3 ms·

yeah, let's take it away from the poor so the rich can buy more stuff at lower prices!

SoftTalker 4y ago
You can't run away from the real economic value of goods, services, and labor. If the working poor are now making more than they used to for doing the same work, prices will inflate until they consume about the same percentage they did before, because the economic value of their labor has not changed. If you want to help the poor in the long run, you can't just pay them more money for the same work, you have to find ways to make their labor worth more.
- ushakov 4y ago
  that's just sounds like excuse why we should take money from the poor "we'll have to take away your pay bump and any hopes for better pay, because the market decided you're not actually worth it" "our billion dollar/year company can't afford to pay more without increasing prices for end-consumers"
- cnelsenmilt 4y ago
  You're begging the question with your assumption that the previous price of labor reflected its true value and the new price is excessive. What if it was previously undervalued and the new price is correct?
  - josephcsible 4y ago
    Then we'd have been in a recession in 2019 and wouldn't have high inflation right now.
    - salawat 4y ago
      That doesn't follow, and you're forgetting the golden rule of value: A thing's value is the what two people agree to transact for. A thing's value isn't dome statistical hand wave. It's a statement of fact. A dependent variable with a huge multiplicity of inputs. If a laborer is not will ing to sell their time, which arguably, a great deal of American laborers probably shouldn't be right now given the rates many employers are offering and exploitive business models in use, Then the value is not defined. Businesses can essentially name their price because there is a capital management complex that overall colludes to create an emergent that as a happy side effect for the actors within, leads to members being generously enriched. The glorious absurdity to it all though, is that group is in part primarily empowered by us The enemy here, is us.
- cudgy 4y ago
  What about corporate profit margins? Why can’t they go down too? Powell and the Fed would never suggest reducing corporate margins. Much better to destroy jobs.
ceeplusplus 4y ago
Low skill job wage buys you about the same amount of housing regardless of whether you're making $25/h in the Bay or $12/h in Arkansas. It buys you about the same amount of restaurant food, conditioned on buying from a local restaurant instead of a national chain. It buys you the same amount of a mechanic's work. You can't escape basic economics. The supply of low skill labor is vastly greater than the demand, ergo real wages are low. The supply of housing is vastly smaller than demand, ergo real rents are high.

You can't run away from the real economic value of goods, services, and labor. If the working poor are now making more than they used to for doing the same work, prices will inflate until they consume about the same percentage they did before, because the economic value of their labor has not changed. If you want to help the poor in the long run, you can't just pay them more money for the same work, you have to find ways to make their labor worth more.

ushakov 4y ago
that's just sounds like excuse why we should take money from the poor "we'll have to take away your pay bump and any hopes for better pay, because the market decided you're not actually worth it" "our billion dollar/year company can't afford to pay more without increasing prices for end-consumers"
cnelsenmilt 4y ago
You're begging the question with your assumption that the previous price of labor reflected its true value and the new price is excessive. What if it was previously undervalued and the new price is correct?
- josephcsible 4y ago
  Then we'd have been in a recession in 2019 and wouldn't have high inflation right now.
  - salawat 4y ago
    That doesn't follow, and you're forgetting the golden rule of value: A thing's value is the what two people agree to transact for. A thing's value isn't dome statistical hand wave. It's a statement of fact. A dependent variable with a huge multiplicity of inputs. If a laborer is not will ing to sell their time, which arguably, a great deal of American laborers probably shouldn't be right now given the rates many employers are offering and exploitive business models in use, Then the value is not defined. Businesses can essentially name their price because there is a capital management complex that overall colludes to create an emergent that as a happy side effect for the actors within, leads to members being generously enriched. The glorious absurdity to it all though, is that group is in part primarily empowered by us The enemy here, is us.
cudgy 4y ago
What about corporate profit margins? Why can’t they go down too? Powell and the Fed would never suggest reducing corporate margins. Much better to destroy jobs.

ceeplusplus 4y ago

Low skill job wage buys you about the same amount of housing regardless of whether you're making $25/h in the Bay or $12/h in Arkansas. It buys you about the same amount of restaurant food, conditioned on buying from a local restaurant instead of a national chain. It buys you the same amount of a mechanic's work. You can't escape basic economics. The supply of low skill labor is vastly greater than the demand, ergo real wages are low. The supply of housing is vastly smaller than demand, ergo real rents are high.