4 ms·

Well, one way of killing low wage jobs is to turn them into high wage jobs.

smeej 6y ago
How, exactly? How do you propose making low wage jobs generate enough revenue to become high wage jobs? Or do you mean to apply this rule only to large, profitable corporations and spare the mom-and-pop shops and other small businesses that are already having trouble staying open? Low wage jobs are already being replaced by high wage jobs, but not 1:1. There are already higher wage jobs programming the machines that automate away a dozen low wage jobs. I'm guessing that wasn't what you meant by "turn into" though.
- saberdancer 6y ago
  It's a solution people come up with when they think in one dimension. Increase minimum wage = no poverty When in reality, for some people it would be: Increase minimum wage = they get fired and can't find a job, end up homeless.
  - adrianN 6y ago
    If people without a job end up homeless something is seriously wrong with the social safety net.
    - saberdancer 6y ago
      What do you think happens with single people renting when they lose their income?
      - adrianN 6y ago
        Where I live social security kicks in.
  - teataster 6y ago
    We had a minimum wage increase in my country recently. I met a bunch of people that went from having from full time to part time contracts cause their employer could not afford the increase. For about two months. After that what the employer could not afford was part time workers, and everybody got full time back.
- Cthulhu_ 6y ago
  > How do you propose making low wage jobs generate enough revenue to become high wage jobs? They don't have to; it should be a factor of the overall company's revenue. If you take an infamous company like Amazon, they have 1.3 million employees worldwide generating 386 billion in revenue; that's nearly $300K per employee of revenue generated. Surely there's room there to pay people more.
  - randomchars 6y ago
    But why would they? If they had to pay warehouse workers twice as much, what makes you think they wouldn't try to automate away even more jobs? Companies rarely exist to give employees more money; their goal is to increase the wealth of their owners.
    - qmmmur 6y ago
      You're so close but you just haven't made the leap yet.
    - account42 6y ago
      > But why would they? If they had to pay warehouse workers twice as much, what makes you think they wouldn't try to automate away even more jobs? Good. We should automate away more jobs. More automation means people can work less hours, get more sleep, and pursue things that do not provide direct financial rewards but still enrich society. This is what we should be working towards. The only problem with that is if the value of that automation only enriches a few people at the top. But that is not an inherent problem. The solution is simple: progressive income and wealth taxes. These can pay for universal basic income and other safety nets that provide for the people whose jobs have been replaced with automation.
      - randomchars 6y ago
        > These can pay for universal basic income and other safety nets that provide for the people whose jobs have been replaced with automation. And after that what? Continue taxing the highly productive people, while letting those whose jobs were automated away, live the rest of their lives doing nothing?

How, exactly? How do you propose making low wage jobs generate enough revenue to become high wage jobs? Or do you mean to apply this rule only to large, profitable corporations and spare the mom-and-pop shops and other small businesses that are already having trouble staying open? Low wage jobs are already being replaced by high wage jobs, but not 1:1. There are already higher wage jobs programming the machines that automate away a dozen low wage jobs. I'm guessing that wasn't what you meant by "turn into" though.

saberdancer 6y ago
It's a solution people come up with when they think in one dimension. Increase minimum wage = no poverty When in reality, for some people it would be: Increase minimum wage = they get fired and can't find a job, end up homeless.
- adrianN 6y ago
  If people without a job end up homeless something is seriously wrong with the social safety net.
  - saberdancer 6y ago
    What do you think happens with single people renting when they lose their income?
    - adrianN 6y ago
      Where I live social security kicks in.
- teataster 6y ago
  We had a minimum wage increase in my country recently. I met a bunch of people that went from having from full time to part time contracts cause their employer could not afford the increase. For about two months. After that what the employer could not afford was part time workers, and everybody got full time back.
Cthulhu_ 6y ago
> How do you propose making low wage jobs generate enough revenue to become high wage jobs? They don't have to; it should be a factor of the overall company's revenue. If you take an infamous company like Amazon, they have 1.3 million employees worldwide generating 386 billion in revenue; that's nearly $300K per employee of revenue generated. Surely there's room there to pay people more.
- randomchars 6y ago
  But why would they? If they had to pay warehouse workers twice as much, what makes you think they wouldn't try to automate away even more jobs? Companies rarely exist to give employees more money; their goal is to increase the wealth of their owners.
  - qmmmur 6y ago
    You're so close but you just haven't made the leap yet.
  - account42 6y ago
    > But why would they? If they had to pay warehouse workers twice as much, what makes you think they wouldn't try to automate away even more jobs? Good. We should automate away more jobs. More automation means people can work less hours, get more sleep, and pursue things that do not provide direct financial rewards but still enrich society. This is what we should be working towards. The only problem with that is if the value of that automation only enriches a few people at the top. But that is not an inherent problem. The solution is simple: progressive income and wealth taxes. These can pay for universal basic income and other safety nets that provide for the people whose jobs have been replaced with automation.
    - randomchars 6y ago
      > These can pay for universal basic income and other safety nets that provide for the people whose jobs have been replaced with automation. And after that what? Continue taxing the highly productive people, while letting those whose jobs were automated away, live the rest of their lives doing nothing?