Universal Wages and the Volatility of Market Capitalism

I don’t have to tell anyone how the coronavirus COVID-19 has disrupted markets, caused massive layoffs and financial losses, and contributed to panic, fear, and economic instability and hardship across the globe. Ironically, the panic has been no where worse than in the United States, a country blessed with obscene economic prosperity with no real need for panic, except that it is now a country full of angry, ungrateful, suspicious, selfish human beings who are the exact kind of people who panic and think only of themselves in a crisis. Those with such worldviews whose first instinct during a crisis is to buy guns and ammunition or clear grocery stores of toilet paper care more to protect themselves from their fellow humans rather than help and in turn cause themselves the very problems they are trying to avoid.

Toilet paper is neither a necessity nor something that is otherwise scarce, even in a crisis such as this, and we are the victims of our own self-centered and fearful behavior, living in a world in which we feel on our own only because we in turn refuse to help other people and join in camaraderie and fellowship. The only real threat to human existence are humans themselves, but if you believe and act on that you are exactly part of the problem and not part of the solution. In this age where technology is rapidly advancing, job opportunities and pay eroding, and the world more acutely affected by crisis and disruption it is clear that better policies for stabilization of markets, communities, and countries is necessary to avoid the kind of calamity which has just occurred, else the future will hold even greater hardship.

The United States passed an insane tax cut for corporations and the wealthy, which has ballooned the deficit, which had been dropping, from almost $700 Billion in 2017 to over $1 Trillion this year. Now the government is scrambling to hand out $2 Trillion dollars to citizens and companies because the inability to work during such a crisis will surely tank the entire country’s economy without some sort of aid, and no doubt assuming much of that stimulus is just a giveaway for corporations and corrupt insiders to line their pockets, but without sufficient tax revenue of business and companies like Amazon who pay no tax despite billions of dollars of profit, combined with the rout of the economy from this crisis the deficit is going to reach unfathomable heights.

For many years basic income advocates like Rutger Bregman have championed the strengths such policies can give to countries and economies. If our country right now had a basic guaranteed income there would have been a much kinder reaction in the market to the crisis simply because consumers would have a continued supply of income to keep markets working, even when they are quarantined at home since so much of our economy is online and service oriented. Businesses, being less obligated to provide a salary would easily continue operations and thus goods and services remain in steady supply. Instead of paying employees directly, businesses would be taxed a base amount of salaries (for instance perhaps $10k a year) which is paid to the government which is then distributed equally to eligible citizens, with businesses then adding to that salary for higher earners). The entire resistance to the concept of a universal income comes from self-centered, self-righteous moralists extolling the virtues of individual labor and shaming those who can’t or won’t work, as if they make up a significant portion of the population instead of an absolutely minuscule number. Even the fraction of a fraction of the population who might simply do nothing and receive the income will still spend that money back into the economy, which will recirculate and thus contribute to the overall stabilization of markets while also alleviating their burden on social programs like food stamps and other welfare programs. Such individuals are also typically motivated to inaction by conditions such as depression and mental illness, which is callously dismissed by those ideological, moralistic demagogues which the guarantee of a universal income would help to address, helping those with such conditions feel supported and empowered in our economy which in turn can in turn help them receive proper medical care and an increased likelihood of recovery and eventual integration back into productive society.

Before Woodrow Wilson passed the Revenue tax of 1913 most Americans didn’t pay income tax. The bulk of our country’s financial health was borne on the backs of business, because businesses are the major component of finance, infrastructure, and beneficiaries of military, law, and governance, a government which relies heavily on tax from the incomes of normal citizens is less stable and more susceptible to financial catastrophes, because most people just do not have the kinds of economic wealth needed to sustain countries with their inexhaustible financial obligations. I do not make much income at all (by choice), and yet the government still taxes me at an exorbitant rate because I am also self employed, which prevents me from spending money on consumer goods and services which would contribute to market health. Those who lack the skills and opportunities to make much are at an even greater disadvantage and in spite of their contribution to society become a net burden because of their isolation and financial oppression which would instead transform to net contribution from guaranteed income. Contrary to the arguments against guaranteed income from self-centered moralistic naysayers, universal wages are not a charity or giveaway—they are an investment of stability into markets, economies, and countries which help to stabilize economic dynamics, shifting the burden of pay and salary from businesses and the poor and middle class to the government, from which the government and financial sectors then benefit directly.

A universal wage also more accurately assesses the value of employees. Just because employers get away with paying their subordinates less than a livable wage does not mean that is the value of their labor. Distributed equally, each employee of Amazon is worth $148,930 personally to Jeff Bezos alone, never mind all the board members and stock holders who have also gotten rich from the exploitation of workers, who are paid far less than their labor is worth, and the contribution of workers to the economy is worth more than the guarantee of basic income anyway. I like Capitalism, but alone it is an unstable and unforgiving mistress. If we currently had a universal guaranteed wage, stocks would not have crashed nearly as much as they did, supply chains would be minimally disrupted, and citizens would be empowered to keep economies running even during such calamitous events as we are now experiencing.

Universal income can and should also replace all other social programs like social security, medicaid and medicare, food stamps, and other financial social support programs altogether, becoming a more cost efficient alternative which funds people to afford these necessities altogether, and could be administered as well through the Social Security Administration which already performs the services required to execute such a policy. A guaranteed basic income would also make it possible for more people to work independently, providing a greater breadth of goods and services and further enriching our communities and societies and markets. As more and more of human participation in society becomes automated and redundant, the need for universal income will become even more necessary and the lack of it more consequential. The readiness by which the establishment has shown to just give out money during this crises shows how absolutely necessary such policies are for the health of modern economies. Karmically, such events have the purpose of motivating changes in the way we live our lives and how we treat each other, and failure to listen to these lessons will cause greater calamity in the future. Get involved in elections and political venues to promote, champion, and vote for candidates who will implement these or similar policies. If for some reason you haven’t seen it yet, you can read my article on COVID-19 and improving your resistance to viral infection, or how to find satisfaction in times of economic contraction, how Trump will win reelection in 2020 (and yes even after his handling of the coronavirus pandemic), or how to better take care of your health when you have to spend lots of time indoors or at a computer.