Universal Basic Income

[wufwugy]

I know wuf thinks that new sectors will emerge that require low skilled labor. I don't see how. We'll know for sure in 10-20 years I guess.

Nobody does. It happening is so far as reliable as the sun rising, so we expect it to continue. However, that doesn't mean it will always happen. In fact it probably won't always happen, though that doesn't mean that it not happening will be predictable.

And even then, UBI/welfare has a few premise flaws: (1) in a scenario in which they are "needed", they are actually not needed, and (2) they would make the problem worse anyways.


Question: do you think minimum wage is a way to tackle unemployment?

[oskar]

Question: do you think minimum wage is a way to tackle unemployment?

It demonstrably is not. I don't think we disagree on that. It's welfare with occupational therapy.

[wufwugy]

It gets to this question: how do you valuate a refrigerator in an absolute sense? We have a VERY robust way to valuate refrigerators in a relative sense (the price system / market transactions). But in absolute terms, where do we even start? There was once a time when only the extreme rich lived a refrigerator quality life, yet today the poorest people in the West take the refrigerator quality life for granted.

That people still look at the contemporary poor -- that are incredibly rich in absolute terms -- as poor, exemplifies the other problem I mentioned, that perceptions don't change linearly as "stuff" changes.

[MadMojoMonkey]

It gets to this question: how do you valuate a refrigerator in an absolute sense?

Thermodynamics.


Seriously, though.
The benefits of having a fridge will vary widely based on geography and food availability.

Your greater point is good, though. People want to have roughly commensurate stuff as the people near them. All of which is ambiguously defined.
Value is by and large determined on an individual basis, but all those individual choices add up to a societal norm.

The value of the norm is probably moot. The existence of norms is all that matters, the specifics of those norms is unimportant.
I.e. if people shunned refrigerators in favor of personal, indoor greenhouses which produce fresh food on a regular basis without the need for cold storage, that could probably work out just fine. People just need to commit to it and develop the societal norms which support it.

[OngBonga]

I need a constant supply of cold milk. My fridge is extremely valuable to me.

That said, I think I paid £20 for it.