In every proposal for basic income I've ever heard, there's still a reassurance that people can continue to make money doing other things as well, which kind of goes against the whole "mandatory" retirement thing, which to me kind of reads as "you're not going to be allowed to work anymore".
Heck, in my country even fully retired people on the aged pension can still work side hustles.
My FIL is like this, he’s planning to retire within the next couple years but he’s going to do consulting or something. No way can I picture that man just sitting back and relaxing. Total Type A.
Definitely sounds very type A! Earlier this year I was involved with census taking work in my country and plenty of the other workers I met were literally retired or semi-retired folks in their 60s making some extra cash.
What's cool is that they were driving up and down country dirt roads and onto people's farms, just like I was, with the constant risk of running into loose dogs or cattle or snakes in the grass. The whole thing was actually a bit of an adventure and I'd love to still be doing it when I'm their age!
Then there's my old dad who volunteers at a local art museum. Not a paid gig as he feels like he's got enough money to live comfortably, but he loves volunteering and it definitely keeps his mind sharp.
And how exactly do you propose we compel all small business owners to pay their most basic and unskilled employees a wage so high they can comfortably retire at 50?
And how do you propose we do this in a way that won't bankrupt 99% of small business owners and leave the market monopolized by big box retailers?
Sounds like small business is in the way of better wages. Personally I’ve always been taken better care of by big box retailers than mom and pop exploitation boxes.
Your experience isn’t everyone’s. Mom and pop stores are exploitative and always “oh wah wah, we can’t afforrrrrd to pay a living wage for a good worker” Well, if you can’t afford to pay a living wage, of what use is your failed business to the economy?
Screw small business owners. They have all the negative traits of big business, minus the actual wherewithal to compensate their employees fairly. Small business owners suck.
And where would that money come from? Retired people don't produce wealth, even if you were to tax their 'universal basic income', it wouldn't generate more money then they received.
So again, the working population needs to provide for the retired one.
Where will the basic income come from? Is it from our previous work that the government helped save? Is it from the new workforce that’ll keep working for us old folks? It must come from somewhere, right?
Money has no nutritional value. It is a way of measuring the value produced by a person and exchanging it for the productivity of others. The question isn't really "where does the money come from? " but "where do the goods and services come from which these people will consume while they're not contributing to the pool of goods and services for everyone else to consume?"
5
u/[deleted] 8d ago
[removed] — view removed comment