Should it be legal to sell your kidney?
It's currently illegal to sell your kidney in the USA
Arguments for:
Increase supply of organs (there is typically a large shortage)
For some, large payout is more valuable than a second kidney
Reduce healthcare costs associated with long-term dialysis
Reduce bias towards pronouncing unconscious organ donors dead
Reduce black-market organ trafficking by creating a regulated system
Body autonomy arguments (your kidney your choice)
Arguments against:
Exploiting the poor/desperate is wrong
Organs as commodities undermines human dignity
Alleviating poverty in a bad way reduces pressure to find better ways
Sellers may underestimate long term risk vs short term gain
Create disparity where only the rich can afford new organs
Create incentive to misrepresent safety/quality of organs
Create potential for stolen organs to enter market
Body autonomy arguments (pressure to sell body parts)
Would it be good if congress put a $16 federal minimum wage in place?
The federal minimum wage in US is currently $7.25
Arguments for:
Government should ensure wages keep up with cost of living
Increase worker health and productivity
Reduce inequality between low and high wage workers
Some places already have minimum wage above $16
Everyone deserves a living wage
Accelerate automation
Arguments against:
Artificially high labour costs cause businesses to close
Increase cost of living
Fewer jobs, more reliance on welfare
Doesn't account for regional differences in cost of living
Create incentive to pay workers 'under the table'
Makes economy more difficult to understand/analyze
People should be allowed to supplement income with lower value work
Accelerate automation
1,000People are also trading
US. We are talking about US laws that only affect people transacting in the US.
Who in the US is eligible is another question. My preference would be only citizens or anyone who has paid a certain amount in taxes (~100k). That's because I also want trivial immigration that in essence allows everyone who isn't a known criminal to live and work here. But that would likely cause issues if everyone in the country gets UBI.
Take someone who like a lot of the population was born, and still is, involuntarily poor. With a restricted ability to climb the wealth ladder, limited ability to defend themselves legally, especially when against a wealthier interest, and being unhappy with seeing wealthier people living a reasonable life. Being unable to access jobs that empower the country because they are right at the building things by hand end of things rather than the building machines that build other machines end of things. Imagine this person then being incentivised to sell a body part that they might then later need, and once it's on the table as an option isn't that incentivising the government to neglect them (and you) even more, after all, if they want more food or a short holiday once a year selling a kidney is always an option.
@ItsMe Orangey doesn't like engaging with questions of specific numbers. He didn't seem to grasp the kidney question but I suspect he would be pro-legalization if he tried harder to wrap his head around the concept of legalization. He generally likes organs.