Fast food restaurants like to argue that they keep their wages low because their workers are young students who just want some pocket money for a car or concert tickets. If you’ve walked into a McDonalds lately, you may have noticed that more of their employees are middle aged folks or even seniors who are trying to supplement their retirement savings.
I often ask my rideshare driver about why they drive, how long they’ve been driving, etc. Very few of them are driving as a hobby or to pick up some side cash. For most of them, it’s their main source of income.
I have brought this up here before and got all kinds of justifications : he has a big house, he has a special needs kid.
I don't think there is any teacher in NL taking summer jobs to make ends meet.
Breaking Bad isn’t supposed to be a documentary. Teachers don’t have summer jobs at car washes. Tutoring is both easier and pays better, as does summer school. Working at a car wash is an example of shitty choices, as is his entire relationship with his wife. It’s like his decision to go into drugs in the first place. He’s a public sector employee. He does not need to make drugs to get excellent health care. He does it because he wants to. Working at the car wash is not something he needs to do, it’s a way of expressing his martyr complex.
To view temp/gig work with a full-time lens is disingenuous, imo.
(Insert plug for UBI here.)
Unsure where UBI comes into the picture either since UBI also does not make non-crappy jobs magically come into existence.
Also, increased spending does tend to result in more jobs, at least in normal times.
Is it just a job you don't like doing?
How does adding UBI address bargaining power beyond a temporary fix? Eventually prices will adjust to take into account the buying power of UBI. UBI will become the new baseline and people on UBI will lose the benefits of that buying power. Not denying that UBI won't provide a temporary fix, but there is nothing about UBI prevents the market from adjusting to take into account UBI.