[aaomidi]

On the other hand, layoffs shouldn’t be free for companies. These are people who have specialized skills, have setup their families in these areas, have mortgages etc.

What’s the alternative here? An alternative I can think of is a much stronger unemployment program on the federal level so layoffs don’t hurt the community. But this scheme not existing would’ve been devastating for the middle class.

People in greater society are not really an elastic resource.

[la64710]

A great alternative is to tax corporates on the increased productivity that they achieved through layoffs and then distribute the proceeds as UBI to the affected.

[s1artibartfast]

"Ubi to the affected" is a contradiction of terms

[la64710]

No need to nickpick or downvote. It’s the spirit that matters.

[s1artibartfast]

It bothers me that UBI is conflated with social support and welfare. The term carries a bunch of connotation and implications which are material to the sprit of the statement.

[la64710]

Well call what you may but UBI will be as necessary as oxygen is to life . Specially when most of white and even blue collared jobs will be automated. Without UBI most people will not be able to survive , forget about thriving.

[medvezhenok]

The "Jobs Bank" described above is exactly equivalent to what you're proposing (which is not UBI because it's not universal, by the way).