Earlier quoted context omitted.
> More social services means homeless from less accommodating communities will move in. I don't know why this point seems to escape people in SF, LA, Seattle, etc. If you're homeless, you're gonna want to be where the most benefits and relaxed attitudes toward homelessness are. It's not hard to understand why this problem is at its worst in the most progressive cities.
These are all cities without overly harsh Summer and Winter seasons. That makes it easier to be outside year round. The destitute homeless in less favorable regions aren't generally mobile enough to migrate to these places.
Why Don’t the 20 Cities on Amazon's HQ2 Shortlist Collectively Bargain?
201–210 of 286 posts
Re: Why Don’t the 20 Cities on Amazon's HQ2 Shortlist Collectively Bargain?
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seems to me that more of the blame for homelessness should be placed on the government than on Amazon. Not working at Amazon is hardly the reason for someone's homelessness.
I don't think you understand — homelessness can be seen as an indirect effect of Amazon's presence, based on property values, not whether or not they employ the homeless. Should they be responsible for this indirect effect? Well, that's the issue at root of a lot of externalities companies produce, like environmental pollution. I'm certainly sympathetic to the idea that the government should step in and support the h…
Re: Why Don’t the 20 Cities on Amazon's HQ2 Shortlist Collectively Bargain?
#203Earlier quoted context omitted.
When something is good for the landed and bad for the landless... it's generally bad. Now, we could reform our policies so that the landless get a fair shot, but realistically, what are the chances of this happening?
Yes, but Amazon and the companies that spring up around HQ2 will enable many landless people to become landed. And if that happens to an extreme degree where it becomes unsustainable, maybe an HQ3 would be in order?
Anyone wanting to live in Nashville (just to pick one city from the list) who's capable of working for Amazon is also capable of working for someone in Nashville today. And generally, the economics of being tech talent outside these hotbed markets like SV and Seattle are vastly favorable.
That is to say, you're probably better off buying the cheap house in a smaller market on the salary you can command in that market than you are buying a very expensive house on the salary that the very expensive market offers you. Google would pay me more than my current job, but my cost of living would go up by more than my salary -- massively so.
Re: Why Don’t the 20 Cities on Amazon's HQ2 Shortlist Collectively Bargain?
#204Large corporations often make deals with other large corporations, and they prosper. Workers used to do better when a larger percentage of them collectively bargained. But somehow, the possibility that citizens, who are represented by various local governments, would use those governments to cooperate with each other across the lines on the map sounds like science-fiction and is disparaged as far-fetched and unworkab…
> Workers used to do better when a larger percentage of them collectively bargained. What I find interesting is that the unionization rate in Canada today is more or less on-par with the peak unionization in the USA, and is one of the strongest unionized countries in the world. Yet, I constantly hear Canadian workers complain about how they are unfairly compensated compared to Americans, where unionization has practi…
Re: Why Don’t the 20 Cities on Amazon's HQ2 Shortlist Collectively Bargain?
#205Large corporations often make deals with other large corporations, and they prosper. Workers used to do better when a larger percentage of them collectively bargained. But somehow, the possibility that citizens, who are represented by various local governments, would use those governments to cooperate with each other across the lines on the map sounds like science-fiction and is disparaged as far-fetched and unworkab…
Other companies might balk at it, but I trust Bezos' Amazon to automate away executive jobs if they can find a way to do so effectively.
Re: Why Don’t the 20 Cities on Amazon's HQ2 Shortlist Collectively Bargain?
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Homelessness is not Amazon's problem. Not directly, no. But Amazon is based in a city that has a large homeless population. It is in the interest of their employees to see that population fall, therefore it also ought to be in Amazon's interest. > Automation is good. Do you want us to ride horses to work? Of course it is. But I see this reaction a lot - that anyone asking questions about our automated future is som…
If they refuse to answer the points we are raising by attacking us trying represent us as regressive idiots then attack them back. Make them feel like greedy pigs willing to let the world starve to make more money. Is there any doubt that if Amazon or any corporation would not hesitate to eliminate 90% of the jobs in this world if they had the means to do it cheaper with robotics/ai/cloud tech? They couldn't care les…
So, never.
Re: Why Don’t the 20 Cities on Amazon's HQ2 Shortlist Collectively Bargain?
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
Homelessness is not Amazon's problem. Automation is good. Do you want us to ride horses to work? Agreed. Agreed.
Automation is only good if the benefits of said automation are shared broadly among the populace. For the time being, that is not the case. Instead the benefits are held closely by only a tiny percentage of the population, who use said automation to collect enormous power and force an increasingly large number of people to live in increasingly precarious circumstances. 80% of corporate stock is owned by a mere 1% of…
Re: Why Don’t the 20 Cities on Amazon's HQ2 Shortlist Collectively Bargain?
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Workers used to do better when a larger percentage of them collectively bargained. What I find interesting is that the unionization rate in Canada today is more or less on-par with the peak unionization in the USA, and is one of the strongest unionized countries in the world. Yet, I constantly hear Canadian workers complain about how they are unfairly compensated compared to Americans, where unionization has practi…
In Germany, there are very well paid mostly manual labor jobs in unionized industries, especially at the big car manufacturers. In non-unionized industries, wages can be much lower, down to about 30% of what workers in the car industry earn. That is before taxes, though. After taxes, the difference is about 2:1. There is also data showing that unionized workers get about 1% more of a scheduled raise each year .
However, I'm not sure that is the same as the "rising tide lifting all boats" that we're discussing here. The results seen in your example are limited to the lucky handful who have gained market protectionism from the rest of the people in the industry.
Re: Why Don’t the 20 Cities on Amazon's HQ2 Shortlist Collectively Bargain?
#209I agree that cities should not be offering free land to a company. But it seems OK to offer tax breaks, considering how much taxes a company like Amazon will be paying in the long term. (Not to mention the even more significant taxes the employees will pay.)
Re: Why Don’t the 20 Cities on Amazon's HQ2 Shortlist Collectively Bargain?
#210Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Strengthening the housing market" Other than code for "making everything much more unaffordable", what does this mean? And yeah, it's pollution for those who don't have high paying tech jobs. There are more people living in those cities than Amazon employees; their interests and needs need to be taking into consideration as well.
Unaffordable is relative. If HQ2 brings thousands of high-paying jobs with it, plus creates an ecosystem where tens of thousands of other good paying jobs are created, housing can become more affordable to more people while rising in price. Owning a house has been a part of the post-WW2 American dream for good reason, and it should remain so. And people buying homes should want their property to retain value