Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I would think that forcing businesses to find a cheaper alternative, like automation, to arbitrarily inflated wages would be more detrimental to those who at least have some sort of income coming in. Like someone pointed out earlier, forty hours times eight dollars is a whole lot more than zero hours times fifteen an hour.
Don't get me wrong, it would be lovely if everyone could make a fistfull of loot for whatever job they performed, however that is not reality and never will be. Everyone wants to make "enough" even though there is no such amount. Workers will never make more than what they are worth in a competitive marketplace. (and if they did, the business would fail soon after)
I'm not sure what automation has to do with wages... People should accept poverty level wages because some service jobs are being eliminated by automation? The size of the workforce in the industry will go down.
We have a poverty line. A full time worker should not be below the poverty line no matter what job they hold.
I would think that forcing businesses to find a cheaper alternative, like automation, to arbitrarily inflated wages would be more detrimental to those who at least have some sort of income coming in. Like someone pointed out earlier, forty hours times eight dollars is a whole lot more than zero hours times fifteen an hour.
Don't get me wrong, it would be lovely if everyone could make a fistfull of loot for whatever job they performed, however that is not reality and never will be. Everyone wants to make "enough" even though there is no such amount. Workers will never make more than what they are worth in a competitive marketplace. (and if they did, the business would fail soon after)
Humans have a remarkable way of adapting. When we had ATM's introduced, bank tellers found other work. When we had manual elevators replaced by PLCs, those people found work in other fields also.
We are going to come to a place in society where there are people who maintain the backbone system for robotic manual labor, those who work the financial industries, those who work in healthcare, and those who work in service industry jobs.
There may come a day where robots do most of the work, and when that happens, we are going to have to seriously think about laws that restrict reproduction for some people.
Thats the world we are going to be moving to. Of course, by that time, we'll be hopefully colonizing other regions of the globe and other planetary bodies which will allow people with lower skills a place to go to and start a new life.
Thats what happened in Europe in the 1500's and 1600's. They ran out of trees, they ran out of supplies, had to many people, had a lot of disease and regulation. When new land was found to the west, people moved there who had no skill, family, or know how, and survived and thrived, or they died out. Thats just the story of human development. I expect no difference with robots taking jobs and people running out of things to do.
I'll be dead before all of that happens, or really really old.
If they are able to do my job, then they can estimate what the job would be worth. I am quite capable of flipping burgers and can do their job.
But we sure know what it isn't!
But thats kinda faulty thinking on value. The truth is value shouldnt be based on class but necessity. In a mcdonald's type business you can't run one day without a grill person or good customer service people. But i can still run a mcdonald's type business without a store manager or corporate head. A customer base is based on the experience they have with the drive thru guy or the counter person. Not management or corporate headquarters.
Sure every counter person etc can be replaced but you can't run a business without them.
i'm not sure what automation has to do with wages... People should accept poverty level wages because some service jobs are being eliminated by automation? The size of the workforce in the industry will go down.
We have a poverty line. A full time worker should not be below the poverty line no matter what job they hold.
I'm not sure what automation has to do with wages... People should accept poverty level wages because some service jobs are being eliminated by automation? The size of the workforce in the industry will go down.
We have a poverty line. A full time worker should not be below the poverty line no matter what job they hold.
You are talking about theoretical "shoulds". "Should" is an opinion, which is fine. You can open a fast-food place and run it at a loss if you wish, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. The problem of reality is that there is no monopoly of fast food joints. If say McD charges twice as much as say BK, McD will soon be out of business. The wages of these workers is set by a competitive standard in a competitive market, it was not just chosen at random.
We could mandate through government force that no one would earn less than 1000 dollars an hour. And do you know what would happen? The obvious. The prices of everything would skyrocket and everyone would demand raises in proportion to the increased cost of living. In the end, nothing would change. Buying power and "relative wealth" would remain unchanged. It is just monopoly money after all. Those making 1000 dollars an hour would still be unable to escape poverty.
Because we are not a third-world country and don't aspire to be one?
You'd be very surprised.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
