Victory in the Fight for a ($15hr) Living Wage!

[VinnyVeritas]

It doesn’t seem like all that long ago that the #FightFor15 movement continually screamed that if business owners simply paid them a higher hourly wage, all of the labor issues plaguing the entry-level job industry would be solved overnight. There would never be a shortage of willing employees, they said, if only the wages were higher.

A “living wage,” they demanded.

Now, a company can offer the same group of would-be burger flippers and shelf-stockers $25 per hour, and they still wouldn’t show up for work. Just go to your favorite local restaurant or small business. They’re all short-handed no matter how much they pay and what incentives they offer.

That’s why it’s no surprise that companies are largely turning to automated solutions like robots more than ever before.

According to an eye-opening Reuters report this week, the demand for robot replacement workers is skyrocketing, so much so that the industry sales numbers for robot workers smashed a new record in 2022.

From Reuters: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politi...sales-of-robot-workers-smash-records-n1669647



I guess the next step is to demand a minimum living stipend for every citizen, documented and undocumented.
We can easily pay for it by taxing the rich and corporations, like the ones switching to robot labor.

And it opens up another battle for the civil rights warriors: Robots have rights too!
Who needs undocumented Spanish-speaking workers?
We have technology to replace them.

(Replace Dem)

 

[Chobham]

Who didn't see this coming? Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it.

When the cost of labor to perform any given job exceeds the value of the labor that does the job you either eliminate the job or the labor. Economics 101.

 

[Fuzzy1975]

It doesn’t seem like all that long ago that the #FightFor15 movement continually screamed that if business owners simply paid them a higher hourly wage, all of the labor issues plaguing the entry-level job industry would be solved overnight. There would never be a shortage of willing employees, they said, if only the wages were higher.

Strange, I don't recall them saying anything to the effect of the above.....?

 

[VinnyVeritas]

Who didn't see this coming? Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it.

When the cost of labor to perform any given job exceeds the value of the labor that does the job you either eliminate the job or the labor. Economics 101.

Well, there is a political economic at play here too. If I give them money, benefits and status unearned, then I have effectively purchased their vote/loyalty. All the Left needs to do is make promises followed closely by laws of popular acclaim, because the MSM will not ever confront them with the unintended consequences of their feigned altruism.

It is an economic polity which truly and falsely posits that artificially mandated rising wages will have no effect on inflation.

Inflation is caused by the greedy trying to separate the minimum wage worker from his/her/its newly won (by the ballot) and just due. The minimum wage contingent forgot that they could not be successful without price controls as greed control. With price controls, the greedy will simply take the new wage hikes out of profits.

 

[JohnEngelman]

The restaurant business by its nature is not conducive to automation and off shoring. You can't have customers waited on by robots. You can't have tables bussed in Bangladesh.

 

[VinnyVeritas]

Most of it occurs where the average American grabs a quick bite – the fast food establishment.

You know, the people who pay minimum wage (restaurant workers rely on tips, which, btw, the government is going after now in their war against the little guy/gal/on-the-fence).



(Chuckle: I originally typed fat food, a Freudian slip with much inherent truth.)

 

[Chobham]

Might want to research what happened to the restaurant business in Seattle when they raised their minimum wage.

 

[VinnyVeritas]

They experienced a boom due to the enthusiasm of the help?

 

[JohnEngelman]

Inflation is caused by the greedy trying to separate the minimum wage worker from his/her/its newly won (by the ballot) and just due.

Inflation has various causes. During the 1970's inflation was caused by the increase in the world price of petroleum that followed the OPEC Oil Boycott of 1973 and the Iranian Revolution of 1979.

Republicans and their pay masters in the business community blamed Keynesian economics. They never liked Keynesian economic policies because Keynesian shifted wealth, power, and prestige from the business community to the government.

Nevertheless, Keynesian economic policies were not designed to deal with the shortage of an essential natural resource. Moreover, during the Great Depression, which Keynesian economic policies eventually ended, inflation was not a problem; deflation was.

