Will there now be opportunities for gig unionists?

Sir, Sarah O’Connor thinks the unions might have a good chance to adapt to the gig economy “Gig economy deals promise a brighter future for trade unions” February 27.

I am not so sure. There is a de facto class war in the real economy between those with jobs wanting better conditions and those just wanting a job. And that is what nourishes the gig economy.

Imposing on the gig economy benefits, is just like raising minimum wages, it just raises the bar for the offer of jobs. An unconditional universal basic income would instead provide a step stool to better reach up to whatever jobs are offered.

Of course those who benefit, politically or financially, from a conditional redistribution, or from negotiating on behalf of workers, do not like that option as it clearly erodes their job opportunities. 

How will unions handle it? I have no idea; perhaps there will be some gig unionists.

PS. In the same vein, perhaps Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a gig politician. We’ll see if she lands a second term. Having helped New York lose Amazon’s 25.000 well paying jobs does not bode well for here there. Perhaps she will get a call from another state.

PS. Amazon is one of those entities automating and robotizing the most. So it is a bit surprising to read that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez opines “We should not be haunted by the specter of being automated out of work. . . . We should be excited by that”

@PerKurowski

There's a new class war brewing, that between employed and unemployed.

Sarah O’Connor, discussing the challenges of the Gig economy writes, “Offering employment benefits to drivers might well help to snap up the best workers and hang on to them. But if customers were not to shoulder the cost, investors would have to.”“Uber and Lyft’s valuations expose the gig economy to fresh scrutiny” January 2.

Sir, to that we must add that if the investors were neither willing to shoulder that cost, then the gig workers would have to do so, or risk losing their job opportunities.

That conundrum illustrates clearly the need for an unconditional universal basic income. Increasing minimum wages or offering other kind of benefits only raises the bar at which jobs can be created, while an UBI works like a step stool making it easier for anyone to reach up to whatever jobs are available.

Sarah O’Connor also mentions how a collective agreement was negotiated between a Danish gig economy company and a union. Great, but let us not forget that in the brewing class-war between employed and unemployed, the unions only represent the employed… and we do need decent and worthy unemployments too, before social order breaks down.

PS. There's another not yet sufficiently recognized neo-class-war too. That between those who have houses as investment assets and those who want houses as homes.

@PerKurowski

We need worthy and decent unemployments

Sir, I refer to Martin Wolf’s “Work in the age of intelligent machines” June 27.

In 2012 (while I was still not censored in Venezuela) I wrote an Op-Ed titled “We need worthy and decent unemployments”. In it I held “The power of a nation, and the productivity of its economy, which so far has depended primarily on the quality of its employees may, in the future, also depend on the quality of its unemployed, as a minimum in the sense of these not interrupting those working.”

That is the reason why I am absolutely sure our societies have to start urgently, even if from a very low level, to implement an unconditional universal basic income (UBI).

And referring also to Sarah O’Connor’s “Minimum wage laws still fall short for those on the bottom” June 27, let me point out that while minimum wages raises the bar for the creation of jobs, UBI is a stepping stool that allows you to reach up to the mostly low paying jobs of the gig economy. 

PS. You want to increase the minimum wage $2 per hour? Better pay $2x40x4 $320 in universal basic income to all.

@PerKurowski

Universal Basic Income is to help you get out of bed, not to allow you stay in bed

Sir, Ian Goldin first introduces many valid reasons for why we need a Universal Basic Income. But then he writes: “As shown by the OECD, by reallocating welfare payments from targeted transfers (such as unemployment, disability or housing benefits) to a generalised transfer to everyone, the amount that goes to the most deserving is lower. Billionaires get a little more.” “Five reasons why universal basic income is a red herring” February12.

No way! I come from Venezuela. The poor their, got only a fraction, perhaps less than 15%, of what they should have gotten had only the oil revenues been shared out equally to all. Who got the most? The redistribution profiteers and their friends.

