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Do you think most people who would seriously consider a very low wage job, also had access to more valuable work? Why did they pass on it? What causes them to

Do you think most people who would seriously consider a very low wage job, also had access to more valuable work? Why did they pass on it? What causes them to undervalue their strength, such that society has to force them to conserve it?

jjk166 5y ago
In the 1200s the vast majority of Europe's population was composed of subsistence farmers barely making ends meet due to not having enough productive land on which to farm. At the same time vast tracts of land were sitting unproductive. Wages were low, population growth stagnated and quality of life was growing steadily worse. Why didn't the landlords have peasants clear more land so that they could be more productive? Why did they pass on it? Because labor was cheap and the status quo was making them money. Employers don't care about productivity, they care about margin. Eventually though, the Black Death comes around. An immense fraction of the population is gone, practically overnight. With fewer workers around, wages naturally rise. Once these wages were higher, suddenly it mattered that land was being used efficiently. Despite the lower demand for agricultural products, there is extensive land clearance across Europe as Landlords make the investments necessary to get the most out of their resources. This productivity improvement leads to much higher quality of life, an increase in social mobility, and a substantial growth in the urban merchant classes which would all contribute to the transition to the modern period. When a resource is cheap and abundant, there is no incentive to use it efficiently. The ROI for developing tools and techniques that reduce your usage of that resource is low. There may be substantial opportunity costs, but no one sends you a bill in the mail for money you don't realize you're leaving on the table. Maybe not everyone on earth has what it takes to be a rocket scientist or a neurosurgeon, but the fact is the overwhelming majority of skilled labor can be done by any idiot who has been properly trained and has adequate equipment. The higher the base wage level, the easier it is to justify this investment in training and equipment.

jjk166 5y ago

In the 1200s the vast majority of Europe's population was composed of subsistence farmers barely making ends meet due to not having enough productive land on which to farm. At the same time vast tracts of land were sitting unproductive. Wages were low, population growth stagnated and quality of life was growing steadily worse. Why didn't the landlords have peasants clear more land so that they could be more productive? Why did they pass on it? Because labor was cheap and the status quo was making them money. Employers don't care about productivity, they care about margin. Eventually though, the Black Death comes around. An immense fraction of the population is gone, practically overnight. With fewer workers around, wages naturally rise. Once these wages were higher, suddenly it mattered that land was being used efficiently. Despite the lower demand for agricultural products, there is extensive land clearance across Europe as Landlords make the investments necessary to get the most out of their resources. This productivity improvement leads to much higher quality of life, an increase in social mobility, and a substantial growth in the urban merchant classes which would all contribute to the transition to the modern period. When a resource is cheap and abundant, there is no incentive to use it efficiently. The ROI for developing tools and techniques that reduce your usage of that resource is low. There may be substantial opportunity costs, but no one sends you a bill in the mail for money you don't realize you're leaving on the table. Maybe not everyone on earth has what it takes to be a rocket scientist or a neurosurgeon, but the fact is the overwhelming majority of skilled labor can be done by any idiot who has been properly trained and has adequate equipment. The higher the base wage level, the easier it is to justify this investment in training and equipment.