Labor shortage or terrible jobs? • Hacker News Board

Re: Labor shortage or terrible jobs?

#51

Post by cratermoon » Fri, Apr 30, 2021, 4:22 PM UTC

kokanator wrote: post #28

Pre-covid businesses which paid borderline wages are going to find it really difficult to compete with the government. Basically, you have an administration 'silently' waging war of certain types of business or jobs without needing to pass controversial legislation for things like a minimum wage increase or universal income. If it feel subversive, it is. But the cost of controversy these days causes people to find al…

That's a terrible take. The government is not "waging war" on businesses. Businesses that were (are) paying starvation wages simply socialize the costs of doing business. When Amazon's warehouse workers and Wal*Mart retail employees are also collecting SNAP benefits, their employers are getting all the benefits of low wages but – because they don't pay their fair share of taxes – the employers are avoiding the externalities. See "Cheap: This High Cost of Discount Culture"

Re: Labor shortage or terrible jobs?

#52

Post by claudiulodro » Fri, Apr 30, 2021, 4:22 PM UTC

unethical_ban wrote: post #21

Occasionally, Twitter provides some nice insights in digestible forms (of course, nuance gets stripped). I saw a post recently that said something like "We watch Star Trek and marvel at their post-scarcity world. We are living in a post-scarcity world now, but all the benefits are being funneled by wage slaves up to the 0.1%." Paraphrased. I was talking with a friend who mentioned that a local pizza place is offering…

> Is it because the high-schoolers who would normally do that aren't looking for jobs due to pandemic?

The concept that entry-level food service is mostly staffed by high-schoolers who don't really "need" the money is the weirdest trope. Basically every restaurant is open during school hours. Who is handling the lunch rush?

Re: Labor shortage or terrible jobs?

#53

Post by throwaway292893 » Fri, Apr 30, 2021, 4:22 PM UTC

nradov wrote: post #26

throwaway292893 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looking at you California farms.

Strawberry picking robots are coming. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/rob.21889

Those exploited immigrants won't hold their breath.

I'm sure those farms unwilling to pay a fair wage will start investing in those expensive machines' R&D. Then do it for all other crops.

Re: Labor shortage or terrible jobs?

#54

Post by ForHackernews » Fri, Apr 30, 2021, 4:22 PM UTC

unyttigfjelltol wrote: post #31

unethical_ban wrote: post #21

Occasionally, Twitter provides some nice insights in digestible forms (of course, nuance gets stripped). I saw a post recently that said something like "We watch Star Trek and marvel at their post-scarcity world. We are living in a post-scarcity world now, but all the benefits are being funneled by wage slaves up to the 0.1%." Paraphrased. I was talking with a friend who mentioned that a local pizza place is offering…

Maybe the pizza shop would get a stronger response if they hired permanent workers on an annual $37k salary? An $18/hr wage is not identical....

Yeah, $18/hour sounds less appealing if it comes with an unpredictable schedule and uncertain hours from week to week. I used to work retail, and it was rough trying to attend classes not knowing when I might get called in for a shift.

Re: Labor shortage or terrible jobs?

#55

Post by _wldu » Fri, Apr 30, 2021, 4:22 PM UTC

unyttigfjelltol wrote: post #31

unethical_ban wrote: post #21

Occasionally, Twitter provides some nice insights in digestible forms (of course, nuance gets stripped). I saw a post recently that said something like "We watch Star Trek and marvel at their post-scarcity world. We are living in a post-scarcity world now, but all the benefits are being funneled by wage slaves up to the 0.1%." Paraphrased. I was talking with a friend who mentioned that a local pizza place is offering…

Maybe the pizza shop would get a stronger response if they hired permanent workers on an annual $37k salary? An $18/hr wage is not identical....

But then they'd have to provide benefits (like health insurance, parental leave, etc.) and treat workers with dignity and respect. In America, that's unlikely to happen without government regulations enforcing it.

Re: Labor shortage or terrible jobs?

#56

Post by honksillet » Fri, Apr 30, 2021, 4:24 PM UTC

There are no such things as “jobs americans won’t do”. It’s just you have to compensate people accordingly. With this failing stealth UBI experiment that we are currently engaged in, people aren’t willing to work when many of them are getting near 100% the same income not to work. The rest of us are being crushed by inflation.

Re: Labor shortage or terrible jobs?

#57

Post by Clubber » Fri, Apr 30, 2021, 4:24 PM UTC

rossdavidh wrote: post #43

Well, there's a straightforward (I don't say easy) way to fix this: you require a high enough minimum wage (and healthcare, and sick leave, and etc.). It's not like the restaurant owner has the option of just deciding to pay twice or three times the labor costs, and trust that their customers will be happy to cover the difference, if their competitors don't have to do the same. Because, those restaurant (and retail a…

"According to "Papa" John Schnatter, the cost of providing health insurance for all of his pizza chain's uninsured, full-time employees comes out to about 14 cents on a large pizza."

And this is the reason he gave for not supporting ACA. $0.14 a pizza. To this day, I struggle to understand the psychology behind it.

Re: Labor shortage or terrible jobs?

#58

Post by howmayiannoyyou » Fri, Apr 30, 2021, 4:24 PM UTC

unethical_ban wrote: post #21

Occasionally, Twitter provides some nice insights in digestible forms (of course, nuance gets stripped). I saw a post recently that said something like "We watch Star Trek and marvel at their post-scarcity world. We are living in a post-scarcity world now, but all the benefits are being funneled by wage slaves up to the 0.1%." Paraphrased. I was talking with a friend who mentioned that a local pizza place is offering…

The bottom 99.9% in America enjoy healthcare, communications, caloric intake, political freedom, public services, education and safety from violence unprecedented in human history. By almost every metric society is better off now than it was in the 1950's, 1800's, etc. The over-focus on the negative propels us toward greater collective good - up to a point. We would do better as a society to revert to a mean that expresses some recognition and gratitude for the progress made. We're sowing the seeds of our own destruction via economic, racial, ethnic and class tribalism.

Re: Labor shortage or terrible jobs?

#59

Post by kokanator » Fri, Apr 30, 2021, 4:24 PM UTC

cratermoon wrote: post #30

recursivedoubts wrote: post #7

Maybe one of these days the pro-labor left and the pro-labor right are gonna figure it out, stop taking the bait, and we'll finally get a real revolution.

> pro-labor right Such a thing does not exist.

Greed permeates all parties as it is a human characteristic. The point is to create an environment that encourages strong businesses and discourages greed. Left or Right.

Are you talking right business owners or politicians.

If you answer both, how many conservative business owners do you actually know? I know a number of them and they have thriving businesses with well compensated and well covered employees that have worked for their businesses for decades.

Re: Labor shortage or terrible jobs?

#60

Post by petre » Fri, Apr 30, 2021, 4:24 PM UTC

gonational wrote: post #22

Timeline of Stupidity A: "we should give everyone free money!" B: "no, that'll make everyone lazy..." A: "no, people will work on things they love instead!" [everyone gets free money] [nobody works, everyone plays video games all day] A: "see, this proves that everyone was being exploited!" B: [smh] Plato's Five Regimes. We're entering the fourth regime.

Video games are considered e-sports in South Korea and some people do get paid to play them. Imagine a full stadium with a few guys playing games and the audience watching them on big screens.