The challenge for the future of work is not really about the quantity of jobs, but their quality, and whether they pay enough to provide a decent standard of living. In the US, ensuring that they do starts with raising the minimum wage and ensuring that other existing tools don't go unused.Pavlina needs to get in contact with Laura and set her straight.
Similarly, proposals in the United States for a federal jobs guarantee have been gaining momentum on the traditional left. But while such a program could employ millions of workers to deliver basic public services and rebuild and modernize the country’s dilapidated infrastructure, it is no more feasible than a UBI, given current federal budget constraints.BTW, government spending is now going full blast, deficit and debt be damned. What constraint?
But this is correct.
The challenge for the future of work is not really about the quantity of jobs, but their quality, and whether they will pay enough to provide a decent standard of living.Workers don't want "bullshit jobs" (ht David Graeber). They want good jobs.
Overall, it's a good article.
Project Syndicate
Universal Basic Income or Universal Living Wage?
Laura Tyson, Interim Dean, Distinguished Professor of the Graduate School
Faculty Director, Institute for Business & Social Impact, Haas Business and Public Policy Group at the University of California, Berkeley, and former chair of the US President's Council of Economic Advisers Group; and Lenny Mendonca, Chairman of New America, ands Senior Partner Emeritus at McKinsey & Company
Workers don't want "bullshit jobs" (ht David Graeber). They want good jobs. Tom Hickey
ReplyDeleteA job is under someone else's direction, i.e. wage slavery.
What workers want is the ability to work - and that requires such things as a place to work, tools, and sustenance.
So let's please quit conflating work with being a wage slave as if the former requires the latter. Otherwise, someone might suspect that Progressives are (gasp!) control freaks.
Not that I wouldn't like a good boss sometimes, but like Miltie said but didn't really mean, I'd like to be "free" (likewise with the boss) "to choose."
ReplyDeleteit [job guarantee] is no more feasible than a UBI, given current federal budget constraints.
ReplyDeleteAnd with the term "federal budget constraints", they undercut anything useful they might have had to say.
“Pavlina needs to get in contact with Laura and set her straight.”
ReplyDeleteOh yeah that’s going to happen...
Yeah, I said that tongue in cheek. Even if she did, would Laura pick up the phone?
ReplyDelete