RE: The alternative to the living wage.
May 14, 2014 at 11:30 pm
(This post was last modified: May 14, 2014 at 11:48 pm by Heywood.)
(May 14, 2014 at 10:59 pm)KUSA Wrote: I think you would find a lot of lazy fucks that would choose this spartan lifestyle. They would also sell dope on the side and drive a better car than I drive. The whole time my money is being stolen from me to fund this. Fuck that shit. We aren't living in star trek times far from it actually. Your idea is awful.
I say do away with any form of income tax for everyone. Go to a sales based tax system.
1) A good drug dealer probably already drives a better car then you.
2)Tax evasion happens now and is an artifact of any income tax based system. You think waitress don't under report their tip income?
3)The number of people who opt out of work would depend on how comfortable that spartan life style is. How comfortable the "free" lifestyle is would depend on the production capacity of society.
This is the type of system needed to transition into "Star Trek" times and is certainly better than the one we got. We pay legions of bureaucrats telling those too lazy to work or those who cannot work how to spend wealth we take from you and give to them. People use food stamps to buy Red Bull energy drinks because the government forbids them from spending that wealth on diapers(or something else they need). This type of system preserves individual freedom while we transition into "Star Trek" times.
(May 14, 2014 at 11:01 pm)Minimalist Wrote: The universal basic income is an interesting concept - especially as we are developing a society which simply cannot create enough jobs for every one who wants one.
Jobs do not make people lives better. Goods and services make people's lives better. If we want to make jobs, give the unemployed spoons and have them dig a canal. If you want to irrigate farmland to produce food to feed the hungry employ a steam shovel.
Get rid of welfare, get rid of social security, get rid of housing assistance, get rid of unemployment compensation, get rid of heating assistance, get rid of college tuition assistance, get rid of food stamps, get rid of telephone assistance, and the whole host of other programs. Make so nobody's labor is ever priced out of the market. Make it so nobody has to worry about catastrophe if they quit a job they don't like. This is much better than the bonds of a "living wage" system.
Ryantology (╯°◊°)╯︵ ══╬ Wrote: I'm talking about the other things employers do to screw people over for their own advantage, such as ruining the environment, damaging the economy, and subverting the democratic process. Making it so that they can be less exploitative of their workers is just one role of regulation.
These are called negative externalities and there are ways to eliminate or minimize them.
