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The British Are Coming for Your White-Collar Job

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Re: The British Are Coming for Your White-Collar Job

#91

Post by ben_w »

dukeyukey wrote: post #79
kranke155 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One more data point: https://equalitytrust.org.uk/scale-economic-inequality-uk So the wealth gini coefficient is indeed lower I expected. The income gini coefficient however is among the highest in Europe, just as I expected. Is it possible you're cherry picking statistics?

No it isn't - I'm well aware UK income inequality is high, whereas wealth inequality is quite low. That's why I said "wealth inequality", and that Thatcher improved it. Right-to-Buy basically made home ownership vastly more accessible to the working class in a way that hadn't happened before. It's bad that it coincided with an economic reworked that we're still recovering from, but I can't discuss everything in every…

I'm not sure how much the right to buy directly increased wealth vs. the lack of subsequent council house construction which changed supply vs. demand and drove up the market prices for all houses.

To me, house price inflation feels like all other inflation: the number may be going up, but people aren't actually better off for it.

Re: The British Are Coming for Your White-Collar Job

#92

Post by ben_w »

denton-scratch wrote: post #70
dukeyukey wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> in the UK doing an undergraduate degree is a humanities subject has much higher social status than the US I'm not really sure there's much of a difference between any subjects in the UK. Like, maybe stuff like Physics is seen as better? There's a big thing against "Micky Mouse degrees", that aren't seeing as leading to a job. Recruiters themselves are seen as one step above estate agents, which is _not_ a high stat…

I have a pretty low opinion of estate agents; but my opinion of recruiters is much lower. I'd put them in a class alongside - I dunno, politicians, maybe.

Nah, even recruiters who mix up Java and JavaScript aren't as bad as politicians :P

Re: The British Are Coming for Your White-Collar Job

#93

Post by kranke155 »

ben_w wrote: post #91
dukeyukey wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it isn't - I'm well aware UK income inequality is high, whereas wealth inequality is quite low. That's why I said "wealth inequality", and that Thatcher improved it. Right-to-Buy basically made home ownership vastly more accessible to the working class in a way that hadn't happened before. It's bad that it coincided with an economic reworked that we're still recovering from, but I can't discuss everything in every…

I'm not sure how much the right to buy directly increased wealth vs. the lack of subsequent council house construction which changed supply vs. demand and drove up the market prices for all houses. To me, house price inflation feels like all other inflation: the number may be going up, but people aren't actually better off for it.

Pretty much. Right to Buy made her popular, and made a single generation of people richer, but at the cost of destroying the housing market in the long term.

Re: The British Are Coming for Your White-Collar Job

#94

Post by oliwarner »

Rinzler89 wrote: post #4

Would you mind also looking a bit further please, like on the main European continent? Our wages here are even lower than in London/UK and we also speak good English. You can hire a developer here for what you'd pay a barista at your San-Fran HQ. Thanks!

> we also speak good English

I think the accent has as much to do with it as anything. Americans are culturally wired to overestimate someone with even a mildly posh British accent.

Re: The British Are Coming for Your White-Collar Job

#95

Post by kranke155 »

Rinzler89 wrote: post #83
kranke155 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean her political jiu jitsu of making council homes available for sale? Yes it created a new owner class that was enamoured with her, but the end consequence of it is probably the housing crisis/asset bubble that the UK has been living with for 15 years or so. Buying a council home did make a lot of new owners rich, but it's likely it harmed the long term prospects for the whole country. That was a lot of Thatch…

>In Germany industry was never destroyed for the sake of the service sector. Until they ran out of cheap Russian gas. Germany also has a high level of wealth inequality. Buying a home there is a luxury for the rich now. Yeah, rent protections and what not, but good luck to the average German affording rent and utilities in 30 year on a pension.

The fact that you think Germany is anywhere near as deindustrialised as the UK, because of the increasing cost of energy, is a bit funny to me. The UK was brutally deindustrialised.

The UK manufacturing output is 8.69% of GDP. https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/GBR/uni...

German manufacturing output is 18% of GDP in 2022. That's over twice the UK. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NV.IND.MANF.ZS?location...

Look at data, stop reading sensationalistic news articles. I doubt that Germany has lost over half its industrial capacity since 2022.

Re: The British Are Coming for Your White-Collar Job

#96

Post by Ekaros »

NullPrefix wrote: post #22
resolutebat wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you contract with another business to employ them on your behalf. Legal, common, and much more flexible.

mandatory legal benefits like generous sick and parental leave still apply

They are still cheaper despite all that...

Re: The British Are Coming for Your White-Collar Job

#97

Post by Rinzler89 »

simonsarris wrote: post #85
Rinzler89 wrote: post #4

Would you mind also looking a bit further please, like on the main European continent? Our wages here are even lower than in London/UK and we also speak good English. You can hire a developer here for what you'd pay a barista at your San-Fran HQ. Thanks!

We could hire them. But could we fire them?

Yes you can. Austria is at-will employment.

Re: The British Are Coming for Your White-Collar Job

#98

Post by NullPrefix »

red-iron-pine wrote: post #64
NullPrefix wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

mandatory legal benefits like generous sick and parental leave still apply

not if they're in a different country, and if they're employed as contractors

>you contract with another business to employ them

That another business is liable to pay them

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