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Silicon Valley wages have dropped for non-tech jobs

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Re: Silicon Valley wages have dropped for non-tech jobs

#231

Post by solidsnack9000 »

dredmorbius wrote: post #199
solidsnack9000 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One point Smith makes is that land rents tend to eat all other forms of revenue over time, since (a) the supply does not increase, (b) the use of land is necessary for every enterprise and (c) over time all the land that can be put to some use is and then it's just about competition over it.

Rents are defined as goods or services in which the seller captures not merely costs but consumer surplus.

Smith talks about land specifically. Not sure where you're going here.

Re: Silicon Valley wages have dropped for non-tech jobs

#232

Post by Scipio_Afri »

mlindner wrote: post #64
Scipio_Afri wrote: post #7

Boost the wage floor. High skilled workers have more force to push against the wage supply price that employers set; they have a lot of power to set wages, including an entire department called HR dedicated to ensuring they get the best deal as they can. Low wage employees do not have that power.

The wage floor has been continuously getting raised. Many areas of California have the highest minimum wage laws in the country. That isn't going to solve the problem.

Adjusted for inflation its lower than it was in the 1960's

Re: Silicon Valley wages have dropped for non-tech jobs

#233

Post by masonic »

Johnny555 wrote: post #223
masonic wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a lot of current residents showing up at planning meetings Do you go to such meetings? Do you watch them on cable access or view the tapes at City Hall? (Heck, into the 1990s, the only available video of San Jose city council or SCC Supervisors meetings were if we taped it ourselves.) In reality, almost all such meetings are lightly attended at best unless a "progressive" interest group transports then in. Almost all…

Not all of them, but I go when I can. The last one I went to was packed full of neighborhood residents overwhelmingly against the development who were worried about traffic and parking. Though the development was right next to a Caltrain station, which is exactly where mid to high density development should be happening.

  The last one I went to was packed full of neighborhood residents
Please let me know the date of that meeting; I'd like to check out the tapes.

Re: Silicon Valley wages have dropped for non-tech jobs

#234

Post by tomcam »

hazz99 wrote: post #65
tomcam wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sticking up for my ideological opposite crankylinuxuser again. HN is constantly used for political and ideological battle. Why is crankylinuxuser's different?

Disclaimer: I'm not a mod, so you don't have to listen to my opinion. This article is about low-skill workers, and has nothing to do with tech companies being against unions. But, it could simply be a tangential discussion, and those are often interesting! My main concern was the Capitalists are well known to conspire together and create capitalist unions to block workers of all stripes. generalization, which turned…

Excellent point. I concede.

Re: Silicon Valley wages have dropped for non-tech jobs

#235

Post by dredmorbius »

solidsnack9000 wrote: post #231
dredmorbius wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rents are defined as goods or services in which the seller captures not merely costs but consumer surplus.

Smith talks about land specifically. Not sure where you're going here.

Consumer surplus is a modern definition. It follows from Smith, though somewhat indirectly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_rent

Re: Silicon Valley wages have dropped for non-tech jobs

#236

Post by yourapostasy »

jimmy1 wrote: post #87
whb07 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mike Rowe isn’t talking about unskilled labor. He’s talking about skilled labor like plumbing, carpentry, welding, electricians, etc. Not a stock boy and the like.

Might be anecdotal, but hooo weee, if you are a good electrician right now, you can essentially name your price. Companies will pay it because they aren't willing to take the risk of having it done wrong. Family knows a couple career electricians -- company is paying for them to come out of retirement, paying $50-55 an hour, AND letting them keep their retirement benefits.

That's cheap. In the Bay Area, even doubling that is cheap. Take a look at this discussion [1] by electricians of what their businesses costs to run, especially the trade-specific section.

There is a fundamental disconnect in daily life between perceptions of what a job entails and its true costs. No wonder management and purchasing departments everywhere is constantly underestimating effort and costs, then getting pissed when risks and quality issues come up.

[1] https://www.electriciantalk.com/f2/why-do-you-charge-so-much...

Re: Silicon Valley wages have dropped for non-tech jobs

#237

Post by throwawaythekey »

solidsnack9000 wrote: post #229
throwawaythekey wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be more clear; The lack of diversification in employment makes the residents as a whole more vulnerable to the next sector based bust (see dotcom crash). If there is a larger supply of housing then more properties will be put on the market in such an event. This could exacerbate any fall in prices or result in a large number of abandoned properties which can be pretty damaging to a neighborhood. We get a sort of s…

The correct answer is probably to build some new housing supply but definitely not as much as the peak demands. Why is that? It doesn't change the fact that once the mines are gone, they're gone. The value of existing homeowner's investment has been preserved but nothing's been done to buffer the economy or help people pushed out of rentals. It's just transferring wealth to rentiers. Diversifying the economy -- havin…

In the mining example I gave it's probably more clear cut than the SV case.

A whole heap of people are working high wage jobs in essentially the middle of nowhere. The local towns don't have the capacity to replace many lost jobs and aren't the ideal place for all of the now unemployed workers to end up. You don't want a whole heap of empty houses in an area with no jobs.

Diversifying the economy is definitely a step in the right direction and is likely more feasible in an area like SV. On the flipside you've got to be careful that the other industries are valuable in their own right and don't exist solely due to the rivers of money in the area.

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