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by supportlocal4h 2108 days ago
Let's say I work for a drywaller. One day my boss has me working on a wall 20 feet up with no harness on a rickety old scaffold. This isn't normal, it's just the weird conditions on this one site.

I can refuse because I know if I get fired over it, there's always UBI? And UBI will also abate my fear that I'll be blacklisted from getting another drywall job? Or even a painting job. Or really any labor job ever again.

That's the kind of UBI that would be abused in exactly the way its opponents predict.
2 comments
cortesoft 2107 days ago
I missed the last part when I first read this - I am confused as to what you mean; how is this example an abuse of UBI?
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cortesoft 2108 days ago
I don't consider safety regulations to be in the same category as the employee/contractor distinction. I do think there are some safety things we should not be able to freely give up.
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supportlocal4h 2108 days ago
If you require certain safety or other guarantees from employers, but allow someone to arbitrarily just say, "but I'm not an employer", what have you accomplished? They are absolutely connected.

But this specific issue is whether you can avoid micro management legalization by providing a social safety net. I don't dismiss the idea out of hand, but I do have some questions. It's the perfect topic to explore via a civilized debate.

Edit: added motive of exploration

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cortesoft 2107 days ago
This would probably be something that would have to be determined after actually trying it out. If we have a good social safety net, are there still a lot of people working in dangerous jobs? Is there still a pattern of exploitative behavior from employers?

I would also argue that our safety regulations should not be tied to whether a person is an employee or a contractor. Safety rules should be the same regardless.

I do think some regulation will still be needed, even if everyone had enough that they didn't have to work to survive. It is simply too easy for an employer to hide the danger from their employees; without regulations and inspections, it is likely that a lot of employees wouldn't even realize the danger until something bad happened.

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