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Originally Posted by PepsiFree
Could this be considered a problem that we should be looking to solve, and that UBI could provide a solution for? If UBI makes the absolute worst, low paying jobs undesirable, then either innovation or a change in compensation would have to occur to ensure those jobs still get done. I don't see big innovations coming in the realm of toilet cleaning, but shouldn't compensation actually reflect the true value of the work and match the desirability of the position? Instead of continually allowing certain jobs to exist almost solely based on the fact that they take advantage of the basic need to survive, shouldn't we expect the compensation to match the job?
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For some positions, yes. We need toilets cleaned, so pay people who clean toilets more.
But lot of jobs are in a grey area, including many that are typically performed by part-time or seasonal employees. If we pay restaurant busboys* enough to earn a living wage, maybe restauarants just stop employing busboys. If we pay everyone on a landscaping crew enough to live independently, and that means it costs $250 to have a spring yard cleanup and fertilizer done instead of $150, then maybe a lot fewer people get their lawn cleaned up and half the landscaping companies go out of business, along with those jobs.
In some cases raising the floor doesn't make the lower rungs of the employment ladder more secure and rewarding - it's removes the rungs (and in some cases entire businesses) altogether. A society where only well-paying, 40hr week job existed would look dramatically different than the society we have now, in ways that aren't obvious. You can expect chronically high youth unemployment, for starters.
* My first real job was as a busboy at the Glencoe Club when I was 16. I worked about 12-16 hours a week, which was enough for a bit of spending money. A UBI makes jobs like that extremely unattractive. But the banquet hall didn't need 6 full-time employees, it needed 10 part-time ones because all of the work was on Sat nights and Sunday days.