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Voluntary? In an absolutist sense, yes. In practice, no. In theory all work in voluntary, assuming you can leave job and still afford to pay for basic amenities
by turkishrevenge 18y ago
Voluntary? In an absolutist sense, yes. In practice, no. In theory all work in voluntary, assuming you can leave job and still afford to pay for basic amenities like food, housing, transportation, and still provide for your family, etc until new employment is secured. If you cannot do these things, it ceases to be voluntary.
"but paying homeless people $3 an hour is barbaric, what do you want, homeless sweat shops?"
Well according to this logic, $2.50/hr is better than $0/hr; $2/hr is better than $0/hr; $1/hr is better than $0/hr, and so on. Everything you describe is a race to the bottom in terms of wages. There would have to be a very strong deflationary pressure to bring prices to the point where the above is capable of really purchasing anything. In such a case, the economy would be in shambles anyway, so employment in general would be a huge issue.
What you describe is not new and, at its core, totally exploitative. Living in a company town is strikingly similar to this. The employer actually "pays" the worker, $7/hr, but keeps the $4 majority the payment of ground rent, food, etc. Of course, you leave any time--that is until your meager savings are depleted by a raised cost of living--one manufactured by the benevolent boss/mayor!
- nazgulnarsil 18y agoyou're talking about a monopoly situation. I'm talking about a startup that competes for low wage/low skill time and then contracts this work out. It really isn't much different from the prison work programs, except the homless can leave anytime.
- turkishrevenge 18y agoLook, I'm pointing out what has historically existed. Competition was around at that time as well, and these things still happened. You're the one putting forth this idea and I am criticizing it. If you cannot defend it, then it probably needs work. " I'm talking about a startup that competes for low wage/low skill time and then contracts this work out. It really isn't much different from the prison work programs, except the homeless can leave anytime" Considering prisons, for the most part cost money, I would like to see how this would be profitable. I love how you justify this kind of behavior by qualifying anything you say with something to the effect of "but they can leave at any time". BTW This sounds like the same system (Gang System) employed by the English agricultural industry in the mid 19th century. It was one step above slavery, because "they could leave at any time", although their wages were so pitiful this was realistically an impossibility. And yes, there was a lot of competition. Same thing with domestic labor. When you're an unskilled laborer, your options are pretty limited by default. These are not new ideas, they're just horrible ideas from the past that people for the most part have forgotten about.
- nazgulnarsil 18y agowhy do you keep comparing the homeless to people who were trying to actually make a living and raise families? the situation is totally different. When you're an unskilled laborer, your options are pretty limited by default. and you want to limit those options further. I'm not grasping how giving someone an additional option makes their situation worse. Say it was as bad as you say and these places were horrible. Homeless person in city A options: normal homeless options Homeless person in city B options: normal homeless options + low wage job offer how is the person in city A magically better off?
- turkishrevenge 18y agoYou neglect option C: A charity and/or social program that provides a safe, albeit spartan environment in which the person can live for a temporary period, while receiving instruction on life skills, resume preparation, interview conduct, and if all goes well, job placement. These kind of programs already exist for parolees (a similar type of at-risk population) and they are, for the most part, effective. And you don't need to exploit someone that already has a hard enough time adjusting to society.
- nazgulnarsil 18y agohow is that not included in normal homeless options? you're talking about taxpayer funded programs. I'm talking about a business.