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What is the problem with the employees using public benefits? Genuinely curious.
by woah 8y ago
What is the problem with the employees using public benefits? Genuinely curious.
- stochastic_monk 8y agoThey use them because they aren’t paid enough to live on. Therefore, the government and thereby our taxes subsidize the company.
- vivekys 8y agoWhy don't they quit and find other better paying job?
- 2bitmachine 8y agoWhy don’t you spend a little more time thinking critically about the real options faced by the working poor in a society with vast inequality and decades of flat wage growth?
- gldalmaso 8y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_them_eat_cake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_them_eat_cake
- stochastic_monk 8y agoThat’s a complicated issue. I’d hope they’d get better jobs, but in the interim, should any full-time position be permitted to pay an unlivable wage? If so, why?
- maxxxxx 8y agoThis means that the public is subsidizing a company owned by the richest man in the world because he refuses to pay his employees a living wage. Doesn't this sound wrong?
- rahul003 8y agoBut isn't he paying market wages for them? Similar to what the other companies are paying them.
- anthanm 8y agoNo, because the government subsidizing it reduces the amount people are able to work for. If it's a choice between starving being worked extremely hard by Amazon vs just starving, why would people be choosing the former?
- rifung 8y agoYes and presumably other companies should also pay them more but I suppose the blame is more focused on Amazon/Bezos because he is the richest person in the world and this article is about him.
- civilian 8y agoFlip it around. These people needed government support, and Bezos is giving them a job, so now they need less government support than they did before. Bezos is helping to give money to people who would have otherwise been totally on welfare.
- wnkrshm 8y agoTurn it around again, Amazon has underrun the competition that was paying living wages before and destroyed the jobs those people had before, by not paying taxes.
- civilian 8y agoTheir competitors were not paying "living" wages. Brick and mortar retail, especially mom&pop stores, were notorious for paying low wages. Destroying jobs is a good thing. It means that Amazon can pass on the savings to consumers. I know that Amazon is disliked in Seattle & the bay area, but if you go around the rest of the country, people love amazon.
- gaius 8y agoBecause the taxpayers are effectively subsidising their employer by “topping up” their wages to the true market level . We see this happening alot in the UK too.
- mrighele 8y agoThose benefits are public resources that could be used for other things, like helping the homeless. You could say that taxpayers are subsidizing Bezos' PR stunt