Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Federal Reserve chair says decline in workers' share of profits 'very troubling'

latimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 289 posts

Re: Federal Reserve chair says decline in workers' share of profits 'very troubling'

#61

Post by chrisbennet »

Carlton87 wrote: post #23
ams6110 wrote: post #5

People need to be taught about investing and the time value of money from an early age. If you invest in some low-cost index funds, you share in the profits. And if you start early, it doesn't have to be a big sacrifice.

I agree 100% with you. I will never understand the argument that lack of personal responsibility deserves to be rewarded.

"I never give money to homeless people. I can't reward failure in good conscience." -gselevator

As long as you can regard being poor as a moral failure you can tell yourself you're still a good person (and not an insensitive, selfish one).

Re: Federal Reserve chair says decline in workers' share of profits 'very troubling'

#62

Post by chlvsl »

[deleted] wrote: post #57
sbov wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason is simple: labor has less options. Capital can mostly go where it pleases - if it is taxed too much it might flee the country. But your 160 million workers aren't going to uproot themselves and move to another country because they're too heavily taxed.

[deleted]

The solution is definitely not fully opening the borders. You know full well that, in combination with a welfare state, fully open borders would mean the collapse of our society. We would run out of money.

Nobody is required to, nor certainly is entitled to live in the US.

Re: Federal Reserve chair says decline in workers' share of profits 'very troubling'

#63

Post by tajen »

hammock wrote: post #42
legitster wrote: post #27

To me it is pretty ridiculous how much labor is taxed, and how little capital is taxed. Especially if we are worried about automation and lack of productivity growth, it seems so counter-intuitive that we are completely stuck to a tax system that devalues workers.

Who is worried about automation and lack of productivity growth? Seems like the worry is over inequality.

The last industrial revolution got everyone up in arms about inequality. Despite raising every last family’s income by several orders of magnitude. So I guess we’re up for yet-another-round of finding a new balance between rich and poor people.

Re: Federal Reserve chair says decline in workers' share of profits 'very troubling'

#64

Post by lcam84 »

legitster wrote: post #27

To me it is pretty ridiculous how much labor is taxed, and how little capital is taxed. Especially if we are worried about automation and lack of productivity growth, it seems so counter-intuitive that we are completely stuck to a tax system that devalues workers.

We defined work and productivity as the end in it self but it's not. We regard automation as the main cause of unemployment but what was the automation that produced the unemployment and underemployment that we are seeing right now? The main cause of unemployment is that we built the infrastructure that we need and now we only need to maintain it, and that requires much less work. The problem is that we depend on employment to redistribute wealth we are destroying the planet doing stuff that we don't need.

Re: Federal Reserve chair says decline in workers' share of profits 'very troubling'

#65

Post by iamdave »

joyeuse6701 wrote: post #31
noobermin wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BTW, this isn't a moral argument (at least it need not be), practically people cannot invest in anything and yield an actually substantial return. Almost half(E) people in the US cannot weather a $400 emergency without going into debt, how could they possibly have enough money to invest for either themselves or their children? This arguably would be only valuable for people in the middle class to upper middle class.…

If one has internet, one can invest in oneself through education in very tangible lucrative ways. Never before has access to so much knowledge been available from MIT courses to marketing books, much of which is free.

Never before has access to so much knowledge been available from MIT courses to marketing books

Sure, but do these mooc/online courseware platforms teach one how to apply these new tangential skills and translate them into CV language and personal development actions that will get them hired? Especially if one is not already mentally inclined to join a 21st century workforce?

I'm asking this coming from the perspective of someone born in rural South Carolina (in a portion of the United States known as 'The Bible Belt') who is an entirely self-taught programmer, versed in a couple of languages-and realized I had to go to an entirely different part of the world to even make use of what I had learned. So my mind is going out to those people who don't live in dense urban areas and are maybe looking for a relatively 'future-proof' job that may as well be asking the to learn an alien language.

It was only by circumstance alone that I got exposed to the kind of entrepreneurial thinking needed for me to realize early on: I'm not gonna do jack shit with these computer skills, there's no market here, I live in a town that used to be a booming textile center and is now an economically depressed shithole (I say that lovingly, it's my economically depressed shithole), and has been for the last 30 years-forcing me to pack up and leave.

