LogFAQs > #885791361

adjl posted...

Ideally, yeah. When letting the market handle it means people work 40 hours a week and still starve, though, that's a problem. In that case, the system breaks down because employers have too much power (namely, they can manipulate people's desperation to pay them less than they ought to). It's not a free market when wages are an absolute necessity, because prospective employees don't have the freedom of choice that's needed for a market to be free.

That's why I'm a big fan of the idea of a basic guaranteed income. Mandating a higher minimum wage isn't going to be a problem for big corporations like the Walmarts and the McD's that always get cited in these cases, but it is for smaller startups that actually can't afford more than minimum wage for their employees, and that just breeds oligopolies. In contrast, if people are guaranteed to have enough money to survive, there's no need for any sort of minimum wage, and employers can set wages with the intent of being competitive in a proper supply-and-demand environment.

The fortunate thing about people's desperation is that they have many different options to choose from. If Walmart doesn't pay enough, then go work for Home Depot. Shop around until you can find something better. In the interim, you can take the low-paying job to help support yourself. It's not supposed to be easy.

UBI requires the money to come from somewhere, and the US government doesn't have the money. We're already at nearly 19 trillion dollars in debt - due in large part to the ACA (which is a form of UBI in itself). If we had a budget surplus - fine, give people free money. That's what states like Alaska do. But we don't. So unless we can afford to give out handouts, the people are gonna have to figure their own shit out.

adjl posted...

And why should they have to hate their life in the interim? America is not a poor country. There's no reason to expect people to content themselves with third-world conditions, even temporarily.

Because you don't have a right to your life not sucking. It's not the governments responsibility to make you happy. That's up to you. And LOL at third-world conditions. If you think 7.50 an hour puts you in the same condition than an African living in Sierra Leone does, then I don't even know what to say. We have chronically homeless people that have internet enabled cell phones for fucks sake.

Work hard and you'll be fine. You might not ever get rich just by working hard, but you'll survive.
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If my daughter was in it, Id have to be the co-star - Deoxxys on porn