Personal qualification salary and universal income
What is the difference between a personal qualifying salary and a universal income? Sociologist and economist Bernard Friot explains: “the universal income is the safety net that the capitalist class must put in place if it wants to abolish the wage for qualification, which is the great conquest of the 20th century, to return to a capitalist wage, which is a task wage” . He specifies : “the great conquest of the 20th century is the dissociation between the salary of the directly productive activity and a salary attached to the person or to the qualification of the position. However, if the bourgeoisie wants to return to the task wage, this introduces such insecurity that the bourgeoisie wants to limit it by instituting an unconditional basic income”.
Retirement at 50, but not the end of work
Why consider that retirement could not be taken at 50? “Retirement is not the end of work”, recalls Bernard Friot. “It is the fact that the salary once again becomes an attribute of the person that allows the freedom of work. It is for this reason that retirement is generally appreciated. Retirees are finally freed from fee-for-service, and this gives the possibility of working freely”.
He completes:50 years is the beginning of seniority, especially in the least qualified jobs. From this age, workers are invited to move from CDI to part-time or CDD, to become self-employed, to be virtually eliminated from continuing vocational training. So that at 60, there are only 52% of people in employment and the others have been weakened in the labor market.
Does work deserve pay or does pay deserve work?
“It’s a chance to be able to work in fulfilling activities that we consider useful.“, says Bernard Friot. “In capitalism, it is work that deserves wages. But in the conquests of the 20th century, there is precisely the fact that the salary is no longer posterior to a subordinate activity to which one has submitted and in reward for which we obtain a salary“. He specifies : “the salary becomes an attribute of the person: this is the case of civil servants and retirees for example”.
The sociologist further points out that “We all want to honor what makes our human species, the common good, the construction of our world. This responsibility is expressed in work, since it is sovereign. However, citizenship that excludes work results in working classes that no longer vote and a youth that votes very little, because they are aware that the public service has disappeared and that voting changes nothing. He concludes : “we can no longer leave citizenship in the hands of a bourgeoisie that has a monopoly on work, it is for this reason that citizenship must be enriched”, believes the sociologist. “This assumes that from the age of 18 we have three rights: qualification with a corresponding salary, customary ownership of companies and finally co-decision in monetary institutions”, he continues.