Do you think a substantial number of people who have internet have the same circumstances I did to know "I have this skill now, thanks to an online course, and now I need to follow up on it by making this sacrifice to put myself in a position where these new skills will get me hired. I need to be having these discussions with recruiters and hiring mangers, and doing these things to stand out"? Or even have the resources to pack up and plant their butt in a different part of the country?

Personally, I don't know if all of these code camps and online training programs do more than say "Here's a wrench, here's how to use it, good luck with your future as a wrench turner".

Can anyone speak to career development as an extension of this wealth of online knowledge? I just have hesitations of what utility these programs offer beyond here's how to do x with n.

Re: Federal Reserve chair says decline in workers' share of profits 'very troubling'

#66

Post by isostatic »

israelisreal wrote: post #39

My daughter is going into the Air Force, getting her degree at night for nothing in 2.5 years, going back in as an officer, effectively doubling her income all the while not paying for food, lodging, medical/dental. She plans on doing 20. She'll likely marry an Air Force officer, and two people retiring at 39/40 YO will have a combined retirement of just under 100k (today's money), all the while not wasting precious…

All paid for by those who don't go into the military–industrial complex, but instead pay enormous taxes to fund it. The kid fixing broken windows does well too.

The U.S. accounts for 35% of the world's defence spending, more than twice that of Russia and China together.

Re: Federal Reserve chair says decline in workers' share of profits 'very troubling'

#67

Post by ashleyn »

csense wrote: post #52

40-50 years ago, a young person fresh out of high school could get a job that allowed them to live the middle class life -- own a house and support a family with only one spouse needing to work. Nowadays even college graduates struggle to achieve "liftoff." Globalization has led to a race-to-the-bottom situation where jobs flow across borders, to the places where desperate poverty allows wages to be as low as possibl…

We're doing something, but is it a competent response? Done the wrong way, tariffs just cause everyone to lose. Trump is a symptom of the problem and that's a big part of the reason he happened, but he's not particularly a good solution to it.

Re: Federal Reserve chair says decline in workers' share of profits 'very troubling'

#68

Post by pjmorris »

TAForObvReasons wrote: post #3
sharemywin wrote: post #2

you erode worker bargaining power for 30 years and you wonder why they're share of profits is going down. go figure.

To be fair, the Federal Reserve is not responsible for labor law and the like. They are clearly very late in their response, but it's notable that a non-political organization felt the need to comment.

The Fed is responsible for QE, including about two Trillion in purchases of Mortgage-Backed Securities [0], which has the effect of making housing more expensive than it would otherwise be. If you're a home owner or debt owner, that's good for you. If you pay rent or a mortage, that's wage suppression.

[0] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MBST

Re: Federal Reserve chair says decline in workers' share of profits 'very troubling'

#69

Post by kadenshep »

slg wrote: post #36
noobermin wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BTW, this isn't a moral argument (at least it need not be), practically people cannot invest in anything and yield an actually substantial return. Almost half(E) people in the US cannot weather a $400 emergency without going into debt, how could they possibly have enough money to invest for either themselves or their children? This arguably would be only valuable for people in the middle class to upper middle class.…

I don't disagree with you, but the obvious counter is that you are mixing causation and correlation. You would have to show that people are not investing because they have no extra money and not that they are choosing to use their money now instead of investing. Realistically it is likely a combination of those two and therefore the comment that started this thread has a point that teaching people about investing can…

>You would have to show that people are not investing because they have no extra money and not that they are choosing to use their money now instead of investing.

We know they don't have enough money to invest. Average income + average cost of living We've quite literally known about if for years on a national scale. He doesn't have to show anything.

Re: Federal Reserve chair says decline in workers' share of profits 'very troubling'

#70

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

dragonwriter wrote: post #56
patagonia wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree class issues are at play. But our “class system” is not determined by blood lines. The constituents of a a given class are fluid. Which leads me to believe it is a combination of human nature and relative participation of the various classes. Blaming “the rich” when voting turnout is so low and election participation is low is a non starter for me.

> Blaming “the rich” when voting turnout is so low Depressing turnout by demoralizing constituencies that lean to the other side and, particularly on one side, outright voter suppression, is something that the rich (both independently and acting through the major parties) fund lavishly, so why wouldn't they get blame when turnout is low?

Most people who choose not to vote aren't being systematically repressed. They're just too indifferent and/or lazy to participate.
Post reply on HN