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it costs less if I decide to cook rather than do take out, should I inform my employer I'm saving more money so they cut my salary. It's a perverse race to the

by demarq 6y ago

it costs less if I decide to cook rather than do take out, should I inform my employer I'm saving more money so they cut my salary. It's a perverse race to the bottom for the benefit of corporations at the expense of the worker and social income equality.

marcoperaza 6y ago
Your mental model is all wrong. There's no moral calculus being used to determine how much you earn. If you want to think like that, then you'd have a hard time justifying differences in pay for different lines of work, especially since they don't correlate with how much or how hard you work. You don't make more than the guy laying tile because you work harder than him. It's because there's a lot more people who can do what he does than what you do. Labor is a market. It's supply and demand. All of that stuff you're talking about--the cost of eating out vs. cooking, rent in Silicon Valley vs. Wisconsin--doesn't need to be calculated. The market price for labor in a city is how much you need to offer to get enough qualified people to work for you in that city. People’s preferences, for eating out, for living here or there, are factored in to how much they’re willing to work for.
gridlockd 6y ago
All employers always want to pay as little as possible. You get paid as much as you do because your labor in your area costs that much. Companies are competing for your labor, if they paid you less, you'd be way more likely to take another job elsewhere. Now suppose you could move somewhere else and didn't have to pay insane prices just to live in a shithole like San Francisco, but you'd have to take a pay cut - why wouldn't you do it? You'd earn less on paper but you'd have a better life.
- michaelcampbell 6y ago
  > You'd earn less on paper but you'd have a better life Exactly. "pay" is just a way to afford things that you value. If I can get those things, I'm happy; if not, I'm sad. "pay" is irrelevant unless compared to cost.

by demarq 6y ago

marcoperaza 6y ago

Your mental model is all wrong. There's no moral calculus being used to determine how much you earn. If you want to think like that, then you'd have a hard time justifying differences in pay for different lines of work, especially since they don't correlate with how much or how hard you work. You don't make more than the guy laying tile because you work harder than him. It's because there's a lot more people who can do what he does than what you do. Labor is a market. It's supply and demand. All of that stuff you're talking about--the cost of eating out vs. cooking, rent in Silicon Valley vs. Wisconsin--doesn't need to be calculated. The market price for labor in a city is how much you need to offer to get enough qualified people to work for you in that city. People’s preferences, for eating out, for living here or there, are factored in to how much they’re willing to work for.

gridlockd 6y ago

All employers always want to pay as little as possible. You get paid as much as you do because your labor in your area costs that much. Companies are competing for your labor, if they paid you less, you'd be way more likely to take another job elsewhere. Now suppose you could move somewhere else and didn't have to pay insane prices just to live in a shithole like San Francisco, but you'd have to take a pay cut - why wouldn't you do it? You'd earn less on paper but you'd have a better life.

michaelcampbell 6y ago
> You'd earn less on paper but you'd have a better life Exactly. "pay" is just a way to afford things that you value. If I can get those things, I'm happy; if not, I'm sad. "pay" is irrelevant unless compared to cost.