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I got flamed for suggesting this recently, but I'd like to see it: Equal wages/prices for all regardless of geography, brought on by a single world currency an

by mrtron 18y ago

I got flamed for suggesting this recently, but I'd like to see it: Equal wages/prices for all regardless of geography, brought on by a single world currency and the internet? That would solve world hunger (which is a money issue, not supply issue). edit: Awesome. It's getting downvoted here too? What the hell is wrong with the concept? edit 2: Oh I was completely blind to the obvious here...I mean equal wages in terms of task (not geography). A McDonalds worker should make the same here or in another country (assuming McD's was charging the same for burgers too). Software developers who contract online are approaching this equality. I am not suggesting communism or some sort of set rate for work, individual productivity is really important.

johnrob 18y ago
How about free food for everyone?
paraschopra 18y ago
I don't understand why you got downmodded. Although I don't agree with you on equal wages/prices, I do +1 to you just for the freedom of speech sake.
CaptainMorgan 18y ago
I didn't down or upvote simply because I think it's an honest suggestion. But it's impractical because the diversity is too vast to warrant an equal playing field such as you're suggesting. There are those that try really hard and succeed magnificently, while there are those that sit back and are too lazy to get anything done and would rather collect welfare. There are polar opposites too, those that try really hard but fail, and those that are lazy and somehow succeed.... you're telling me that no matter where these groups fall, they should all receive equal wages? Reiterating that I didn't downvote you, I can certainly see why someone would. So the explanation I just noted is simply my view and what I've seen and ultimately your concept is not practical nor fair.
- yargseiks 18y ago
  I find it strange that the majority of people thought the OP was referring to equal wages regardless of effort. It was pretty clear to me that he was referring to the difference in salary between countries for the same type of work. It disheartens me sometimes hearing that entry-level programmers in the US make $20 an hour, while I, with more than two years of experience, make about $30 a day. People don't realize how vast the disparity of living standards are across the globe.
  - scorpioxy 18y ago
    Upvoted because its true. I worked as an independent programmer(still do) and i often got judged by the country that i live in instead of how well(or badly) i do the job.
Mystalic 18y ago
Equal wages just kills this, that's why. I will simply say that I'm smarter and harder working than the vast majority. I deserve to be rewarded. More importantly, it's an incentive to be harder working.
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]
- z3r0p4r4d0x 18y ago
  Yes, but maybe there's a guy just as equally smart and hard working in a developing nation and he's getting peanuts even though his government doesn't provide him with health care or education or social security. Voted up.
zacharydanger 18y ago
You'd better hope someone benevolent is in charge of minting that global currency.
- mrtron 18y ago
  Currencies are currently horribly manipulated, and individual currency crashes (like Iceland) can completely devastate a population. Maybe centralization could be better? It seems to be working well for the EU.
  - corentin 18y ago
    The euro actually is a disaster for most european countries. It's nothing but a fixed-parity system and as such it's likely to break down soon.
cellis 18y ago
In essence, what you're suggesting is communism. Unless i'm misreading your comment, in which case could you please clarify "wages".
tokenadult 18y ago
What's your recommendation for something to read about economics, a question I asked HN readers http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=415683 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=415683 with fewer answers than I expected from this erudite group.
- mrtron 18y ago
  I took quite a few economics courses in university - and all of the textbooks were poor. The best course was on monetary policy, basically the type of modeling and process the Federal Reserve or the Bank of Canada go through. Check out http://www.stanford.edu/~johntayl/MacroPolicyWorld.htm http://www.stanford.edu/~johntayl/MacroPolicyWorld.htm
- cx01 18y ago
  I'd recommend you to read up on the Austrian School of Economics. A rather easy introduction is this: http://mises.org/books/econforrealpeople.pdf http://mises.org/books/econforrealpeople.pdf More advanced: http://mises.org/rothbard/mes.asp http://mises.org/rothbard/mes.asp and http://mises.org/Books/HumanActionScholars.pdf http://mises.org/Books/HumanActionScholars.pdf
silentbicycle 18y ago
Rather than necessarily setting all wages the same, providing a minimum stipend* may retain many of the same positive effects without eliminating economic rewards for more work, innovation, etc. The first 10k or so can do a lot to help people get people out of the zone where they have to make bad long-term choices just to make ends meet week to week. Of course, the wealth still needs to come from somewhere, but for sake of argument. * Say $10-20,000, though setting this to something realistic will actually depend on a lot of variables, both personal and regional. Defining "equal wages" is tricky. (Also, the possibility of sudden, huge medical costs, for example, can sabotage the entire system, but that's true now.)
- silentbicycle 18y ago
  Oops. I missed that your comment was about widely varying pay from one country to another...
mynameishere 18y ago
If you've been flamed for this recently, then you have probably been informed of the idea's utter bankruptcy. Why post it again?
- silentbicycle 18y ago
  The tendency of an idea to be met with knee-jerk flames says more about the responders than about the idea's merit.
  - byrneseyeview 18y ago
    Which doesn't mean it has no correlation to the idea's merit. Actually, I'd be curious about what makes the best flamebait -- is it totally dishonest stuff, mostly controversial stuff, or ideas that people suspect are true but want to think (or what to be heard saying) are false and deplorable?
    - silentbicycle 18y ago
      In spite of being textual, I think most flaming really happens at an emotional level. The best flamebait pushes people's buttons (perhaps unintentionally).
anamax 18y ago
> Equal wages/prices for all regardless of geography, Why? There are different costs and benefits to living in different places, so why wouldn't the wages vary as well? And, if you think that that the cost differences can be eliminated, Hawaii is going to become very crowded.
laut 18y ago
Eliminating hunger is a noble goal. Equal prices is a terrible goal and not a way to eliminate hunger. You can't have equal prices everywhere. If you want to try to force prices to be equal, you would ruin the price system. Without a working price system you would end up with something like the USSR. Why is equality the ideal? It's not people in the "first world" that are starving, so why not look at what works in the first world? The problem is that in the countries where people are starving, they don't have the economic freedom that enables the wealth that means you don't have to starve. So I hope that there will be more economic freedom in poorer countries. Then they will be able to achieve a higher standard of living.

