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The Death of the Middle-Class Musician

(thewalrus.ca)
300 points pseudolus | 7 comments | 28 Jun 25 22:06 UTC | HN request time: 1.034s | source | bottom
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BrenBarn ◴[29 Jun 25 06:43 UTC] No.44410806[source]▶
> I heard one answer more than any other: the government should introduce universal basic income. This would indeed afford artists the security to create art, but it’s also extremely fanciful.

Until we start viewing "fanciful" ideas as realistic, our problems will persist. This article is another in the long series of observations of seemingly distinct problems which are actually facets of a larger problem, namely that overall economic inequality is way too high. It's not just that musicians, or actors, or grocery store baggers, or taxi drivers, or whatever, can't make a living, it's that the set of things you can do to make a living is narrowing more and more. Broad-based solutions like basic income, wealth taxes, breaking up large market players, etc., will do far more for us than attempting piecemeal tweaks to this or that industry.

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1. tim333 ◴[29 Jun 25 09:24 UTC] No.44411551[source]▶
Universal basic income is a bit impractical just now - give everyone free money and who will do the jobs that need doing? - but shortly will be very practical when robots/AI will do the jobs that need doing.
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2. graemep ◴[29 Jun 25 13:37 UTC] No.44413048[source]▶
No, people always want more money.

Why do so many rich people who could afford to retire work hard to make more? Why does hardly anyone on a high hourly rate work the minimum hours they need for an adequate income?

There have been numerous trials of UBI and I have yet to heard of one that showed people worked significantly less when given it.

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3. tim333 ◴[29 Jun 25 14:12 UTC] No.44413319[source]▶
I kind of figure people will work on things that don't really need doing like putting on music festivals etc. while the robots will do the essential work like grow food and take out the trash. Maybe I'm being optimistic. Although I have lived places where things worked a bit like that like when I was in South Africa a while ago with the blacks doing the less desirable jobs usually. So maybe like that but with robots?
4. gosub100 ◴[29 Jun 25 14:28 UTC] No.44413450[source]▶
my only problem with it is "give everyone 1400/mo and suddenly prices will rise by an effective rate of 1400/mo". I don't see any argument to counter that. I want it to work though.

The only way I could see it working is having a 2nd currency, comparable to SNAP benefits or housing vouchers, that is independent of the dollar (and not stigmatized either). Then let the dollar value of rents and food fluctuate as they may, but require that the UBI currency is accepted for some fraction of housing and food (and the minimum housing is sufficient to be covered 100% by UBI). Then cover the spread through taxing the corporations who wish to do business in that state. If the greedy Private-Equity owned corporation wants to jack up the rent, they can get their UBI tax jacked up also. If they want to quit the state, they can sell their assets to a local resident who wants to build a small business being a property manager.

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5. graemep ◴[29 Jun 25 15:48 UTC] No.44414015{3}[source]▶
No, I do not think it will have as strong an inflationary effect as that because the money would come from increasing tax or reducing other expenditure so the net amount the government is injecting into the economy (less what it takes out by way of tax) would not change.
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6. gosub100 ◴[29 Jun 25 18:29 UTC] No.44415231{4}[source]▶
if you can convince the people to vote for higher taxes paid by corporations or ultra-wealthy, I'm all for it.
7. tim333 ◴[02 Jul 25 11:30 UTC] No.44442422{3}[source]▶
AI makes more stuff keeping price/stuff down.