If you read Friedrich Engels's The Condition of the Working Class in England, you'll see how capital works. It is the LAW of the capital, not an arbitrary decision: http://www.theinternationalism.org/2021/06/engels-in-new-cen...
Worker pay isn’t keeping up with inflation
271–280 of 859 posts
Re: Worker pay isn’t keeping up with inflation
#272Earlier quoted context omitted.
From the other side, whenever a member of my team has come to me asking to match an offer I've always refused and wished them well in their new role. If someone is unhappy enough to start job hunting rather than talking to me then it's a clear sign that they'll leave soon regardless of any pay rise. Psychologically, every pay increase makes someone happy for a short time, and then they get used to it and they start t…
I’m not sure why this is getting so much negative attention. I’ve been both in and around high level management in the Danish public sector for decades and I’ve never matched or sparred with another manager who would these sort of things. No one, and I do mean no one, is irreplaceable. Maybe you’ll have to throw away an entire IT system because you’ve lost the know how to keep the business case for the system a net p…
> Maybe you’ll have to throw away an entire IT system because you’ve lost the know how to keep the business case for the system a net positive, but that means a lot less to an organisation (especially enterprise) that we tend to fool ourselves into believing myself included.
You are comparing throwing away an entire IT system to increasing the salary of _one_ employee.
Re: Worker pay isn’t keeping up with inflation
#273Earlier quoted context omitted.
>For example AMD and NVDA revenue up 50%+, income 100%+ Eventually these high margins will attract competitors and bring down the margins For those examples that is false hope. You can't just spring up a new competitor in the GPU filed out of thin air and expect it to work; Nvidia and AMD duopolies are so far ahead into the game experience wise that no startup could ever catch up no matter how much money you throw at…
intel is literally getting into the GPU market 2022
It is, but performance/value remains to be seen, which brings me back to my point that even the Intel juggernaut faces un uphill battle in this space vs Nvidia and AMD.
Granted, during the current shortage, basically any GPU will sell regardless of performance/value proposition which makes it very easy for Intel to enter the market right now, however, 2-3 years ago, when Nvidia and AMD GPUs were affordable and available everywhere, nobody would have ever considered buying Intel discrete GPUs as even their integrated ones were not well received.
Re: Worker pay isn’t keeping up with inflation
#274Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is wrong IMO - the fed has NO tools in its hands. Its last tool was inflation rates, and it burned that during the great recession. It is now caught in a pickle: raise interest rates, causing a mass exodus of wealth from securities to savings accounts and CDs and causing the stock market to tumble (like it arguably always should have done since 2008), or let inflation take its course. I am not an economist, and…
> I am not an economist Yeah, if you’re interested in this stuff, you should do some research. The Fed’s options aren’t 0% rates vs 15% rates. It’s going to raise rates .25% at a time. .25% is not much of a difference. It’ll move slowly and act cautiously. The Fed, and other central banks have dealt with inflation many times before. And very effectively at that. Stocks could fall, but the stock market is not the econ…
You ask others to do some research, which implies that you have good sources on how "The Fed, and other central banks have dealt with inflation many times before. And very effectively at that"
I'd be interested to see them, especially any from the last 40 years (i.e. post-Volker).
For pre-Volker, I'm interested in your sources from the early-mid 70s, and the way inflation was "controlled" in the years immediately surrounding the release of the gold standard.
Re: Worker pay isn’t keeping up with inflation
#275Earlier quoted context omitted.
If someone on my team comes to me asking for help getting a new role, either in my team or externally, I've always been very happy to do what I can for them.
But if someone on your team is happy in their role but underpaid 10% compared to the market, you will not?
If someone believes they're underpaid they can talk to me about that without needing to prove it by getting another offer. If they do get another offer it's unlikely that it'll be for exactly the same role, so it doesn't really show they're undervalued anyway.
