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Why shouldn't someone working as a fry cook be able to live on his salary? It's not dangerous to have a system where not everyone needs a university degree to e

Why shouldn't someone working as a fry cook be able to live on his salary? It's not dangerous to have a system where not everyone needs a university degree to earn a living.

ars 5y ago
Think about that. Let's take your world, the fry cook can live on his salary. Now the person with a University degree can command a much higher wage since his skill is in great demand. He's got more money, so he can afford more expensive stuff, increasing demand, which increases prices, and now your fry cook can no longer live on his salary. Do you want to respond by raising wages again? You're in a never ending loop.
- sangnoir 5y ago
  > Now the person with a University degree can command a much higher wage since his skill is in great demand. This does not necessarily follow from the previous statement, and may even be completely unrelated.
  - ars 5y ago
    It's pretty much automatic. If there's more demand than supply, then companies will offer more money to hire this person with a university degree. The only way you keep this person's wage down is increase supply - have lots of people with university degrees. But that's not the real world, in the real world most people are not able to get a degree.
    - sangnoir 5y ago
      > The only way you keep this person's wage down is increase supply - have lots of people with university degrees. Again, the second part of this statement does not necessarily follow from the first. There are countless ways of tweak supply/demand of McJobs, such as low minimum wages resulting in a glut of retail locations , changing total hours non-degreed workers (read high-schoolers) can work, adjusting rules on temp workers, community college intakes, etc. There a many variables, and increasing minimum wage impacting a subset of (mostly unskilled[0]) workers doesn't automatically mean an increase in income for skilled jobs. 0. I dislike the term, but it conveys my intended meaning. "Jobs that require no prior training" is unwieldy.
- greedo 5y ago
  The demand for the university degree didn't increase when the fry cook's salary rose. Increased demand raises salaries, not a worker commanding a higher wage.
sokoloff 5y ago
He should be able to live on that salary, no argument. Being able to live alone in a studio or with roommates in a 3BR is the way loads of 20-somethings have lived for many decades. He should be able to live; that doesn’t (for me) extend to “rent the average 1BR apartment for less than 35% of his gross pay, by law”.

Why shouldn't someone working as a fry cook be able to live on his salary? It's not dangerous to have a system where not everyone needs a university degree to earn a living.

ars 5y ago

Think about that. Let's take your world, the fry cook can live on his salary. Now the person with a University degree can command a much higher wage since his skill is in great demand. He's got more money, so he can afford more expensive stuff, increasing demand, which increases prices, and now your fry cook can no longer live on his salary. Do you want to respond by raising wages again? You're in a never ending loop.

sangnoir 5y ago
> Now the person with a University degree can command a much higher wage since his skill is in great demand. This does not necessarily follow from the previous statement, and may even be completely unrelated.
- ars 5y ago
  It's pretty much automatic. If there's more demand than supply, then companies will offer more money to hire this person with a university degree. The only way you keep this person's wage down is increase supply - have lots of people with university degrees. But that's not the real world, in the real world most people are not able to get a degree.
  - sangnoir 5y ago
    > The only way you keep this person's wage down is increase supply - have lots of people with university degrees. Again, the second part of this statement does not necessarily follow from the first. There are countless ways of tweak supply/demand of McJobs, such as low minimum wages resulting in a glut of retail locations , changing total hours non-degreed workers (read high-schoolers) can work, adjusting rules on temp workers, community college intakes, etc. There a many variables, and increasing minimum wage impacting a subset of (mostly unskilled[0]) workers doesn't automatically mean an increase in income for skilled jobs. 0. I dislike the term, but it conveys my intended meaning. "Jobs that require no prior training" is unwieldy.
greedo 5y ago
The demand for the university degree didn't increase when the fry cook's salary rose. Increased demand raises salaries, not a worker commanding a higher wage.

sokoloff 5y ago

He should be able to live on that salary, no argument. Being able to live alone in a studio or with roommates in a 3BR is the way loads of 20-somethings have lived for many decades. He should be able to live; that doesn’t (for me) extend to “rent the average 1BR apartment for less than 35% of his gross pay, by law”.