<story><title>A Basic Income Is Smarter Than a Minimum Wage</title><url>http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2016-04-01/a-basic-income-is-smarter-than-minimum-wages</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>QuotedForTruth</author><text>The counter argument is that human labor has an actual cost.  That is the cost to keep a human alive and in some level of comfort.  Government benefits of many different types have &amp;quot;artificially&amp;quot; lowered this cost.  Where employees refuse to pay enough for a human to live on, the government picks up the slack. Raising the minimum wage may be &amp;quot;artificial,&amp;quot; but its not the first control placed on some otherwise natural labor market.</text></item><item><author>kough</author><text>&amp;gt; No one wants to hire them at a high minimum wage, especially when locals are readily available&lt;p&gt;The main drawback to a minimum wage is that it artificially increases the cost of labor, to the point where it&amp;#x27;s no longer worth it to an employer to hire a low-output employee. I think we&amp;#x27;d all agree that increasing employment is a good goal, but an increased minimum wage actually hinders progress on that front. As the minimum wage increases, robots and other non-human investments start to look much, much more attractive. Many businesses would be happy to hire workers for less than minimum wage, but legally cannot, and so do not hire.&lt;p&gt;Of course, it&amp;#x27;s a complicated issue. Look at the employment of those with disabilities like Down Syndrome [0], for example. Are these employees worth hiring at $7.50&amp;#x2F;hour? No, for the most part, they&amp;#x27;re not. Are some? Sure, but on average there&amp;#x27;s no way. But are they worth hiring at $2.00&amp;#x2F;hour? Yes, and they and their families are willing for them to work at that wage, because there are huge benefits to being productively employed.&lt;p&gt;Recently these programs are coming &amp;quot;under attack&amp;quot; in various states. New Hampshire just made this practice illegal, for example [1]. We&amp;#x27;ll see how it plays out -- my bet is that a) few news outlets will follow up in a few years and see how many of these disabled workers are able to find new employment, and b) few disabled workers will be able to do so.&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.witf.org&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;2014&amp;#x2F;07&amp;#x2F;thousands-of-disabled-workers-in-pa-paid-far-below-minimum-wage.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.witf.org&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;2014&amp;#x2F;07&amp;#x2F;thousands-of-disabled-worke...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.care2.com&amp;#x2F;causes&amp;#x2F;new-hampshire-bans-subminimum-wage-for-people-with-disabilities.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.care2.com&amp;#x2F;causes&amp;#x2F;new-hampshire-bans-subminimum-wa...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dredmorbius</author><text>Read Smith.  &amp;quot;A man must always live by his work, and his wages must at least be sufficient to maintain him.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.m.wikisource.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;The_Wealth_of_Nations&amp;#x2F;Book_I&amp;#x2F;Chapter_8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.m.wikisource.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;The_Wealth_of_Nations&amp;#x2F;Book_...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;An enterprise which cannot pay the full cost of its inputs isn&amp;#x27;t an economically viable activity.  It&amp;#x27;s a charity benefiting its owner.</text></comment>
<story><title>A Basic Income Is Smarter Than a Minimum Wage</title><url>http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2016-04-01/a-basic-income-is-smarter-than-minimum-wages</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>QuotedForTruth</author><text>The counter argument is that human labor has an actual cost.  That is the cost to keep a human alive and in some level of comfort.  Government benefits of many different types have &amp;quot;artificially&amp;quot; lowered this cost.  Where employees refuse to pay enough for a human to live on, the government picks up the slack. Raising the minimum wage may be &amp;quot;artificial,&amp;quot; but its not the first control placed on some otherwise natural labor market.</text></item><item><author>kough</author><text>&amp;gt; No one wants to hire them at a high minimum wage, especially when locals are readily available&lt;p&gt;The main drawback to a minimum wage is that it artificially increases the cost of labor, to the point where it&amp;#x27;s no longer worth it to an employer to hire a low-output employee. I think we&amp;#x27;d all agree that increasing employment is a good goal, but an increased minimum wage actually hinders progress on that front. As the minimum wage increases, robots and other non-human investments start to look much, much more attractive. Many businesses would be happy to hire workers for less than minimum wage, but legally cannot, and so do not hire.&lt;p&gt;Of course, it&amp;#x27;s a complicated issue. Look at the employment of those with disabilities like Down Syndrome [0], for example. Are these employees worth hiring at $7.50&amp;#x2F;hour? No, for the most part, they&amp;#x27;re not. Are some? Sure, but on average there&amp;#x27;s no way. But are they worth hiring at $2.00&amp;#x2F;hour? Yes, and they and their families are willing for them to work at that wage, because there are huge benefits to being productively employed.&lt;p&gt;Recently these programs are coming &amp;quot;under attack&amp;quot; in various states. New Hampshire just made this practice illegal, for example [1]. We&amp;#x27;ll see how it plays out -- my bet is that a) few news outlets will follow up in a few years and see how many of these disabled workers are able to find new employment, and b) few disabled workers will be able to do so.&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.witf.org&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;2014&amp;#x2F;07&amp;#x2F;thousands-of-disabled-workers-in-pa-paid-far-below-minimum-wage.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.witf.org&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;2014&amp;#x2F;07&amp;#x2F;thousands-of-disabled-worke...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.care2.com&amp;#x2F;causes&amp;#x2F;new-hampshire-bans-subminimum-wage-for-people-with-disabilities.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.care2.com&amp;#x2F;causes&amp;#x2F;new-hampshire-bans-subminimum-wa...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>RyanZAG</author><text>Sure, but it&amp;#x27;s a low paying job vs no job.&lt;p&gt;Minimum wage is stupid - if you need people to get a higher income than the value they can output, you need to supply that additional income through social grants. Forcing them out of work by allowing robots to undercut them is idiotic when they are willing to work.</text></comment>