and pollution problems for all of us. Unfortunately, some will have difficulty caring for their children, which either costs us money now or will when the cycle of poverty repeats.

I’m retired. Social Security and our investments give us enough to live on, but I took a pretty difficult retail job for a fifth of what I earned before retiring. I quit that when COVID arrived, but I’m thinking about going back to it next year. I miss it, and extra money is, of course, extra money.

UBI, if it passes at all, will likely be miserly, so unemployed people may still need to work to survive. If a low stipend replaces Social Security, millions of us will want full-time employment, no matter how difficult that will be on our aging bodies and minds. That’s another reason I want to go back part-time now: if the GOP castrates Social Security, having a part-time position makes it more possible to transition to full-time.

UBI would be a good thing for all of us. It would replace many social programs and eliminate the expensive overhead associated with validating recipients and their benefits. Those who already have sufficient income would pay it back, and more, in taxes. It would be a win-win all around.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Telegram From Mark Twain to My Great-Grandfather

Image
  A Telegram From Mark Twain to My Great-Grandfather We have some written history and some oral history. Do they tell the same story? Anthony Lawrence (Pcunix) Photo by author — one of my most favorite books One of my cousins is very interested in genealogy. He has a lot of fun with it, perhaps because he often visits or has extensive phone contact with cousins he finds through his research. I’m not disinterested in my ancestors and living relatives. Still, I also realize that we are all cousins; for every famous person we might find a close connection with, dozens of rapscallions and worse are just as closely related. I also tend to question family lore. For example, my paternal great grandfather was an artist of some minor renown. The history passed down to me has him involved with many things, including: From Wikitree  https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Lawrence-5332 .. an interior designer for the White House under McKinley, the Toronto Parliament Building, the Boston Public Li...
Read more

A Major League Ballplayer Who Quoted Shakespeare at the Umpire

Image
  A Major League Ballplayer Who Quoted Shakespeare at the Umpire And who happened to be my mother’s uncle Anthony Lawrence (Pcunix) HISTORY My mother’s uncle wrote this book Lloyd Garrison “Chick” Davies was an unusual baseball player .  He only played four widely separated seasons in the major leagues and four more in the minors, but he did distinguish himself playing for the New York Giants in the 1926 World Series, leading the National League with 6 saves and 29 games finished. He also happened to be my great-uncle . See below for an update that explains that he did not play in the 1926 World Series but did play against Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, and Shoeless Joe Jackson. Oh, and he wrote a book about pitching .  I vaguely remember seeing a copy of it when his sister, my grandmother, lived with us after her husband died.  I wasn’t interested then in pitching or great-uncles I had never met; I wish now that I had been. My quest I  recently bought a well-worn copy of ...
Read more

My Great-Grandfather’s Toy Cannon

Image
  My Great-Grandfather’s Toy Cannon I’m not sure that “toy” is the right word, however, that is the word my father and his mother used. Anthony Lawrence (Pcunix) History The “toy” cannon The picture above is a Lawrence family heirloom. I’m not sure that “toy” is the right word, however, that is the word my father and his mother used. I know that it was a gift to Herbert Myron Lawrence, my father’s grandfather. My father gave it to me and I, in turn, have given it to my oldest daughter. HML engraving I do not know how old Herbert was when he received this. He was born in 1851 and died in 1937, which does not identify the time frame of the gift. However, my father did say it was a gift, not something he bought for himself. That could be a misunderstanding. The cannon is engraved with HML initials. One  reference I found  asserts: In fact, toy cannons date back to the American Civil War and before, and not only were they popular toys for children, they were remarkably danger...
Read more