And clearly since it would reduce the value of their franchise, these profiteers are the ones who most set out to attack Universal Basic Income.

Goldin bombs UBI with:

“If UBI was set at a level to provide a modest but decent standard of living it would be unaffordable and lead to ballooning deficits”

“Delinking income and work, while rewarding people for staying at home, is what lies behind social decay.”

“UBI undermines incentives to participate”

But he also writes: “There must be more part-time work, shorter weeks, and rewards for home work, creative industries and social and individual care. Forget about UBI; to reverse rising inequality and social dislocation we need to radically change the way we think about income and work.”

And that is when I understand Goldin might not have understood where many of us want the UBI level to be. We want it set at a level that helps you to get out of bed, to reach up to the gig economy, but absolutely not at a level so high that it does allow you to stay in the bed.

@PerKurowski

Solving problems by raising taxes and having bureaucrats have a go at these, only risks to complicate matters further

Sir, Rana Foroohar writes: “College students who manage to graduate do so with the highest average levels of debt in the country, since state funding has been so dramatically cut over the past several years. Meanwhile, roughly half of the population has only a high-school degree, which guarantees them a $15-an-hour future.” “New Hampshire: a tale of two Americas” July 29., strangely in that FT’s Weekend Magazine I do not receive as a subscriber in Maryland, USA.

That begs two sets of questions: First, is not ample availability of student debt a much larger driver of high student debt than lack of state funding? Would university fees be nearly as high if these were not so easily financeable? Is not student debt a business driven more by financial profiteers than by pure educational considerations? If students already find it hard to repay their debt, is it logical for taxpayers to foot that same bill? In short should not higher education be reorganized more in terms of being joint ventures between students and universities?

Second, in these times of robots and automation, how on earth can Foroohar presuppose having more than a high school degree would guarantee the young a more than $15-an-hour future? And if she supports the idea of a $15 an hour minimum wage, what does she suggest to do with all those who with or without high school degree cannot reach up to that bar.

Sir, much of this easy talk of solving coming problems the usual statist way by raising taxes and having bureaucrats have a go at it, only risks to complicate matters much more. As a Venezuelan I know that to prevent social order from breaking down is always better than trying to reconstruct it. We are facing a new world, we now already need decent and worthy unemployments. A universal basic income, funded with real money, which provides a step stool to reach up to the gig economy, seems like the only real, peaceful tool at hands… though of course the redistribution profiteers hate it as it diminishes the value of their franchise.

Foroohar also writes: “My husband… employs cleaners, plumbers and tradesmen, some of whose parents worked in the same jobs for his mother. It’s hard not to think of this as a kind of neo-serfdom, given the lack of other options for those without a college degree.”

Well I am sure that there will come a day, quite soon, when many with a college degree will deeply envy the income of plumbers, especially if these are serving the one percenters.

PS. This article strangely appears only in that FT’s Weekend Magazine I do not receive as a subscriber in Maryland, USA.

@PerKurowski

The right of an unemployed to find a job, even if the job is not that satisfactory, does it not count for anything?

Sir, you agree with the “Taylor report” that in order to pay Uber drivers the statutory minimum wage entitlements, these should be paid with “adjusted piece-rates such that an employee working averagely hard earns at or above the minimum wage level”, “A judicious adjustment to the gig economy” July 12.

Really? Is that an incentive for an Uber driver to work more or less than average?

What will, what must happen, is that a lot of not really interested in earning a lot drivers will be asked by some out-of-workers-to-represent unionist, to sign up to Uber by those who want to earn more, so as to get those work averages down.

If any Uber driver works, and is not satisfied with his earnings, then he can always go and work someplace else for a minimum wage.

Sir, why do you agree with artificially raising the bar for people to reach up to the gig-economy? Is it not better to instead of raising minimum wages to start thinking about implementing a universal basic income that could function as a convenient step stool to help people reach up to the gig-economy?

