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Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

theguardian.com

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Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#181

Post by maxerickson »

humanrebar wrote: post #100
thanksgiving wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You are delusional or you have serious maths problems: if you can afford to give 100 to 10 people, you automatically afford to give 100 to 100,000 people? What logic is that? Ah, yes this is what the economists say. They are the delusional ones. Means testing breeds resentment and separates people. No, Scandinavians you don't get a say in this until you have as much "diversity" as we do in the United States. Here i…

A more middle ground solution would be to keep means testing but turn hard cut-offs into smoother ramp-downs. Making a few grand more shouldn't lose you benefits worth much more.

They are objecting to wealth transfer, I doubt making it more effective matters to them.

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#182

Post by owebmaster »

acuozzo wrote: post #150
Dude2018 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's how capitalism and meritocracy work unfortunately.

> capitalism and meritocracy No, this is how the market works, but the market is hardly meritocratic. On which merit do you propose we judge workers in order to determine fair compensation for their work?

It is meritocratic, the problem is with the score system.

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#183

Post by notacoward »

c0nfused wrote: post #166
myroon5 wrote: post #164

Almost 80k/year in salary leaves a family stuck in a garage over there? That's absurd

Only if you need to live in the most expensive housing market in the nation.

...which you do, if your job is tied to a location in that market. Uprooting a family to move elsewhere is more of a burden than a lot of affluent young single people seem to think.

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#184

Post by zlynx »

c0nfused wrote: post #166
myroon5 wrote: post #164

Almost 80k/year in salary leaves a family stuck in a garage over there? That's absurd

Only if you need to live in the most expensive housing market in the nation.

Right. Raising their pay wouldn't even help. Oh, it would help them but whatever place they manage to move into with their improved cash flow would displace someone else. Then those displaced people would have a sob story until they get their pay raised, and displace someone...

The real problem is the lack of housing for the number of people that want to live there.

A few good skyscraper high density developments would fix it better than pay increases.

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#186

Post by SilasX »

humanrebar wrote: post #91
ocschwar wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re-read the comment. There's a lot of truth to it: raise their wages, and in a heartbeat, those workers will see their rents rise.

...and more development projects will make financial sense, so there will be more investment in housing. Rising rents are a short term problem, but they do provide long-term solutions. Of course, communities in the Bay Area (and elsewhere) can make it less expensive to build affordable, denser housing. That should have similar long term benefits.

>...and more development projects will make financial sense, so there will be more investment in housing.

Not with the current policies that the G/GGP were criticizing! Numerous projects already make sense, in spades, but are being blocked by planning commissions.

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#187

Post by mc32 »

tsunamifury wrote: post #169
mc32 wrote: post #163

One way to minimize the cost of living impact is to set up satellite offices. Set up a campus in Texas or Oklahoma. It's not like people would not take jobs there. I'm sure some globe trotters would not, but most jobs don't need the globe trotter kind of mentality.

Janitors, bus drivers, food service workers and security can't work from a "satellite office". This is about more than engineers.

Fewer engs in the bay area lowers pressure on cost of housing, among other things.

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#188

Post by dopamean »

notyourwork wrote: post #178
koolba wrote: post #174

> They earn too much to qualify for state healthcare, but not enough to afford the health insurance offered by their employer. They frequently struggle to find enough money for basics like food and clothes for their children. Victor recently borrowed money from his mother to hold a birthday party for one of his daughters, and from a friend to pay for a dentist appointment. They might want to look into not being marri…

> but not enough to afford the health insurance offered by their employer. This is what is wrong with health care in the US. How can this not be considered a serious flaw in the way the system is currently structured?

Plenty of people consider it a serious flaw. It's just that very few of them are in government.

Re: Cafeteria workers at Facebook struggle to make ends meet

#190

Post by dfrey »

tsunamifury wrote: post #169
mc32 wrote: post #163

One way to minimize the cost of living impact is to set up satellite offices. Set up a campus in Texas or Oklahoma. It's not like people would not take jobs there. I'm sure some globe trotters would not, but most jobs don't need the globe trotter kind of mentality.

Janitors, bus drivers, food service workers and security can't work from a "satellite office". This is about more than engineers.

Yes, but a lot of the big tech companies like Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Google and Microsoft want people to work at their head office location rather than opening up satellite offices across the world. I understand how it simplifies logistics and communication, but it's not without its own problems.
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