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The London School of Economics along with UC-Irvine concluded that increases in the minimum wage tend to hurt those that it is intended to help.

>Analysing US population data from 1980-2015, researchers found that a 10% increase in the minimum wage leads to a 0.31 percentage point decrease in the share of automatable jobs done by low-skilled workers overall.

As the wages increase, companies have incentive to step up efforts to automate certain repeatable tasks.  We see this occurring in the retail sector via automated checkout scanners and the manufacturing industry with robotic arms.  

Companies do gravitate towards hiring different workers such as those to service the automated machines.  This shift does not help the low-skilled worker who lacks the skills to transition.  This leads to those in that pool becoming non-employed.

This is an important study since many states within the United States are going to be increasing their minimum wage over the next half decade.  These laws are established at the state level which makes establishing causation difficult.  The results of this study conclude there is a connection between the two.

http://www.lse.ac.uk/News/Latest-news-from-LSE/2018/05-May-2018/Minimum-wage-increases-lead-to-faster-job-automation

We feel that the basic income discussion centers around two primary issues: automation of jobs and human rights.  To overlook either is missing an important part of the issue.

[Unicef](https://www.unicef.org/sowc05/english/poverty.html) states that of the 2 billion children on the planet, more than half, live in poverty.  This means we tolerate over 1 billion children growing up without the basics in life.  It is this finding that moves the issue away from simply economics to one of human decency.

We are also believers in the threat of automation on the global population.  Recent studies are concluding that the income inequality around the world is growing.  This is leading to a situation where the "have nots" are getting larger in number.  As we see from this study, the expectation is for this to continue over the next decade.  

Sadly, it looks like those at the greatest risk are going to suffer the most.

The Manna Project exists in an effort to offset both of these situations.  Our goal is to eliminate global poverty through a basic income using a cryptocurrency.  Over time, we want to put the funds directly in the hands of the people who need it the most.

To get your weekly manna distribution, go to https://www.mannabase.com to sign up.