Quote:
Originally Posted by blankall
I don't think anyone is claiming that specialist doctors, who earn $200-$500k/year will simply stop working and collect UBI. The issue is with people earning $30k/year, with little ambition. Are they going to continue to work 40 hrs/week, when they can earn $25k/year for doing nothing. You then end up in a situation where you have to pay people at the bottom rung more and more.
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Universal means universal. It goes to everyone. It's not a circumstance of you can either work for what you make or get UBI. You get it regardless. So the choice isn't between doing your existing job for 30k or nothing for 25k, it's between doing your existing job for 55k or nothing for 25k.
Obviously it's not that simple, because the market will adjust salaries and what was a 30k job in the original context may be something else once things settle down, and of course the 25k is just a number - you hear lots of different baseline numbers being thrown around. But the gist is that the soon-to-be large class of unemployed and those in unskilled jobs that aren't replaced by automation aren't going to end up abjectly poor, and can live lives that are still very modest, yet nonetheless dignified.