by mrtron 18y ago

johnrob 18y ago

How about free food for everyone?

paraschopra 18y ago

I don't understand why you got downmodded. Although I don't agree with you on equal wages/prices, I do +1 to you just for the freedom of speech sake.

CaptainMorgan 18y ago

I didn't down or upvote simply because I think it's an honest suggestion. But it's impractical because the diversity is too vast to warrant an equal playing field such as you're suggesting. There are those that try really hard and succeed magnificently, while there are those that sit back and are too lazy to get anything done and would rather collect welfare. There are polar opposites too, those that try really hard but fail, and those that are lazy and somehow succeed.... you're telling me that no matter where these groups fall, they should all receive equal wages? Reiterating that I didn't downvote you, I can certainly see why someone would. So the explanation I just noted is simply my view and what I've seen and ultimately your concept is not practical nor fair.

yargseiks 18y ago
I find it strange that the majority of people thought the OP was referring to equal wages regardless of effort. It was pretty clear to me that he was referring to the difference in salary between countries for the same type of work. It disheartens me sometimes hearing that entry-level programmers in the US make $20 an hour, while I, with more than two years of experience, make about $30 a day. People don't realize how vast the disparity of living standards are across the globe.
- scorpioxy 18y ago
  Upvoted because its true. I worked as an independent programmer(still do) and i often got judged by the country that i live in instead of how well(or badly) i do the job.

