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Comment by nostromo | Hacker News Reader

If the government wants someone to have something (more money, healthcare, etc.) then the government should provide that something to someone.

All of these programs that shift costs onto employers are fundamentally flawed for many reasons. The most obvious reason is that lots of people aren't employed.

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One might also argue that a minimum wage that is too low burdens tax payers because it means the employees must seek out public assistance. In which case one wonders if a business is worth sustaining if it cannot adequately cover its labor costs without the government propping it up via subsidies.

This is also why universal basic income is a fantastic policy.

I still haven't seen that math work but am intrigued by the idea as too many people are being left behind today let alone as automation continues to proliferate.

Watch some videos of Andrew Yang explain his plan for UBI and how it could work in America.

He's the only Presidential candidate that is providing pragmatic solutions to handle a rapidly changing economy.

The counter point to that is that the current minimum wage for a full time job with no time off comes to ~15k a year just barely over the poverty line for a person living alone and under the poverty line for two people living together without kids. So in reality with even a small amount of time off or not working 40 hour weeks 100% of the time minimum wage isn't enough to keep someone off Federal/State assistance.

This is basically a subsidy to these companies by the government supporting lower wages for them when they're already quite profitable.

It's only a subsidy in the way the universal basic income is also a subsidy.

UBI would be but I'm personally more ok with it given it won't be JUST to businesses. It'll benefit everyone with businesses also being included. Also raising the money for UBI will probably include a lot of funding via business taxes (including maybe having the employer paying much of the cost of the UBI of their employees).

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