Posted on by Art Powell

As an alternative to a basic income scheme a commentator on Medium is proposing universal guaranteed work. This writer has put a lot of thought into his proposal and deserves to have it given some consideration. I have a strong commitment to a guaranteed income scheme and I have some heavy-duty concerns about his work plan.

My first concern is a belief that we do not have enough energy and mineral resources to provide employment for all the people who inhabit this planet. There are still lots of resources but we have cherry picked the most accessible and those which are left will require lots of inexpensive energy to extract. Even if the cost of solar energy continues to drop there may not be enough other resources to maintain the economic growth required to provide work for everyone. Topsoil is a major resource which may deteriorate and restrict growth.

The proposal for guaranteed work is probably based on a belief in economic growth and a long tradition that people must “do their share” and work to support themselves. It may be that some people see a basic income scheme as a way of distributing goods and services rather than as an economic necessity.

Technology has been changing our economy at least since an ancient farmer discovered he could increase his production by using a horse with a collar instead of an ox with harnesses. This development and all those that followed allowed fewer people to work the land and more people to do other things such as fight and prey. (In medieval times there were three classes of people – those who prayed, those who fought and those who worked to support the first two.) My professor of European economic history spent a lot of time talking about agricultural developments which increased productivity.

Modern technology is an extension of this trend releasing more people to do things other than work to provide food and shelter. A major question is what is this free time going to be used for. There are many choices beyond preying and fighting including making more electronic gadgets and performing or listening to music. Another question is who is going to make the decision about what to do with this time. I believe individuals should be able to make the decisions for themselves.

My third concern is that a guaranteed work scheme is a continuation of the work ethic which allows a few people to tell the rest of us what to do. We should consider the agricultural surplus and the benefits of technology an inheritance for all of us rather than a right which can be expropriated by a few. We should be able to decide for ourselves what we want to do with the free time we have inherited from our ancestors. That could be drinking beer or creating great works of art. Who is to say one activity is better than another? We need a leisure ethic rather than a work ethic.

Sadly there are some people who feel they should be able to tell others how to live their lives. A universal guaranteed work scheme is an open invitation to these people to practice this dark business.

Our civilization has to deal with some serious economic problems. I fear the work program as proposed would make a lot of those problems even worse. A guaranteed income program would not be enough to solve all the problems but it would be a start and needs a lot more thought.

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Filed under: Economics | Tagged: basic income, Economics, employment, energy, leisure, minerals, resources, technology, topsoil, universal guaranteed work, work, work ethic |