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Originally Posted by Undertoad
Culture is such a predominant factor in economics that systems that work in one place won't necessarily work elsewhere.
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Totally agree. There is no one size fits all solution to social and economic inequality and distress. I can't see a system like that working in the UK or US (much as the hippy socialist in me likes it as a concept). But it's a genuinely interesting and fresh approach and it takes a special kind of political and cultural bravery to try something like that. I hope it works out for them. I think it is of benefit to our world for there to be more options than a choice between two fundamentally opposed basic economic models.
Quote:
Originally Posted by glatt
So I have a cousin who is mentally retarded. She's an adult and has a part time job sorting newspaper clippings at the historical society. She makes minimum wage. It's some sort of program she's in where she has a job provided to her. She lives in a small apartment by herself. She has a case worker who checks in on her. There's a support group she belongs to and they get together to go bowling and stuff. I honestly don't know if she prepares her own food or if it's delivered in a meals on wheels type of program. I can't imagine her having the skills to cook.
She has a legitimate disability that prevents her from living a life like yours or mine. The government supports her.
Finland's experiment is interesting, but my cousin would not survive on $10k per year plus her part time minimum wage job, and she's not capable of taking on more.
I think society is always going to have people who simply can't fend for themselves and we need to take care of them.
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I also agree with this. But that actually is perfectly in tune with the theory of a flat wage for all supplemented by work. Because what that says is that there will always be a basic level of support, even if you choose not to work and participate in the wider economy and work becomes the thing you do to improve your lifestyle. People will still, as now, have to make decisions between a poorer life with more free time, or more family time, and a more affluent life with some of that sacrificed. But it is choice - just as the choice to have a large or small family. For those who are unable to participate, through ill-health or disability - for whom it is not a choice, then the state should stand as their participation.