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America pays workers just 27% of what its wealth allows – the worst in the OECD

fortune.com

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Re: America pays workers just 27% of what its wealth allows – the worst in the OECD

#151

Post by danbruc »

gadders wrote: post #133
danbruc wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Envy is the completely wrong framing, it is about fairness. If you design widgets and 99 people build them and everyone works the same number of hours, then the fair share is 1 % for everyone. One percent of the work, one percent of the profit. If you take 2 % [1] while everyone else only gets 0.99 %, that is unfair. And look, the difference for each individual is tiny, 0.99 % or 1 %, that makes it easy to dismiss de…

What about the chap that mortgaged his house to rent a factory and buy a widget maker and employs these people? What % should he take?

He will get the same as the others if he works the same number of hours to run the company. The dept would ideally be company debt and not personal dept, after all one reason to found a company is to separate personal and business risks. But if you invest personal money in the company, you get that money back plus some risk and opportunity premium just as you would pay back any other loan. What fraction that is will of course depend on the amount, premium, and payback period. Just investing some money will not provide you a perpetual income.

Re: America pays workers just 27% of what its wealth allows – the worst in the OECD

#152

Post by _DeadFred_ »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #142
rbehrends wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> American workers still get higher salaries than elsewhere in the OECD and growth in such industries isn't out competing those same industries in other OECD countries. I used to think that also, probably because FAANG salaries had skewed my perception, but after looking at the data, this does not seem to be actually true, at least not in general. For example, Germany has a somewhat higher annual median gross salary…

My expectation is that Germany has higher taxes than the US. What happens if you look at median net salary rather than gross?

You would also need to adjust for the huge medical expenses Americans face if you are doing that as Germans don't have that. Maybe the 401K savings Americans do for retirement (if Germans have a better societal retirement payout than Americans). And the other social benefits that are accounted for by German taxes that Americans still have to account for in some way. You can't just lump those in on the Germans and not account that Americans pay it some way as well.

Re: America pays workers just 27% of what its wealth allows – the worst in the OECD

#154

Post by simianwords »

SideburnsOfDoom wrote: post #128
cyberjerkXX wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All human relationships have inequalities. Attempting to use the government to destroy hierarchies is utopian bullshit. It always leads to worse outcomes than intendent because humans are imperfect. Intentions should never be the measure of success, only outcomes.

> Attempting to use the government to destroy hierarchies is utopian yes, "destroy hierarchies" is utopian. But that's a complete straw man version of "reduce very high levels of inequality that have highly visible political impacts".

Non trivial number of people believe that everyone is equal in abilities. Non trivial number of people believe that communism is a preferable end goal - a goal that excludes hierarchies from forming.

Re: America pays workers just 27% of what its wealth allows – the worst in the OECD

#155

Post by [deleted] »

stasomatic wrote: post #136
DarkNova6 wrote: post #2

As somebody living outside the US, I would find moving to the states highly undesirable even if it wasn't for the hostility towards non-US citizens. To me, it would mean a significant reduction in quality of live and I am low-key scared of all the ingredients and additives in food that are pretty much banned everywhere else. Not to mention all risks regarding healthcare.

I live in the US. I disagree about the hostility towards non-citizens. If you are talking about ICE, it's more about racism. They are not gunning down Brits, Germans or Australians. Agree about the rest. Can I come live in your country? :)

[deleted]

Re: America pays workers just 27% of what its wealth allows – the worst in the OECD

#156

Post by insane_dreamer »

stasomatic wrote: post #136
DarkNova6 wrote: post #2

As somebody living outside the US, I would find moving to the states highly undesirable even if it wasn't for the hostility towards non-US citizens. To me, it would mean a significant reduction in quality of live and I am low-key scared of all the ingredients and additives in food that are pretty much banned everywhere else. Not to mention all risks regarding healthcare.

I live in the US. I disagree about the hostility towards non-citizens. If you are talking about ICE, it's more about racism. They are not gunning down Brits, Germans or Australians. Agree about the rest. Can I come live in your country? :)

[dead]

Re: America pays workers just 27% of what its wealth allows – the worst in the OECD

#157

Post by inigyou »

gadders wrote: post #114
inigyou wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know on Reddit this sort of thing earns you karma but it doesn't work like that on HN.

I don't go on Reddit, but you seem to still have people on here who are hard of thinking and believe that increasing the minimum wage has no second or third order effects.

"oh you think drinking water is good? why don't you just drown at the bottom of the ocean?" is a 100% reddit-tier comment.

Re: America pays workers just 27% of what its wealth allows – the worst in the OECD

#158

Post by insane_dreamer »

petcat wrote: post #16
DarkNova6 wrote: post #2

As somebody living outside the US, I would find moving to the states highly undesirable even if it wasn't for the hostility towards non-US citizens. To me, it would mean a significant reduction in quality of live and I am low-key scared of all the ingredients and additives in food that are pretty much banned everywhere else. Not to mention all risks regarding healthcare.

It very much depends on life situation. For instance, if you are less than 50 and on private health care through your employer than you're very likely going to have better healthcare access than anywhere in Europe and Canada. I am able to see my PCP and dentist within a week if I want. I read a statistic that in Europe and Canada you have to make those kinds of routine appointments months in advance. Also, my father-…

I regularly see this making the rounds that "you can see your doctor in the US right away whereas in you have to wait months!"

I call BS. I have a great healthcare plan and appointments with my PCP are weeks out if at all; I was lucky to find some other random PCP who was available for a Telehealth consult only. Our kid has a rare disability that requires lots of different doctors, and we have to book literally months in advance for consults.

My (now retired) parents live in Ireland and get better healthcare than we do in the US.

Re: America pays workers just 27% of what its wealth allows – the worst in the OECD

#159

Post by Henchman21 »

oblio wrote: post #67
lostlogin wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not in the US, but laughed when I saw that my bike is ‘known to cause cancer or birth defects/reproductive harm.’ When everything is dangerous, nothing is dangerous.

And you know that it's not dangerous based on... Gut feeling? Have you read the health warning in detail and disagree from an informed point of view or are you just generally opposed to regulation? Even better, can you link the bike model and health warning and let others take a look at it for you? Or just your neighborhood chat bot :-)

You ignore gut feelings? Feelings from your second brain? That seems incredibly unwise. Sorry for the off topic comment.

Re: America pays workers just 27% of what its wealth allows – the worst in the OECD

#160

Post by gadders »

danbruc wrote: post #151
gadders wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about the chap that mortgaged his house to rent a factory and buy a widget maker and employs these people? What % should he take?

He will get the same as the others if he works the same number of hours to run the company. The dept would ideally be company debt and not personal dept, after all one reason to found a company is to separate personal and business risks. But if you invest personal money in the company, you get that money back plus some risk and opportunity premium just as you would pay back any other loan. What fraction that is will…

That sounds like an amazing way to stop people taking risks to start companies.
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