Re:If You Think Free Money Kills Work Ethic, Your Definition...
by Jtsummers on Wednesday May 04, 2016 @02:14PM
(#11630373)
This article author and their parents seem to think that there will be no income other than a UBI. Which is, well, bizarre.
Menial jobs will still be done. But you may not have full-time staff for it. Garbage collection will still be done, you'll just pay better. People will still go to med school, because they'll get prestige (major motivator today) and more money (major motivator today).
The main difference (assuming affordability of a UBI, I'm not addressing that), between a non-UBI and a UBI situation is that people have a guaranteed subsistence income. Not a guaranteed life of leisure. We can't promise $50k/year/person. We can't even reasonably promise $5k/year/person (in the US). I don't know whether a UBI makes any sense (fiscally) or what level to set it at, but dismissing it because "people won't work" or "people won't become doctors" is, frankly, moronic.
Menial jobs will still be done. But you may not have full-time staff for it. Garbage collection will still be done, you'll just pay better. People will still go to med school, because they'll get prestige (major motivator today) and more money (major motivator today).
The main difference (assuming affordability of a UBI, I'm not addressing that), between a non-UBI and a UBI situation is that people have a guaranteed subsistence income. Not a guaranteed life of leisure. We can't promise $50k/year/person. We can't even reasonably promise $5k/year/person (in the US). I don't know whether a UBI makes any sense (fiscally) or what level to set it at, but dismissing it because "people won't work" or "people won't become doctors" is, frankly, moronic.