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Declining worker power vs. rising monopoly power: explaining recent macro trends

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Re: Declining worker power vs. rising monopoly power: explaining recent macro trends

#81

Post by pydry »

BurningFrog wrote: post #55
pydry wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In all likelihood lashing out at fancy retailers will be effective. Additional police powers and crackdowns will be paired with throwing the rioters a few bones (e.g. greater checks on police powers and throwing the book at George Floyd's murderers). Of course, the elites will pretend that they meant to throw that bone all along and will vehemently deny it has anything to do with a smashed up Gucci store in Beverly H…

This is really wrong. Destroying retail will just destroy retail. When it's gone it's gone. If you think shopkeepers control the Police, you are hopelessly confused.

Gucci doesn't control the police, no. People who shop at Gucci do.

Do you think that they are not going to see the smashing of their favorite shop as an implicit threat against them personally?

Gucci is a powerful symbol of unchecked gaudy wealth as much as it is a retail establishment. The handbags themselves aren't really the point, which they'd be the first to admit to.

Re: Declining worker power vs. rising monopoly power: explaining recent macro trends

#82

Post by brenden2 »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #69
brenden2 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are mostly big chains, I think they'll be okay.

The big chains were suffering outside of a handful of affluent neighborhoods in all cities even in good times, I don’t see why this wouldn’t be a problem. Margins are low, and consumers’ ability to spend is low, so raising prices might not be possible leaving closing down as the only option.

If you don't run a viable business, should your business continue to exist? Which one do you want, socialism or capitalism? In a capitalist system, failed businesses are allowed to fail and don't get free money from the government.

Re: Declining worker power vs. rising monopoly power: explaining recent macro trends

#83

Post by specialist »

zozbot234 wrote: post #53
specialist wrote: post #19

+1 Comparing wages to corporate profitability, valuations. Drives me nuts when these aspects are treated as completely unrelated. I'm still deeply ambivalent about redistribution, cashectomies, etc. But it'd a lot easier to remain neutral if there was (a lot) more profit sharing. Also, I have a hunch that gross inequity is related to the "missing productivity". I'm hoping someone is researching this.

AIUI, profits do not really explain inequality. It's a wages dynamic, where the premium that's paid for highly-skilled work tends to grow over time. Separately, wages in highly-regulated sectors (such as law and healthcare) also show significant growth, even though skill requirements haven't changed all that much in these occupations.

I still have zero intuition about cost disease. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumol%27s_cost_disease The only notion that makes any sense to me (so far) is Graeber's bullshit jobs thesis.

Being a life long patient, my observation is that healthcare workers have become A LOT more skillful, knowledgeable, educated. The natural trend towards ever greater specialization and all that.

I know nothing about lawyers, so can't comment.

Re: Declining worker power vs. rising monopoly power: explaining recent macro trends

#84

Post by sokoloff »

jakozaur wrote: post #45

In almost all USA industries, there is increasing amount of consolidation. The top 4 companies' in almost any industry has a larger share of the total market: https://www.economist.com/briefing/2016/03/26/too-much-of-a-... Some consolidation is natural, but a huge part is caused by mergers and acquisitions (M&A) fulled by Private Equity. The M&A benefits the shareholders of participating companies at the expense of c…

What is PE fueled by? IMO, in large part by zero interest rate policies.

Re: Declining worker power vs. rising monopoly power: explaining recent macro trends

#85

Post by ken »

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #27

The big issue is supply and demand. With increasing automation and global supply chains, there is a huge amount of labor available relative to the need. In the past, a union strike at a plant would see a generous long-term contract and benefits for the workers. Now, it is likely for the plant to be moved or workers replaced with automation.

Unions are great, but strikes are actually pretty rare. In the short term, they’re bad for workers, too! Striking is always a last resort.

Unions have been on a serious decline the past several decades, but striking isn’t their only power. It’s just the only one you see on the 5 o’clock news, or in Hollywood movies, because it’s the most dramatic.

Re: Declining worker power vs. rising monopoly power: explaining recent macro trends

#86

Post by willcipriano »

harpratap wrote: post #54
lotsofpulp wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Economies of scale from computing power and reduced demand for labor due to automation is not US specific.

> But the decline in the labour share has been much more pronounced in the US than in other industrialised economies which are arguably similarly exposed to globalisation and technological change From the linked article

If compared to European countries the US has higher wages generally, is it possible this effect is due to wages in those economies being at or near the wage floor already?

Re: Declining worker power vs. rising monopoly power: explaining recent macro trends

#87

Post by [deleted] »

rmrfstar wrote: post #63
RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #27

The big issue is supply and demand. With increasing automation and global supply chains, there is a huge amount of labor available relative to the need. In the past, a union strike at a plant would see a generous long-term contract and benefits for the workers. Now, it is likely for the plant to be moved or workers replaced with automation.

Larry Summers is simply not credible. This is an "oh fuck things are about to get out of hand, let's try to insert ourselves into the debate so we don't get locked out" paper. Here is Larry Summers from his 1998 speech "The Challenges of Success". " The world looks very different than it did at the beginning of this decade, a time when America was said to be in decline. It is now clear that America will grow faster i…

[deleted]

Re: Declining worker power vs. rising monopoly power: explaining recent macro trends

#88

Post by [deleted] »

jakozaur wrote: post #45

In almost all USA industries, there is increasing amount of consolidation. The top 4 companies' in almost any industry has a larger share of the total market: https://www.economist.com/briefing/2016/03/26/too-much-of-a-... Some consolidation is natural, but a huge part is caused by mergers and acquisitions (M&A) fulled by Private Equity. The M&A benefits the shareholders of participating companies at the expense of c…

[deleted]

Re: Declining worker power vs. rising monopoly power: explaining recent macro trends

#89

Post by rapsey »

altvali wrote: post #41
rapsey wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Automation is a drop in the ocean compared to the effects of trade agreements that resulted in jobs being exported.

Could you back that up with data? I'm curious to know by how much and how you reached that conclusion.

I would like to see someone back up the data with regards to automation. Why is the burden of truth on the other side? Fact of the matter is Chinese factories that produce the world's gadgets employ millions. This is reality and not some mythical fully automated factories.

Globalism made the very poor in China/Mexico/etc. richer, created their middle class and it made the very rich in US/EU even richer at the cost of US/EU middle class.

Saying how that is irrelevant now because of automation just smells like new propaganda to replace the old one so that the rich can get richer and the rest of us arguing propaganda.

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