Labor shortage or terrible jobs? • Hacker News Board

Re: Labor shortage or terrible jobs?

#981

Post by sldksk » Sun, May 02, 2021, 5:53 PM UTC

varispeed wrote: post #944

taurath wrote: post #913

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The areas where people vote for less and less government tend to be the places that have the most minimal services. I have yet to see an area that truly attracts business because of having low regulation and taxes, they all seem to have absolutey no businesses because there is no infrastructure to build upon, nor an existing business community to interact with.

The problem is that in most places the general population is absolutely fine for being fleeced. They pay 30%-40% tax for a privilege of working for a big corporation that only contribution to their society are the salaries they pay. All the rest gets siphoned out to tax havens. So far neither the so called left nor right have a clue how to fix this. That is a next level entitlement for corporations to expect people b…

The Marxists saw this coming 150 years ago, and not coincidentally they also have a few good ideas for how to fix it. They are worth hearing out.

Re: Labor shortage or terrible jobs?

#982

Post by Can_Not » Sun, May 02, 2021, 6:54 PM UTC

betwixthewires wrote: post #978

kieselguhr_kid wrote: post #874

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exorbitant rent is a fact of life in major cities

Ive lived in 2 of the largest metropolitan areas in the US for 2 decades, and my rent has never been over 800 dollars. That's exorbitant to me , but that's still a far cry away from 2 grand a month. I know there are a few extremely overpriced cities in the US, but in the rest of the cities, if you're paying above 1k a month for a one bedroom you're trying to live somewhere that you chose to live precisely because it…

> you're trying to live somewhere that you chose to live precisely because it was more exclusive

*didn't get lucky when searching for a unit

source: got lucky so I don't pay $1400/month, still live 1hr away from work.

Re: Labor shortage or terrible jobs?

#983

Post by missedthecue » Sun, May 02, 2021, 7:57 PM UTC

Can_Not wrote: post #972

xyzzyz wrote: post #846

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Food insecurity” has nothing to do with not having enough food to eat. It’s a term designed to confuse.

It sounds to me like you're just OK with children starving unless it benefits you to point it out.

Food insecurity is not the same thing as starvation. In fact, that's his whole point.

Re: Labor shortage or terrible jobs?

#984

Post by DougN7 » Sun, May 02, 2021, 9:00 PM UTC

jdgoesmarching wrote: post #927

malandrew wrote: post #893

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> while giving them breathing room to figure out 'what next?' I'm dubious of this claim. My experience from observing many friends in this situation at different economic levels (enough savings to take a break in US. Unemployment benefits in Europe) is that they rarely use the time to figure out what is next. Instead they most often use the time to relax and only spend time trying to figure out what is next when pres…

This is a very nice way of saying “I asked my poor friends to confirm what I want to believe.” When all you have to look forward to your entire life is some slog of service industry jobs with little to no benefits or vacation, of course you maximize the amount of time you spend on your own life. Poor people deserve to relax, and I have never had a job in my tech career that compared to the stress or exhaustion of my…

You seem to know a lot more about his friends then would be expected. How do you know they are poor? I had a high paying job for years but couldn’t have afforded not working for two years without seriously draining retirement savings at the time.

Re: Labor shortage or terrible jobs?

#985

Post by randomopining » Sun, May 02, 2021, 9:08 PM UTC

lucian1900 wrote: post #857

randomopining wrote: post #849

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is encouraging democracy directly equal to imperialism? The US doesn’t want autocrats who can subvert us geopolitically and kill their own people. Fact is that countries in our sphere are democratic and prosperous.

That is the official narrative, the western democracies versus us autocratic barbarians everywhere else. Even if such an absurdity were somehow true, surely at least sovereignty should count for something. In reality, countries in your “sphere” are either allied exploiters or exploited (and not at all prosperous). Anyone that threatens profits is painted as evil, regardless of the truth. After so many sanctions, coup…

Rofl. It’s factual that many countries the US is at odds with are autocratic. North Korea (obvious), China (the people do not vote), Iran (the ayatollah controls everything)…

All countries in the US-sphere, they have direct voting by the people to elect the government.

So you’re completely wrong on that.

Next point. So western Europe, Eastern Europe, balkans, Japan, South Korea, Colombia, Mexico, Philippines, Canada, Australia/NZ… they are all exploited or exploiters?

What a joke. I just destroyed your two arguments.

Re: Labor shortage or terrible jobs?

