Another question is “what counts as work? - What are they doing instead of work?”
Suppose a group of people are all given UBI. They all quit their job stacking shelves.
They go on to do the following instead.
start writing a novel
look after their children (instead of using a nursery)
look after their ageing parents (instead of a nursing home)
learn how to play the guitar
make their (publicly visible) garden a spectacular display of flowers.
take (unpaid) positions on the local community counsel and the school board of governors.
helping out at the local donkey sanctuary
getting themselves fit and healthy (exercise time +cooking healthy food time)
Their are a variety of tasks that are like this. Beneficial to society in some way, compared to sitting doing nothing. But not the prototypical concept of “work”.
I would expect a significant proportion of people on UBI to do something in this category.
Do we say that UBI is discouraging work, and that these people are having positive effects by not working? Do we say that they are now doing unpaid work?
Of course, the answer to these questions doesn’t change reality, only how we describe it.
Of course, for every person who spends their volunteering or gardening, there will be ten people who spend their time getting high, binge-drinking, watching TV, or playing videogames.
>getting themselves fit and healthy (exercise time +cooking healthy food time)
What is with this idea that you can’t be fit and healthy and have a job? A hour for exercise per day is plenty, half an hour for cooking. It’s not at all difficult to do that and have a job too.
Another question is “what counts as work? - What are they doing instead of work?”
Suppose a group of people are all given UBI. They all quit their job stacking shelves.
They go on to do the following instead.
start writing a novel
look after their children (instead of using a nursery)
look after their ageing parents (instead of a nursing home)
learn how to play the guitar
make their (publicly visible) garden a spectacular display of flowers.
take (unpaid) positions on the local community counsel and the school board of governors.
helping out at the local donkey sanctuary
getting themselves fit and healthy (exercise time +cooking healthy food time)
Their are a variety of tasks that are like this. Beneficial to society in some way, compared to sitting doing nothing. But not the prototypical concept of “work”.
I would expect a significant proportion of people on UBI to do something in this category.
Do we say that UBI is discouraging work, and that these people are having positive effects by not working? Do we say that they are now doing unpaid work?
Of course, the answer to these questions doesn’t change reality, only how we describe it.
Of course, for every person who spends their volunteering or gardening, there will be ten people who spend their time getting high, binge-drinking, watching TV, or playing videogames.
>getting themselves fit and healthy (exercise time +cooking healthy food time)
What is with this idea that you can’t be fit and healthy and have a job? A hour for exercise per day is plenty, half an hour for cooking. It’s not at all difficult to do that and have a job too.
I don’t have the idea that its impossible. There are plenty of healthy people with jobs.
The question is, how high is getting fit on the persons list of important things to do?
It depends how long the hours are, and commute, and other demands on time.
Most people who cook spend way more than half an hour a day cooking (and cleaning up afterwards, which has to be included).
More critically, spending 25% of your non-work/non-sleep time exercising is a very different proposition than spending < 10% of that time.