Re:Free Money: The Surprising Effects of a Basic Income Supp...
by dragonwriter on Monday November 13, 2017 @04:33PM
(#15690460)
> I'd like to see a version of "basic employment".
That is a clever way to avoid many of the key benefits of basic income, particularly its ability to improve the ability of the labor force to adapt organically by weakening the degree to which present minimal support and retraining for better prospects are at odds.
“Basic employment” may make sense as a solution to temporary economic downturns, where it amounts to simple countercyclical spending; unless the goal is to have an ever growing share of the population economically coerced into being a perpetual involuntary government labor force, it's not a good way of dealing with any long-term need.
That is a clever way to avoid many of the key benefits of basic income, particularly its ability to improve the ability of the labor force to adapt organically by weakening the degree to which present minimal support and retraining for better prospects are at odds.
“Basic employment” may make sense as a solution to temporary economic downturns, where it amounts to simple countercyclical spending; unless the goal is to have an ever growing share of the population economically coerced into being a perpetual involuntary government labor force, it's not a good way of dealing with any long-term need.