AS someone who is facing likely redundancy as a result of Covid-19 it is hard to look to the future without a great deal of trepidation. Reaching 50, and leaving a highly skilled but very specialised profession, it is hard to see where another career could come from.
There has been much publicity about a universal basic income and naturally I have taken some interest in seeing what it’s all about. My view may be unpopular but I can’t see how a UBI solves anything. Proposed payments so far are simply insufficient to live on so we would still be at the mercy of a “race to the bottom” jobs market in the aftermath of Covid-19. Rather worryingly, UBI may replace certain parts of the social security system. Social security needs boosted, not diminished.
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Absurdly the very people sacking employees and enjoying big bonuses as reward for slashing our terms and conditions will get the same payment. So we live on it whilst they invest it. Their money grows, whilst ours disappears. If anything this increases inequality. So for me I’m afraid it simply fails to address any of the personal or societal issues we are facing today.
I believe a better solution is for the state to become employer of last resort by way of a job guarantee. This offers a job to anyone who wants one – not just the unemployed. It can offer to buy up our labour at a decent price, offering us a liveable wage and civilised terms and conditions.
Some might refer to this as workfare. On the contrary, it actually empowers the employee to walk away from the very workfare so many are experiencing in the private sector, free from the fear of unemployment. It disciplines the unscrupulous employer to pay a fair wage or lose our services.
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Of course we need to broaden our current narrow definition of what qualifies as employment. Any job guarantee should be centrally funded but locally administered, thereby more effectively recognising how our varied talents and qualities can benefit our community. It could be holding someone’s hand in a hospital ward who has no-one, teaching skills/sports to children whose parents couldn’t afford it normally. Most profoundly it is recognising the importance of raising a family. Parenting should be part of payroll.
We also need to face up to the fact that there there IS work to be done. There’s an urgent need to adapt our society to the coming climate crisis. We need to upscale our domestic food production, and upskill our workforce to decarbonise the economy and to adapt to a more extreme environment. The economy needs a major overhaul and the market simply won’t deliver that.
What do we get? We get to re-skill in order to return to the private sector if that’s what we choose. We get to bring up a family without worrying how we make ends meet. We get to tell our kids (hopefully in an independent Scotland) that we transformed our economy from the bottom up. We get to be valued by our community for who we are whilst none of us get left behind.
I understand the popularity behind UBI. Don’t get me wrong, a big wad of cash from the government each month would be great, but a reasonable amount is simply unrealistic. It would likely be inflationary and defeat the purpose.
Please read the hundreds and hundreds of papers relating to the proposed job guarantee without dismissing it out of hand. You see I may be counting on you. If my name comes up on the unlucky list come July, I don’t want the fish. I want the means to catch one.
Scott Egner
Aberdour
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