The most efficient way for governments to do this is by the mechanism of a universal basic income, a guaranteed wage for everyone, that not only provides a financial floor below which no one can fall, but allows us to redefine the sort of work we do and find meaningful.
Policy solutions like a higher minimum wage, universal basic income and others that give consumers means to access all these cheap goods will likely become more and more important.
The idea of a social wage or universal basic income (UBI) has been around for some time, as he points out.
This issue is equally significant to the costs of the universal basic income as the idea that wage work should be the aim of all working-age people is deeply ingrained in cultural and political life, and has been used to justify cuts to out-of-work benefits that are currently doing so much harm in Britain.
But this will require subsidies from the state; in the form of wage top-ups, perhaps, or a universal basic income.Why are subsidies necessary now when they weren't a century ago, when rising productivity was allowing workers to work less but still earn a good living via a market wage?
Without either a massive increase in the minimum wage or something more radical like a guaranteed universal basic income, no one could afford to work Trumpian hours.
In recognition of the fact that work is becoming an increasingly unreliable source of income and security, we also need to seriously consider proposals to delink work from wages – an idea being explored in the resurgent discussion around a universal basic income.
We should also be supporting campaigns that may not sound like climate solutions at first, but which build local community power and control, such as campaigns for livable wages, service-industry unions, dismantling the school to prison pipeline, and universal basic incomes.
Universal basic income, anyone?
