Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
If people have to adapt etc etc why does the Government not just stop telling people to ‘embrace automation’ blah blah blah and actually help people adapt to the way the economy is changing. Because a lot of people are extremely anxious about their futures and that of their families. If people have no job security because they are not entitled to job security in the “new economy” there is no way they can demand decent wage increases. So people’s incomes will go down and down and down. Or you have decent trade unions who can use collective bargaining. Precisely the institutions that this Government is trying to destroy.
This is actually where Universal Basic Income would make a difference. If you remove the *need* to work if you're happy living a very basic life[1], working much more flexibly becomes viable. Essentially, move the protections from employer to state.
I actually quite fancy the idea of doing "gig" economy and contract type work with a safety net like that.
[1] It should be enough to have a roof over your head (nothing fancy; a rented room for a single person, a small one bedroom flat for a couple etc) and to eat basic but healthy food cooked at home, and to clothe yourself in basic but acceptable clothes. Nothing more than that (no car, no foreign holidays, no satellite television etc), but equally nothing less.