#986

Post by cyrrus » Sun, May 02, 2021, 9:27 PM UTC

jschveibinz wrote: post #2

This article unfortunately doesn't address the business side of the problem. Fast food restaurants, or place like "Dale's" mentioned in the article, make very little profit. It is most likely below 10%. Here is an estimate: https://www.restaurant365.com/blog/what-is-the-average-profi... . A 10% profit is very modest. That's not the story of the "fat cats getting rich on the back of the workers" that the article is al…

Just raise the price of the burgers... its not that hard. If everyone raises wages at once then they’ll also raise their prices at once.

And the people you’re hiring won’t have to live off the dollar menu at fast food restaurants anymore.

Re: Labor shortage or terrible jobs?

#987

Post by cyrrus » Sun, May 02, 2021, 9:29 PM UTC

sokoloff wrote: post #811

ianai wrote: post #612

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to forget the times where states raise their minimum wage and see the number of people in the labor force increase. The balance of power is almost always squarely weighted on the side of the employer. This can push wages below market optimum.

I’d expect minimum wage increases to be mostly off the table during recessions, so it’s not surprising to see them passed during economic expansions, which are tightly linked to rising employment figures, so this might be a "wet streets cause rain" correlation.

Except it’s those on minimum wage that spend most or all of their paycheck stimulating the economy.

Middle class have record savings at the moment.

Re: Labor shortage or terrible jobs?

#988

Post by davidgerard » Sun, May 02, 2021, 10:18 PM UTC

> But X workers are accustomed to being blamed for things that aren’t our fault. We’re trained to feel responsible for failures even when we ought not be

certainly applies to tech

Re: Labor shortage or terrible jobs?

#989

Post by throwawaygh » Mon, May 03, 2021, 1:55 AM UTC

inetknght wrote: post #538

throwawaygh wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Houston, March 2019, my rent renewal was $1500/mo for a 12-month lease or $1500/mo for month-to-month or a new contract. Houston, October 2020, my rent renewal was $1500 for a 15-month lease or $2100/month for month-to-month or a new contract. Is there a typo here? You have to sign a longer lease but you are paying the same per month... that's a 0% increase. And as for month-to-month, paying zero premium for a mont…

> You have to sign a longer lease but you are paying the same per month Signing a longer lease demonstrates that the new lease isn't like the old. Otherwise let's compare apples and oranges in the economy too.

>>> 80%

>> 30%

> same price per month, longer lease

So... zero percent inflation.

But this isn't even the most confusing part of this thread. The most confusing is your next comment in the context of your concern about inflation.

> Signing a longer lease demonstrates that the new lease isn't like the old.

Okay. But if you earnestly believed what you're saying about inflation then locking in 2019 prices for 15 months instead of 12 months would be a GOOD thing for you! You'd be locking in a fixed price for a longer duration during a period of high inflation. I've signed a three year residential lease in markets with high housing inflation and felt like I was getting away with murder (and I was under-paying by about 500/mo toward the end of that lease). If you expect inflation, then you want longer leases at fixed-in prices!!!

The price per month of your housing has increased ZERO percent, AND your landlord is betting AGAINST rent inflation in their market.

Re: Labor shortage or terrible jobs?

#990

Post by greycol » Mon, May 03, 2021, 3:42 AM UTC

malandrew wrote: post #920

atoav wrote: post #778

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can pick the one that pays the most. Oh sweet summer child. When you are in debt and struggle to survive on a day to day basis, time is your enemy You cannot afford not to take a job. And if you are lucky enough to be able afford it today, you might not tomorrow. Another thing: many people need more than one job as it is now. Guess what: if you pay people a decent living wage more people can actually get jobs,…

> many people need more than one job as it is now Needing only one job is a historical anomaly as a result of an industrial society. Historically, people would have to perform a variety of tasks to provide for oneself. Furthermore, more than one job de-risks someone's situation just like a consultant with many clients can handle the loss of a single client and not see their income fall to zero. It's the total hours o…

I'll just point out: if you need 60 hours of income to survive you actually increase risk by having it split between several jobs. That is because having a portion of enough rent to not be evicted is equivalent to having not enough rent to not be evicted. You only need one of your jobs to collapse for you to only have a portion of your rent therefore the more jobs you have the more likely you are to have one fail and to be in that position.

In other words diversifying your income only decreases risk when you don't need all of it, you'd be hard pressed to argue that that group includes those earning minimum wage.