Jorge Drescher of Kyiv, Ukraine has written two thought-provoking articles posing conceptual issues related to wages, work, and basic income.
The first article “Wage Negotiation — Observed by a Third Party”, raises a number of doubts concerning the process by which wages are set. “Consent is present. But is freedom?” Is it just? How would the wage negotiation have proceeded if the employee had a Universal Basic Income? Drescher sugests “Perhaps we need to rethink negotiations altogether: not as a game of asymmetric information, but as an encounter on equal footing. As a dialogue that doesn’t just ask, What are you worth? but: What do you need to be free?“
In the second article, “When Income from Work Becomes a Structural Problem”, Drescher argues that the “primary” form of work is undertaken to satisfy basic needs of existence. But when basic needs are satisfied, people undertake more meaningful activity: “cultural, symbolic, identity-forming.” Income, like work, is a socially constructed phenomenon. “Therefore, the social question is not: How do we enable someone without income to earn money through work? But rather: How do we ensure that all people can live in dignity and security, regardless of their economic utility?” The first step toward answering this question is establishing a UBI, a social dividend that enables freedom.
To read”Wage Negotiation — Observed by a Third Party” click here.
To read “When Income from Work Becomes a Structural Problem” click here.
