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Workers’ Pay Globally Hasn’t Kept Up with Inflation

wsj.com

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Re: Workers’ Pay Globally Hasn’t Kept Up with Inflation

#11

Post by gruez »

olliej wrote: post #3

Does 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…

> it’s amazing that companies are permitted to increase prices due to “inflation” but not simultaneously increase wages.

The implied proposal sounds like a great way to get a wage-price spiral.

Re: Workers’ Pay Globally Hasn’t Kept Up with Inflation

#12

Post by jjtheblunt »

dontlaugh wrote: post #4
ThrowawayTestr wrote: post #2

This 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.

does that work better than jumping to a preferable employer (assuming such is possible)?

Re: Workers’ Pay Globally Hasn’t Kept Up with Inflation

#13

Post by gruez »

im_down_w_otp wrote: post #7
hourago wrote: post #5

This 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…

>is the constant appearance of normalized, or even celebrated, impropriety.

Can you provide some examples of such "impropriety"?

>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.

What would this look like? My impression of the 2008 financial crisis was that the factors were so varied and the responsibility of a single actor so diffuse that it was very difficult to actually convict anyone of causing the multi-trillion disaster.

Re: Workers’ Pay Globally Hasn’t Kept Up with Inflation

#15

Post by photonbeam »

jjtheblunt wrote: post #12
dontlaugh wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The threat of industrial action is a great motivator for employers. Unionising your workplace makes that threat possible.

does that work better than jumping to a preferable employer (assuming such is possible)?

Yes, it means they cant pick you off one by one, but have to negotiate against a group that has real leverage

Re: Workers’ Pay Globally Hasn’t Kept Up with Inflation

#16

Post by everforward »

jjtheblunt wrote: post #12
dontlaugh wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The threat of industrial action is a great motivator for employers. Unionising your workplace makes that threat possible.

does that work better than jumping to a preferable employer (assuming such is possible)?

That assumes everyone has that option. There's likely not enough "preferable employer" jobs for everyone to have one in many sectors.

There's also a divide between tactics efficient at the individual level and that efficient at a national or global level. E.g. you can tell an individual they should be a doctor/lawyer/engineer/etc and that's good advice, but if everyone does it then who grows food and cleans floors and etc?

Re: Workers’ Pay Globally Hasn’t Kept Up with Inflation

#17

Post by switch007 »

gruez wrote: post #11
olliej wrote: post #3

Does 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…

> it’s amazing that companies are permitted to increase prices due to “inflation” but not simultaneously increase wages. The implied proposal sounds like a great way to get a wage-price spiral.

I guess we'll just have to shut up and accept a price spiral

Re: Workers’ Pay Globally Hasn’t Kept Up with Inflation

#18

Post by x11vnc4life »

wolongong942 wrote: post #14
ThrowawayTestr wrote: post #2

This is obvious to anyone that works. What do we do about it?

Avoid careers that have been devalued to a greater extent by the following: • Women entering the work force • Immigration • Globalization

Very Charlottesville 2017.

Re: Workers’ Pay Globally Hasn’t Kept Up with Inflation

#19

Post by ec2y »

dontlaugh wrote: post #4
ThrowawayTestr wrote: post #2

This 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.

You obviously don’t have my sucky union. The idiots let our agreement lapse over the pandemic and can’t their act together for a new one. (I’d suspect they were being union busted but I’m in Australia where unions are normal.)

Re: Workers’ Pay Globally Hasn’t Kept Up with Inflation

#20

Post by skfingngihg »

rsa4046 wrote: post #10
im_down_w_otp wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Obama parlayed it into a Netflix deal and donations to his favored causes. He used it, just not to help people.
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