Mystalic 18y ago

Equal wages just kills this, that's why. I will simply say that I'm smarter and harder working than the vast majority. I deserve to be rewarded. More importantly, it's an incentive to be harder working.

deleted 18y ago
[deleted]
z3r0p4r4d0x 18y ago
Yes, but maybe there's a guy just as equally smart and hard working in a developing nation and he's getting peanuts even though his government doesn't provide him with health care or education or social security. Voted up.

zacharydanger 18y ago

You'd better hope someone benevolent is in charge of minting that global currency.

mrtron 18y ago
Currencies are currently horribly manipulated, and individual currency crashes (like Iceland) can completely devastate a population. Maybe centralization could be better? It seems to be working well for the EU.
- corentin 18y ago
  The euro actually is a disaster for most european countries. It's nothing but a fixed-parity system and as such it's likely to break down soon.

cellis 18y ago

In essence, what you're suggesting is communism. Unless i'm misreading your comment, in which case could you please clarify "wages".

tokenadult 18y ago

What's your recommendation for something to read about economics, a question I asked HN readers http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=415683 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=415683 with fewer answers than I expected from this erudite group.

mrtron 18y ago
I took quite a few economics courses in university - and all of the textbooks were poor. The best course was on monetary policy, basically the type of modeling and process the Federal Reserve or the Bank of Canada go through. Check out http://www.stanford.edu/~johntayl/MacroPolicyWorld.htm http://www.stanford.edu/~johntayl/MacroPolicyWorld.htm
cx01 18y ago
I'd recommend you to read up on the Austrian School of Economics. A rather easy introduction is this: http://mises.org/books/econforrealpeople.pdf http://mises.org/books/econforrealpeople.pdf More advanced: http://mises.org/rothbard/mes.asp http://mises.org/rothbard/mes.asp and http://mises.org/Books/HumanActionScholars.pdf http://mises.org/Books/HumanActionScholars.pdf

silentbicycle 18y ago

Rather than necessarily setting all wages the same, providing a minimum stipend* may retain many of the same positive effects without eliminating economic rewards for more work, innovation, etc. The first 10k or so can do a lot to help people get people out of the zone where they have to make bad long-term choices just to make ends meet week to week. Of course, the wealth still needs to come from somewhere, but for sake of argument. * Say $10-20,000, though setting this to something realistic will actually depend on a lot of variables, both personal and regional. Defining "equal wages" is tricky. (Also, the possibility of sudden, huge medical costs, for example, can sabotage the entire system, but that's true now.)

silentbicycle 18y ago
Oops. I missed that your comment was about widely varying pay from one country to another...

mynameishere 18y ago

If you've been flamed for this recently, then you have probably been informed of the idea's utter bankruptcy. Why post it again?

silentbicycle 18y ago
The tendency of an idea to be met with knee-jerk flames says more about the responders than about the idea's merit.
- byrneseyeview 18y ago
  Which doesn't mean it has no correlation to the idea's merit. Actually, I'd be curious about what makes the best flamebait -- is it totally dishonest stuff, mostly controversial stuff, or ideas that people suspect are true but want to think (or what to be heard saying) are false and deplorable?
  - silentbicycle 18y ago
    In spite of being textual, I think most flaming really happens at an emotional level. The best flamebait pushes people's buttons (perhaps unintentionally).

anamax 18y ago

> Equal wages/prices for all regardless of geography, Why? There are different costs and benefits to living in different places, so why wouldn't the wages vary as well? And, if you think that that the cost differences can be eliminated, Hawaii is going to become very crowded.

laut 18y ago

Eliminating hunger is a noble goal. Equal prices is a terrible goal and not a way to eliminate hunger. You can't have equal prices everywhere. If you want to try to force prices to be equal, you would ruin the price system. Without a working price system you would end up with something like the USSR. Why is equality the ideal? It's not people in the "first world" that are starving, so why not look at what works in the first world? The problem is that in the countries where people are starving, they don't have the economic freedom that enables the wealth that means you don't have to starve. So I hope that there will be more economic freedom in poorer countries. Then they will be able to achieve a higher standard of living.