Re: Worker pay isn’t keeping up with inflation
#276Real wages have been flat since the 1970s ( https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/07/for-most-us... ). "Okay, so people's living standards are about the same since 1970?" Not even close. The problem with inflation is that its calculation is fraught with all kinds of selective weighting, bias, and politics. Take a look at the relative differences between the things which have decreased and increased in cost in…
> most Americans are significantly worse off since the 1970s
I think this is obviously false and hurts the credibility of the rest of this comment.
There are many pitfalls with measuring long-term inflation. How much did an internet connection cost in the 1970s? What about a computer? What about a smartphone? These modern technologies make peoples lives much better and were somewhere between impossible and impossibly expensive in the 1970s so an inflation metric can’t really take their price changes (from infinity to cheap) into account. Another is quality. Compared to the 70s, a new car is faster, safer, more comfortable, and more fuel efficient. Similarly, most houses are bigger and better in America today.
I think it is important to note that talking about long term inflation is different, and perhaps harder, than talking about short-term inflation which is what the OP is about.
Re: Worker pay isn’t keeping up with inflation
#277Earlier quoted context omitted.
The revolution will not come from the left. The "left" elites have forgotten the people, and the left in general is talking more about identity issues than class issues. The revolution will be more Trump than Bernie. Like in the early 1900, where more revolutions where fascist than communist.
Antisemitism is on the rise to. Before comments were removed, the recent movie Santa Inc had tens of thousands of comments abut elves. It's full on Gab, and even on Twitter from the left.
I haven't seen much or any antisemitism from the left, unless you are referring to criticism of Israel's state policies.
Re: Worker pay isn’t keeping up with inflation
#278Real wages have been flat since the 1970s ( https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/07/for-most-us... ). "Okay, so people's living standards are about the same since 1970?" Not even close. The problem with inflation is that its calculation is fraught with all kinds of selective weighting, bias, and politics. Take a look at the relative differences between the things which have decreased and increased in cost in…
Very interesting points; there is a scientific clarity in your analysis. But, I would like to add a point: the reality is that the production is in global scale now, the production has no borders, races, nationalities, but the capital has its local interests. The working class is a global class, while bourgeoisie is a local class. But since the bourgeoisie is the dominant class, it makes the working class divided. Like the role of black bourgeoisie in the disguising class struggle under the hood of racial issues. I think this small piece of text helps make my point a little bit clear: http://www.theinternationalism.org/2020/07/return-to-marx.ht...
Re: Worker pay isn’t keeping up with inflation
#279As someone who does OK, but lives in reality (not the bay area), I feel a revolution coming. I hope it's not a violent one, but who knows at this point. Hopefully it's just a politician with big policy changes. People feel completely disenfranchised. You keep hanging housing over their head but just out of reach like some baby toy, then inflation spikes everything else. What's the point of working even? I don't know…
I don't know, if you hang out in certain parts of the internet, it feels like a revolution is coming, but it reality Bernie still can't win the primaries, so I don't think the numbers are actually there. But I also won't be surprised if the next generation of voters is more socialist-leaning.
I don't know much about the actual reality in the US outside of what we see on the net, but I feel the revolution you are talking about would come from outside of traditional voting circus.
It don't mean it would bypass election in all cases, but I'd expect a completely different mechanism interfering with who gets to power, instead of the usual "let's min-max campaigns based on declared party allegiance like we did for decades now"
Re: Worker pay isn’t keeping up with inflation
#280Real wages have been flat since the 1970s ( https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/07/for-most-us... ). "Okay, so people's living standards are about the same since 1970?" Not even close. The problem with inflation is that its calculation is fraught with all kinds of selective weighting, bias, and politics. Take a look at the relative differences between the things which have decreased and increased in cost in…
> most Americans are significantly worse off since the 1970s I think this is obviously false and hurts the credibility of the rest of this comment. There are many pitfalls with measuring long-term inflation. How much did an internet connection cost in the 1970s? What about a computer? What about a smartphone? These modern technologies make peoples lives much better and were somewhere between impossible and impossibly…
What good is new tech if you cannot afford to buy a house or a new'ish car for the minimum wage, even if you live frugal and save?