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Federal Reserve chair says decline in workers' share of profits 'very troubling'
141–150 of 289 posts
Re: Federal Reserve chair says decline in workers' share of profits 'very troubling'
#142How can this be fixed? If businesses increase salaries they will likely not meet their quarterly which means investors will punish them. Too many quarters like this and the C-Team gets replaced. This is a sad, pathetic treadmill we are on. I strongly feel we need to go back to annual reporting.
Join a trade union. Encourage your family, friends, and colleagues to join a trade union.
Re: Federal Reserve chair says decline in workers' share of profits 'very troubling'
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
Honestly, where would it go? The US Treasury sets the bond price and no one is turning it down even with completely shitty returns (like 1-2%!). If capital flees they can go to an even higher tax country in the EU. They can go to a negative return country like Switzerland. They could go to China, but guess what, it's a one way trip! I bet if lawmakers said capital gains tax is bumped to 20% everyone of them would bit…
That's the problem, they wouldn't just moan for 30 minutes. They would spend money to have the tax reduced which I'm assuming is the only reason the tax isn't at 0% because it's not worth it for them to push it below 15%.
"Spend the money" = "lobbying" = legalized bribery, and sometimes blackmail.
Regulatory capture is the biggest enemy of free markets.
Re: Federal Reserve chair says decline in workers' share of profits 'very troubling'
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not counter-intuitive if you look at who makes the laws. The system is one where back-scratching, ass-covering, and kickback-giving is the norm. It's surprising there's any tax on capital at all. A few more rounds of conservatives in power might take care of that. Conservative anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist once said, "I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag…
From Wikipedia: > Grover Glenn Norquist (born October 19, 1956) is an American political advocate who is founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform, an organization that opposes all tax increases. A Republican,[4] he is the primary promoter of the "Taxpayer Protection Pledge", a pledge signed by lawmakers who agree to oppose increases in marginal income tax rates for individuals and businesses, as well as net…
When that means that government also has fewer resources available to enforce labor laws, that's a very anti-labor stance.
Re: Federal Reserve chair says decline in workers' share of profits 'very troubling'
#145Why doesn't the stock market act as a balancing system to low wages? Lowering wages implies higher efficiency thus resulting in higher profits which ultimately end up in "investors" pockets. Why are these "investors" not the common American "worker" whose wages are low? Why has the market not created such an instrument to supplement the "worker" who has low wages but could ultimately profit from the ever-increasingly…
> Why are these "investors" not the common American "worker" whose wages are low?
Because workers don't have money to buy stock, so they don't get the gains from stock appreciation. And because workers are taxed vastly more heavily than investors at the same income level, people who don't stay out living off investments rather than wage labor are, even if m with the same pre-tax income, greatly disadvantaged at accumulating the resources to become others of capital sufficient for their own support (the lucky worker manages to accumulate enough for a modest but decent retirement by the time they are incapable of further wage labor, but many do not.)
It's a lot easier for a modestly wealthy capitalist to become a very wealthy capitalist than for a worker to become even a self-sufficient capitalist.
> Why has the market not created such an instrument to supplement the "worker" who has low wages but could ultimately profit from the ever-increasingly efficient economy?
Because that would involve the people who have disproportionate political and economic power handing over the tools of accumulation of that power to the people they spent considerable effort denying it to in order to accumulate it themselves.
> Why doesn't the stock market act as a great redistributor of capitalistic wealth?
Because that (at least, in the direction of redistribution you propose) is literally the exact opposite of its purpose.
Re: Federal Reserve chair says decline in workers' share of profits 'very troubling'
#146The allocation of profits in startups, at least, feels... problematic. I was the #2 engineer hire when I was hired five years ago. Since then, we haven't become super successful -- yet -- but we're at least at breakeven. We have three engineers and we're working on a huge new project that hopefully will really grow the company. I have 1.8% equity. Sometimes when I'm working late or working on the weekend, which is of…
If you don't need the money, then don't take it. Problem solved. If it's such a small amount of money, then self-fund. The VC is thinking "I'm paying this guy's salary to work on something that may or may not ever pay for itself", and he's got dozens of companies that he's funding and they won't all hit it big... or even survive. Or, another option, don't throw everything you have at a company -- join a later stage s…
1.8 is non trivial (assuming no shenanigans) back in 2000 I had .5% in a uk vc backed company if we had been taken out I would have been a millionaire IRL not just on paper :-(
Re: Federal Reserve chair says decline in workers' share of profits 'very troubling'
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
Either you fix the system or the system fixes you. When you grind people down so much that tens of millions have nothing left to lose, watch out.
This is correct but it's also rewording the parent comment. There is reason to be legitimately concerned that things might be on fire in a year or two, it would be very good for the US government to take actions to prevent that for the benefit of the people who are being ground down and, for bonus points, it would be in the best interest of the people grinding others down!
Why do you think the Bush family and thousands of others like them have swathes of land with bountiful resources in other countries?
They have an escape plan when it gets real. You and I probably don't.
Re: Federal Reserve chair says decline in workers' share of profits 'very troubling'
#148Why doesn't the stock market act as a balancing system to low wages? Lowering wages implies higher efficiency thus resulting in higher profits which ultimately end up in "investors" pockets. Why are these "investors" not the common American "worker" whose wages are low? Why has the market not created such an instrument to supplement the "worker" who has low wages but could ultimately profit from the ever-increasingly…
"Why are these "investors" not the common American "worker" whose wages are low?"
Where the hell are they going to get the money to become investors in the first place?
"Why has the market not created such an instrument to supplement the "worker" who has low wages but could ultimately profit from the ever-increasingly efficient economy?"
What employer, and it's the employers that are the ones this would have to be directed toward, has been asking for this?
Re: Federal Reserve chair says decline in workers' share of profits 'very troubling'
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
Either you fix the system or the system fixes you. When you grind people down so much that tens of millions have nothing left to lose, watch out.
This is correct but it's also rewording the parent comment. There is reason to be legitimately concerned that things might be on fire in a year or two, it would be very good for the US government to take actions to prevent that for the benefit of the people who are being ground down and, for bonus points, it would be in the best interest of the people grinding others down!
Also, the general sentiment is "Well, I'll/someone will worry about that later, today, I need to get mine (money&power)." See: decisions for short term stock price growth vs decisions for actual company improvement over long term.
Re: Federal Reserve chair says decline in workers' share of profits 'very troubling'
#150The allocation of profits in startups, at least, feels... problematic. I was the #2 engineer hire when I was hired five years ago. Since then, we haven't become super successful -- yet -- but we're at least at breakeven. We have three engineers and we're working on a huge new project that hopefully will really grow the company. I have 1.8% equity. Sometimes when I'm working late or working on the weekend, which is of…
If it does not feel fair emotionally, get out.
It sounds like you are unhappy with the amount of late nights and weekends you’re spending.
If you’re still spending backbreaking hours even after the product has been going for awhile, or simply used to like the idea but are not liking it anymore, it might be time to have a heart to heart with your boss. Different companies have different expectations, but at my own company, we’ve always had a strong desire to avoid that sort of intense and demanding work schedule. We’ve thankfully not needed to ask people to come in on a weekend... ever, I believe. We’ve had to fight a fire or two here or there, but it was typically a pretty quick troubleshooting session, and then taking a thoughtful approach during the workweek to figuring out a way to avoid that emergency scenario in the future.
Life is more than work, and it sounds like you’re feeling resentful of your employment situation. Life is short, so do something about it, whether better work life balance, requesting money that will make you happy (if that amount exists and the company is willing to pay it), or something else.