4 ms·
>And every year prices go up it's your currency losing more value, more purchasing power. This is only true if wages don't go up to match it, and if they don't
by aninhumer 9y ago
>And every year prices go up it's your currency losing more value, more purchasing power.
This is only true if wages don't go up to match it, and if they don't, then we should be asking why not. People should be insisting on raises at least in line with inflation, and if they're not able to get even that, then it suggests a power imbalance.
And besides, currency devaluation isn't some secret conspiracy, or even an inherent property of fiat currency, it's the explicit and stated aim of our monetary policy. Most economists seem to believe a constant low level of inflation is a good thing and so that's what we do. If you disagree, you should argue with that directly. And if you want a stable currency value, I would suggest monetary policy would be far more effective at achieving that than the gold standard.
- dingaling 9y ago> People should be insisting on raises at least in line with inflation To be blunt, that really is SV cuckoo-land thinking. In 22 years of employment, 18 in IT with Fortune 100s, I have never had a job in which that was possible. Why would a company voluntarily increase its personnel costs by the rate of inflation?
- aninhumer 9y ago>Why would a company voluntarily increase its personnel costs by the rate of inflation? Because you have a society where not doing so would be rightly recognised as a defacto wage cut, and considered outrageous by your employees. This is generally the case in Europe, and I'm arguing that this not being the case in the US is exactly the problem. Also FWIW, I don't think tech companies are remotely representative. It's an industry with high employee turnover, and where people are expected to argue for their own raises. Nonetheless, I work in tech, and I got an inflation based salary bump last year, which was applied in addition to a performance based raise, and I'm expecting one this year as well. But then, I don't work in the US.
- eli_gottlieb 9y agoBecause you unionized, because you pressured the state to maintain full-employment policies, because the welfare state helped you bargain harder against your exploiters... You know, because you actually fought for your interests instead of accepting your lot as a constantly-devalued cost center.
- fapjacks 9y agoHey, dingaling, you really should bring that up to your employer. In about the same number of years in the same industry, I've gotten salary bumps to cover inflation in most years I've asked for one.
- greglindahl 9y agoBefore I moved to SV, I saw a lot of companies that gave COLAs. You might go easy on the insults, in addition to not generalizing from your personal observations to an entire country's economy.