this post was submitted on 15 May 2024
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Lefty Memes
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If certain jobs aren't valuable enough to pay a living wage, then maybe they should be done by robots instead of humans.
The problem is there is a race to the bottom.
E.g. in my field of work, there is a limited supply of skilled workers. If a company won't pay my rates, I work for one that will, and the first is left short staffed. This creates a back pressure that helps keep wages reasonable.
In "unskilled" jobs. The pool is far larger. Even if a job is worth a living wage, there is the risk of being undercut. 3/4 of a living wage is still better than nothing. This leads to a race to the bottom, that larger companies exploit ruthlessly.
There are 2 viable solutions. You either manage a minimum (a "minimum wage") , or you decouple survival from working by providing a baseline income ("universal basic income"). The first is simpler, but distorts the market in unhelpful ways. The second is harder, but let's market forces actually work properly, and push wages up, where appropriate.
Yeah, the way we do this in Sweden is pretty decent. There's no minimum wage, but if you are unemployed you (A) have access to unemployment for a few months via your unions income insurance, and (B) if unemployed for a long time & do not have the means to otherwise support yourself will qualify for a basic subsistence support from your municipality along with housing benefits - on the condition that you keep looking for a job (if you aren't disabled).
Agreed, but I don't think the world's ready for that. We'll probably let masses of people starve to death/resort to crime before we start paying people a UBI or an alternate arrangement that allows people to feed themselves when they are unable to find work.