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If there are going to be too few jobs and many of them fulfil little and pay badly. If we could reduce the working week there would be more jobs but how to ensure people can still earn enough for reasonable lives and enable the use of their spare time to undertake fulfilling activities?
Using moralomics we could consider the impact of a state income or dividend, one payable to everyone and just enough to live on could form part of the answer. As long as it wasn’t too much nor too little it would enable people to take time out to retrain, re-educate to start a new business or life skill, work in a charity shop or care home. If they wanted to move from nursing to consultancy they could use the money to retrain and work their way up through the ranks. To afford this would require a source of national income or dividend or both. But the reduction in benefit costs would help hugely. An example could be via a national wealth fund (profits from state businesses and resources, many countries have funds like this) and probably taxes on higher earners. This basic dividend should be earned by all so there is no disincentive to upskill, upskilling is of course adding to national wealth (human resource).
This approach would also have to look at the minimum wage and working week. Perhaps the working week should be limited to a 20 hours except for key workers e.g. directors. Or to enable freedom of choice, maybe taxes are lower for the first 20 hours worked and then ramp up dramatically but still allowing people to work 37 hours or more. Such a reduction would create more demand for workers and so change the wage bargaining dynamics too. If people have had the opportunity to upskill then some will be in the market for higher rates anyway. Regarding the minimum wage, an example could be that “for profit” companies, the state, presumably universities etc would pay a living wage or more recalculated on a reduced working week plus the national dividend we would all receive. Those wishing to work for 20 hours can then spend the rest of the week in leisure or working in a charity or “not for profit” organisation sometimes called the third sector or one could earn money, or not, creating art, jewellery or other things, here wage levels might be unregulated but there could be no income tax up to a level.
Volunteering is unpaid but wages in the “third sector” could be as low as one pound an hour but people do it for their sense of self-worth, the money is just a top up, they live on the national dividend and the twenty hours paid at a living wage.
So by splitting the problem up; the need for self-worth (creating national wealth) and earning enough money to live on, we have come up with an approach that might reduce the harmful side effects from the current method of managing wages. Is this cloud cuckoo land? You judge; many trials are occurring on universal income as you read this, Finland, Holland even Glasgow is to give it a go. Moralomics though, enables the joined up thinking needed to adjust other aspects of the wage economy including tax.
And what next?
I’ll let you know via Twitter. Follow @SageAndOnion. We are building an economic model with morality called moralomics to provision for society’s needs and wants. Food, wages and self worth done….so what next?
by Clive Stevens March 5th 2017 Back to applications page
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