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Reading comprehension, my dear urbanlife. I said WHEN I WAS LEAVING Seattle. I did not say, "right this very second". It *has* been ranked #1. It IS an expensive city, the minimum wage is one of the highest in the nation. The reason it's so expensive to live in that city is for many reasons, yes, and a high minimum wage is part of the problem.
Reading comprehension, my dear urbanlife. I said WHEN I WAS LEAVING Seattle. I did not say, "right this very second". It *has* been ranked #1. It IS an expensive city, the minimum wage is one of the highest in the nation. The reason it's so expensive to live in that city is for many reasons, yes, and a high minimum wage is part of the problem.
they don't touch my food. I cook for myself. perhaps they touch your food. they should make minimum wage or less.
So you have never eaten outside of your house? Yet somehow you sound like you know that those working at fast food places don't deserve their pay. Interesting.
Reading comprehension, my dear urbanlife. I said WHEN I WAS LEAVING Seattle. I did not say, "right this very second". It *has* been ranked #1. It IS an expensive city, the minimum wage is one of the highest in the nation. The reason it's so expensive to live in that city is for many reasons, yes, and a high minimum wage is part of the problem.
I don't know you so I don't know when you left Seattle. A lot has changed since then and you can no longer claim Seattle is the most expensive.
This is a very interesting idea, though how would a city increase its supply on housing? Would this be through city built developments or would we still be relying on the private sector to eat the costs to build affordable housing?
Vancouver BC does a great system that requires more affordable housing for the more breaks a developer is given which increases the number of affordable housing throughout the city. In the US we tend to make the mistake with giving this breaks and expect the developer to build the affordable housing in the last stage of a development and shocked when the developer says they can no longer build any affordable housing because the market isn't as healthy as it was when they began building.
1. Allow increased housing densities especially in transit corridors where residents will not be driving so many cars.
2. Reduce, waive, or eliminate housing development fees which have become popular in recent years.
3. Reduce existing housing standards which are not necessary - the numerous regulations which in order to price out the poor, e.g. suspend NIMBY practices.
4. Implement inclusionary zoning practices which allow developers a 'density bonus' for providing affordable housiing.
LOL. moving a bread factory is the worst idea ever. Did you ever wonder why they are located all over the place instead of just in one place? Yeah.
Move your bread factory to China, and the only way you're getting good product to the us is to ship it in by air. And labor making it is a VERY small number, its a highly automated industry.
Thats kind fo the point, most jobs aren't high in labor costs, and those that are are fairly hard to offshore or move-or it would have already been done.
You are arguing against a hypothetical example. A real life example is steel manufacturers and many other manufacturers. For that matter, just go to your local store, any store, and see how many stuff is made in China. Why are they made in China? Cheaper labor in addition to other lower cost factors.
You are arguing against a hypothetical example. A real life example is steel manufacturers and many other manufacturers. For that matter, just go to your local store, any store, and see how many stuff is made in China. Why are they made in China? Cheaper labor in addition to other lower cost factors.
Labors a small component of it, so is the ability to pollute the nearby areas slaughtering locals like cheap replaceable widgets, and the ability to get government financed loans, free land, etc etc etc.
But sure lets use steel. Currently it takes approx 1,000 people employed year round to create 1 million tons of steel. IE 1 person (average us wage is 78K) to create 1,000 TONS of steel. Lately automation has been changing this figure to 1 person per 2,800 tons at Pesco for example. $770 per ton for HR plate, or 770,000 dollars a year in steel per person employed. Employees make up less then 10% of the price. Unless we used automation like PESCO...then its 3%. Now in china it represents somewhere between 2-7% of the price. So we lose there....unless of course we are shipping it back here. THEN...then we should crush them right?
Hmm....the cost of power maybe (highly subsidized)? Or is it the materials? (we could buy from austrailia just as they do, but then the shipping....
So why do they undercut us by 25-35%? Turns out the answer is usually government subsidies.
They're crushing our economy with them at every level they can, then undercutting us leading to a trade deficit, that they then turn around and use to lower the cost of their goods, and round and round. Its been fueling rising labor costs lately though for them, and they've been losing ground to some of their neighboring countries.
Recently China has had HUGE expansions in their steel production-and they use a large majority of it, the exports of that subsidized industry are whats hurting us, not our wages so much.
Free trade disputes both in the US and in the EU have been having some tariffs due to those subsidies, but as the chinese know...by the time the court cases get resolved and they stop subsidizing, the damage to our industry is done.
Very little to do with wages.
Last edited by greywar; 10-25-2013 at 04:20 PM..
Reason: clarify what it would be with good automation like pesco
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