When are you to wake up to the fact that as much as we need to think about the rights of the employed, we must think of the rights of the unemployed to at least work somehow?

Does it really have to be all or nothing? Don’t forget that besides jobs we will also need worthy and decent full or partial unemployments.

Sir look around, have you not noticed that many of those who would not use regular taxies, are now calling up Uber drivers? Does that not mean anything? You really want us to go back to how it was?

@PerKurowski

Church organists, lapdancers, Uber drivers. What follows? Some Prime Ministry gigs?

Sir, in this day with so much dourness, it really brightens up the day to read such a solid British humored phrase as Sarah O’Connor’s: “Does Britain really want to be a country that defines its chocolate gingerbread men more carefully than its 32m-strong workforce? “Blurred job definitions serve nobody’s interest” June 28

What fun article. Many thanks. As I see it Sarah, or Ms. O’Connor, I am not sure on how to refer to her, could be greatly qualified to console us FT’s readers after the announced retirement of that equally good-humored gem that is Lucy Kellaway.

Now when she writes: “Before Uber drivers were compared with lapdancers, those lapdancers were compared with church organists” might she be implying a strange progression into a sort of underworld? If that’s the case, it would be interesting to hear what she believes could come after Uber drivers. Perhaps some Prime Ministry gigs?

But down to the business of the blurriness of definitions: To me, if you work when you want you work, in such a way you want to work, and nobody but you impose some specific targets that need to be achieved, then you work for yourself. If you work when someone else wants it, according to some imposed unnatural standards, or you must meet some clearly specified work targets, then you are an employee.

By the way, does Uber require any minimum number of drives per month?

PS. But what we most might need, is decent and worthy unemployments

@PerKurowski

If Uber drivers are considered workers, are not driverless cars, or robots, workers too, to be taxed accordingly?

Sir, Sarah O’Connor, Jane Croft and Madhumita Murgia report on how “Uber drivers in the UK have won a crucial legal battle with a tribunal ruling they are “workers” entitled to the minimum wage and holiday pay.” “British court rules Uber drivers are ‘workers’ in setback for ‘gig economy’” October 29.

Yes, but if so, why are not those driverless cars that are expected to soon be supplanting all drivers not considered workers too?

Sir, as I have written to you before, if we do not tax what will represent lost work opportunities for humans, something’s going to have to give.

I have nothing against artificial intelligence or robots replacing human workers. That’s great, that will leave us humans much more time to enjoy life. But our non-human replacement workers need to be taxed too; and all those tax revenues re-distributed to all of us humans, by means of Universal Basic Income. That so that we humans will be able to afford enjoying all our additional spare time.

And it is all a case of simple justice. If a company does not employ me because of the payroll taxes I generate for him, should not my robotic substitute be charged with those same taxes?

And a Universal Basic Income would make it so much easier for all us humans to adapt to the gig-economy… we would not have to work 16 hours a day to make a living, perhaps 4 hors would do.

PS. I pray for my grandchildren not having to live surrounded by dumb artificial intelligence and lousy 2nd class robots  

@PerKurowski ©

Let a Universal Basic Income empower and help make something reasonable, or even something really good, out of the gig economy

Sir, Sarah O’Connor writes that “A fierce debate has broken out this year about the dangers and opportunities of a world where more workers are cobbling together an income through independent “gigs” rather than relying on traditional employee jobs.” “At least fifth of European and US workers in ‘gig economy’” October 10.

Come what may, I am sure that both the debate, and the reality of the “gig economy”, would be quite different depending on whether a Universal Basic Income exists or not.

It would be a stepping ladder for all to reach up easier to that economy.

Again when I mention UBI it is always with special emphasis on the “Basic”

Again when I mention UBI it is always paid with real money, no funny inflationary money.

Again when I mention UBI, I know that the redistribution profiteers are going to be very pissed off.

Here some thoughts on how to go about it

@PerKurowski ©