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I think it's good as a lesson or exercise, but I think a lot of this tallying must end up being dubious. How does one account for underpayment of labour or the

• PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
  For underplayment of labor, you determine what a living wage would be in the area where the underpayment takes place, subtract the actual amount paid, and the difference is the "cost" of underpayment (which shows up only as a net positive in any actual balance sheets, but imposes net cost on society as a result of having more people who struggle to survive). You could go further and quantify the effective costs of that struggle, but I don't think you need to. If something you buy contains 2 hours of labor that should have been paid $8/hr but was paid $4/hr, then there's a component to the "true cost" of at least $8.