Comment on Minimum Wage Must Cover Basics
SabinStargem@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
I think minimum wage isn’t sufficient. Inflation will keep striking, employers will continue wage theft and abuse, billionaires will keep engineering laws that benefit them at the expense of all others.
Replacing the entire economic system outright is the true minimum. At best, minimum wage alone is just a tiny bandaid covering a spurting stump. To save society, abandoning capitalist tradition is key.
Couldbealeotard@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yep, it’s a treadmill. Raise wages and cost of living will rise to meet it. That’s why I’m not convinced a UBI on it’s own will be helpful. You need to find a way to govern end costs; but how you do that I have no idea.
SabinStargem@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
Personally, I think the key is to create an income bottleneck: Each type of job falls into a rank, each rank giving a fixed income each year. Rank of a job type is determined by the effort, risk, and knowledge required. So a migrant working the fields, gets higher pay than a waiter, because that involves effort and possible damage from being out in bad conditions. There are only 7 or so job ranks. By limiting incomes, we also fight inflation, because sellers have to work within predictable income bands.
Rank 0 is UBI of $10,000 for citizens, which is replaced by job income if a citizen gets a standard job - but schooling grades adds to their pool. Jobs give more money than UBI. Students are payed $2,000 to $10,000, depending on their grades. Waiters and other basic roles get $20,000. $20,000 for managers, cops, and the like. $40,000 for produce pickers, delivery drivers, and soldiers in safe conditions. $60,000 for regular teachers, doctors, and researchers. $80k for fire fighters, ambulance drivers, and so forth. $100k for surgeons, university-grade researchers, and astronauts.
Workers vote for their leaders within their unit and for leaders above their unit. They determine who gets to lead, and sets their pay rank every 3 months. This makes it harder for leaders to get entrenched and abuse workers.
I have more thoughts on this sort of thing, but the key thing is to seriously limit the power and authority of individuals: Limit total incomes each year to a hard cap, absolute limits on wealth and assets, guarantee universal services that allows people to quit and avoid bad jobs without risking their wellbeing. Free universal healthcare, basic food, generic goods, and basic shelter with internet, all of these freely given without means testing. Migrants also get universal services. The government gets the bulk of taxes from companies, and assigns a rotation of book-keepers from the state and federal government to ensure that companies aren’t lying.
The free stuff provided by the government also grease the wheels of genuine capitalism - paid goods and services have to be better than the universal items, else they won’t sell. That helps against inflation, since the government is basically setting the base price of things.
Couldbealeotard@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
So then what do you do with all the extra money made by independent salesman? Already people cook books in order not to declare some if their income. Plus there are so many self employed professions that make money based on how much work they do, how do you scale them when their work might be seasonal or not a regular income?
Or do the ranked salaries only apply to certain sectors?
SabinStargem@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
People who do personal work or have income from a product, has their income passed through the hands of the government. They, like the highest ranked profession, have a $100,000 income cap each year. The government extracts the taxes and takes any amount of money that is over the $100k limit, be the source from creative works, personal sales, or stock dividends.
As to seasonal workers, one idea is that government enforces a contract. The worker actually has two jobs - during the seasonal work, they do the job for one of two employers. Off season, they work for some other job sector, such as a warehouse. Employers for each respective season pay for the worker jointly. A seasonal employer is obligated to partner with an off-season employer before they can offer jobs. Failure of joint job offers, means that the government will prevent the two employers from hiring anyone. In turn, the government can drop the hammer if the employers are hiring people and making money off the books. In the event that a seasonal worker is prevented from doing their second job, the government pays for an income that is equal to the worker’s first seasonal job if it was full time. This gives the government more incentive to keep employers on the level.
The implication here, is that government controls hiring practices. Abuse like ghost jobs exist, because employers dictate the terms of the proverbial battlefield. Employers in our current society create tests, scheduling requirements, enforce non-DEI policies, do nepotism, and so forth. I think that government should be the clearinghouse for employer, containing the resumes of employee and determining whether the employer is offering jobs in good faith. Positions for jobs are publicly posted, and workers can send a universal resume to the government that can be used for any position. If there are missing details, the worker can have their resume expanded and clarified, replacing their old resume.