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You can look to Scandinavia to answer this question. Basically labor becomes vested in being part of high value activities. You will order your big mac from a
by 0xfaded 3y ago
You can look to Scandinavia to answer this question.
Basically labor becomes vested in being part of high value activities. You will order your big mac from a touch screen and pick it up from the window when called. The burger meal will still cost $20, but not $50.
You also need the generous unemployment policy with (actual) retraining options. There's a common refrain "who has time to learn how to code?". The person who's union will provide 70% of their salary while pursuing a free education does. But that's done by agreement with the union, if the person would be better off training as a plumber, that will probably happen instead. Basically you need to remove the incentive for clinging onto unproductive jobs for the sake of jobs.
It's not a utopia though, don't get me started about the Danish job center which is basically state funded harassment.
- seanmcdirmid 3y agoI don’t think Danes are making $50/hour at an Aarhus McDonald’s.
- 0xfaded 3y agoIt's difficult to do apples to apples. Looks like $22/h with six weeks paid vacation was widely quoted in 2021. After social redistributions your probably in the ballpark of $40/h US equivalent. For what is worth, looks like a big Mac meal is 99kr, ~$15
- seanmcdirmid 3y agoI don’t think you can count social redistributions because they aren’t job related. You can look at the employer payroll tax side and add that up though, both the USA and Denmark have that. $22 is slightly more than what a McDonald’s worker earns here in Seattle, if we are comparing Aarhus (I’ve never visited any other cities in Denmark). And probably no vacation.
- beaeglebeached 3y ago$22 in Seattle would give you plenty of cash for a visit to REI headquarters to buy a real nice ultralight tent and dry down sleeping bag that will fit into a small enough backpack that people might not figure out you're homeless.
- seanmcdirmid 3y agoDrug addicts are the visible homeless in Seattle, they aren’t going to make rent at any price, let alone hold a job (so why not drift to HCOL cities with more generous social services and less enforcement for shop lifting). Functional unhoused who are either crashing on couches, or sleeping in vans or cars. Most people holding jobs, even at $20/hour, actually have housing. It’s not impossible to get at that wage if you aren’t supporting a family at the same time.
- beaeglebeached 3y agoI ended up under a tarp at that wage. Then I worked a rotation on a fishing boat and afterwords hitchiked to Eugene where I could actually rent a room from full time labor.
- rayiner 3y agoThe US also has social redistribution for workers in that earning range. Are you double counting?
- 0xfaded 3y agoIt really is difficult to compare apples to apple. But I think if the average person were to make an informed choice between a life with a job earning $22/h job in Denmark or the US, most would choose Denmark. FWIW, I grew up in Australia, live in the Bay Area, and lived 4 years in Denmark. I have friends on both sides in that income bracket.
- seanmcdirmid 3y ago> But I think if the average person were to make an informed choice between a life with a job earning $22/h job in Denmark or the US, most would choose Denmark. Sure, but the average person isn’t planning to make $22/hour for their entire life. This is also why we have a lot of Danes here in the Seattle area (working in tech making lots of money), they have the highest CS graduate degree rate per capita so it makes sense.