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Niklas
2018-10-03 16:07

What if you received a salary without work

Image 1. Click to open in original size.

Imagine that every month someone put money into your bank account. Not a lot of money, but so that you could get by. There would be no strings attached, except that you could not earn any money yourself. If you earned money, the amount you made would be deducted from the sum going into your account.

Think of this situation. What would you do if you got a low but livable ”salary” without working? How would it change your life? What would you do differently? What do you think most people would do if they landed in this situation?

(Photo by Mathieu Turle at Unsplash)


Best regards, Niklas 🎈

Annons:
Tammie
2018-11-11 17:42
#1

I like the freedom of changing my standard of living through work. In a way, this system would penalize me for working. However, as I age, my opinion would change. Because, as I age, my lifestyle changes and life becomes more about looking towards retirement.

Happy creating!

Tammie

Host of Paints and Crafts

Niklas
2018-11-12 12:17
#2

#1: The argument that a system like this penalizes those who work, can be viewed the other way too. If your ability to work goes down, or if if you lose your job, it would function as a parachute that keeps you from crashing into the ground. It would give everyone a basic economic safety net. Everyone who works would still be better off continuing to do that.


Best regards, Niklas 🎈

Maleficum
2018-12-07 21:54
#3

For me, with no income at all because of sickness, it would make my life so much easier and a lot less stressful!

Deviantart, photos, drawing and paintings.

Niklas
2018-12-08 11:08
#4

#3: Yes, that would be an important part of this. Those who didn't want, or couldn't, work, wouldn't have to be ashamed of it. Someone recently said that the Swedish welfare system cost about as much as they give out. So just handing out the money would save a lot, but it would take a significant change in mindset among the population.


Best regards, Niklas 🎈

Max
2019-01-14 07:53
#5

The social wage has been kicked around quite a bit recently as a possible solution to the winner takes all element of the digital economy. We are moving in that direction anyhow with fairly generous social benefits in many Western countries. Even in poorer countries such as here in the Philippines where there are practically no government handouts the large families provide something akin to that. Usually people are part of a family and can rely on someone to make sure they don't starve at least. Though economies such as US and UK sm currently have historically low levels of unemployment technology and globalisation looks set to all many people's current jobs to ve done cheaper by robots or in developing countries. A transition to a more leasure focused economy seems probable. It may well come to this. My preference, in the interim, would be for the Government to facilitate more goods with zero or very low marginal costs to be priced at zero,where this can be done without undermining the incentive for production.

Evelina
2019-02-02 21:47
#6

#0 An argument for this can definitely be made in light of the 'zero growth' argument which says that developed (really all) economies need to stop growing their economies due to the  environmental limitations of capitalism. Here is a link to an article: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/01/could-we-live-in-a-zero-growth-society/. 

Society would be more co-opt, sharing, and collective based. Of course, there are people who say this is only a new form of communism. 

I think it is an interesting argument but I haven't researched it personally, only discussed it a bit in seminars at uni. 

For me personally, since I have a chronic pain condition, this would definitely Help me feel better as stress provokes the frequency and intensity of the pain. 

I also think it would change society's value of consumerism and use of social media.

Annons:
Max
2019-02-03 04:36
#7

My guess is that ultimately this is the way society will pan out. We are partly there alreasy in the West with benefits system stopping people descending into absolute poverty

Niklas
2019-02-04 10:42
#8

I believe we will eventually be forced into a zero or negative growth society. Without it, I think humanity is likely to destroy or largely decimate itself. I don't see zero growth as a bad thing in itself. It’s ridiculous the way we are programmed to always go bigger for no good reason. Why would we need larger homes, when our families aren’t growing? It just makes us lonelier. I am sure the optimum personal space for humans isn’t 50 ㎡ per person and there is no economy in building that large. It’s just that we are programmed by our culture that going bigger is the way to experience and express happiness.


Best regards, Niklas 🎈

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