Workers’ Pay Globally Hasn’t Kept Up with Inflation
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Re: Workers’ Pay Globally Hasn’t Kept Up with Inflation
#2This is obvious to anyone that works. What do we do about it?
Re: Workers’ Pay Globally Hasn’t Kept Up with Inflation
#3Does this surprise anyone?it’s amazing that companies are permitted to increase prices due to “inflation” but not simultaneously increase wages.
But more importantly all these companies blaming inflation for prices increases but then reporting proportionately increased profits should be required to pay a recovery tax to bring their profit back down to pre “inflation” proportion.
And of course this is all moot, because inflation calculation intentionally ignore anything that doesn’t impact corporations (cost of living, credit interest rates for individuals, etc), and does include things like interest rates that corporations receive.
Re: Workers’ Pay Globally Hasn’t Kept Up with Inflation
#4This is obvious to anyone that works. What do we do about it?
The threat of industrial action is a great motivator for employers. Unionising your workplace makes that threat possible.
Re: Workers’ Pay Globally Hasn’t Kept Up with Inflation
#5This is the main reason that Western society is radicalizing. Workers are fish in a smaller and smaller pond. Long term it is unsustainable, but like bubbles it is very difficult to predict when it will melt down.
A healthy society needs to be fair. To work hard just to continue being poor, a part from cruel, will have long lasting political consequences. Some people will go to Communism, other to Fascism as left or right authoritarian regimes grow with people desperation.
Things can get better, there are many good know ways of redistributing wealth and creating opportunity for younger generations. People deserves better.
Re: Workers’ Pay Globally Hasn’t Kept Up with Inflation
#6Does this surprise anyone?it’s amazing that companies are permitted to increase prices due to “inflation” but not simultaneously increase wages. But more importantly all these companies blaming inflation for prices increases but then reporting proportionately increased profits should be required to pay a recovery tax to bring their profit back down to pre “inflation” proportion. And of course this is all moot, becaus…
What do you mean by "allowed"? Inflation happens because we print more money than there are goods to buy and all costs begin to rise because there's still only the same amount of stuff to go around, but more demand.
You can mandate price fixing, but that just tends to cause death spirals where the cost of producing something rises above what you're allowed to charge, so you either keep producing and can't pay your own workers or you stop producing and there's no further supply at any price.
Of course, the fact that this has played out before means that I know that people will just ignore the lessons from Brazil, Zimbabwe, etc. and screw themselves yet again because inflation solves political problems while causing real ones.
Re: Workers’ Pay Globally Hasn’t Kept Up with Inflation
#7This is the main reason that Western society is radicalizing. Workers are fish in a smaller and smaller pond. Long term it is unsustainable, but like bubbles it is very difficult to predict when it will melt down. A healthy society needs to be fair. To work hard just to continue being poor, a part from cruel, will have long lasting political consequences. Some people will go to Communism, other to Fascism as left or…
Another dimension besides just the economic outcomes is the constant appearance of normalized, or even celebrated, impropriety. There's no real accountability for exploiters and no meaningful restitution for the exploited in pretty much any domain. Institutions which advertise themselves as society's equalizers (e.g. "Nobody is above the law") regularly prove to be either nakedly inadequate in the best cases or even active promoters of predation in the worst cases. So people stop believing in the premise. Impartial institutions, or at least the believable perception of impartiality, is perhaps the most essential component to sustain "Western society". For example, I strongly suspect that if any real accountability and real restitution had followed in the wake of something like the 2008 financial crisis, we'd see a lot less radicalization today.
Re: Workers’ Pay Globally Hasn’t Kept Up with Inflation
#8Of course. They said, "Oh, you want $15 /hr minimum wage? Cool we'll wait 5 years and cut the value of money in half while we pump the stock market. We'll still be rich and 15 will be 7.50."
Re: Workers’ Pay Globally Hasn’t Kept Up with Inflation
#9This is obvious to anyone that works. What do we do about it?
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Re: Workers’ Pay Globally Hasn’t Kept Up with Inflation
#10This is the main reason that Western society is radicalizing. Workers are fish in a smaller and smaller pond. Long term it is unsustainable, but like bubbles it is very difficult to predict when it will melt down. A healthy society needs to be fair. To work hard just to continue being poor, a part from cruel, will have long lasting political consequences. Some people will go to Communism, other to Fascism as left or…
Another dimension besides just the economic outcomes is the constant appearance of normalized, or even celebrated, impropriety. There's no real accountability for exploiters and no meaningful restitution for the exploited in pretty much any domain. Institutions which advertise themselves as society's equalizers (e.g. "Nobody is above the law") regularly prove to be either nakedly inadequate in the best cases or even…
> For example, I strongly suspect that if any real accountability and real restitution had followed in the wake of something like the 2008 financial crisis, we'd see a lot less radicalization today.
Very much agree with this — an opportunity stupidly discarded.