During the stagflation of the 1970's Republicans did not want to admit that foreigners they disliked had considerable control over the U.S. economy. They did not want to admit that America's dependence on petroleum was (and is) a national problem.

Another cause of inflation can be too many dollars chasing too few resources. Tax cuts for the rich can cause inflation because they enable the rich to bid up the price of everything.

 

[VinnyVeritas]

I don't need a lecture on Economics here. I am a well-read follower of the Austrian school.



Then again, maybe they just don't have sarcasm on your home planet.

Your last sentence there starts off sane and then devolves into fallacy. You cannot successfully tax either wealth or income, the rich simply purchase indulgences from the political class that lives off of their campaign contributions. The only way to adequately and fairly tax the rich is at the point-of-sale (POS).

FairTax.org

 

[Rightguide]

It doesn’t seem like all that long ago that the #FightFor15 movement continually screamed that if business owners simply paid them a higher hourly wage, all of the labor issues plaguing the entry-level job industry would be solved overnight. There would never be a shortage of willing employees, they said, if only the wages were higher.

A “living wage,” they demanded.

Now, a company can offer the same group of would-be burger flippers and shelf-stockers $25 per hour, and they still wouldn’t show up for work. Just go to your favorite local restaurant or small business. They’re all short-handed no matter how much they pay and what incentives they offer.

That’s why it’s no surprise that companies are largely turning to automated solutions like robots more than ever before.

According to an eye-opening Reuters report this week, the demand for robot replacement workers is skyrocketing, so much so that the industry sales numbers for robot workers smashed a new record in 2022.

From Reuters: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politi...sales-of-robot-workers-smash-records-n1669647



I guess the next step is to demand a minimum living stipend for every citizen, documented and undocumented.
We can easily pay for it by taxing the rich and corporations, like the ones switching to robot labor.

And it opens up another battle for the civil rights warriors: Robots have rights too!
Who needs undocumented Spanish-speaking workers?
We have technology to replace them.

(Replace Dem)

Sounds like a recipe for killing fast-food jobs as the industry turns to robotics and AI to solve the emerging Marxist labor subversion of dictated wages that are sure to kill our free market.

 

[Fuzzy1975]

Sounds like a recipe for killing fast-food jobs as the industry turns to robotics and AI to solve the emerging Marxist labor subversion of dictated wages that are sure to kill our free market.

Doom and gloom.

The minimum wage has been in place since 1938, and has been increased around 40 times.....guess what.....none of your doom and gloom happened....History, the great light of Truth,upon the bullshit you and your kind spread....

 

[VinnyVeritas]

Remember, those are "demeaning" jobs, that's why they need a higher wage...

 

[SgtSpiderMan]

Doom and gloom.

The minimum wage has been in place since 1938, and has been increased around 40 times.....guess what.....none of your doom and gloom happened....History, the great light of Truth,upon the bullshit you and your kind spread....

They don’t want to hear that because that would mean they would have to think for themselves. They’d much rather be told what to be angry at and then blindly be angry.

 

[VinnyVeritas]

 

[DeluxAuto]

According to an eye-opening Reuters report this week, the demand for robot replacement workers is skyrocketing, so much so that the industry sales numbers for robot workers smashed a new record in 2022.

How to Create a False Narrative to Upset Dumb People - FauxNews Style​

https://forum.literotica.com/thread...-to-upset-dumb-people-fauxnews-style.1580285/

"People use technology more as more technology becomes available!"

https://indipest.files.wordpress.com/2021/03/bw6d5zz.gif

 

[VinnyVeritas]

 

[John_von_Neumann]

The restaurant business by its nature is not conducive to automation and off shoring. You can't have customers waited on by robots. You can't have tables bussed in Bangladesh.

Of course you can. The technology already exists, is being trialed, and used in some restaurants.

I don't need a lecture on Economics here. I am a well-read follower of the Austrian school.

Lmao. Good one!

 

[DeluxAuto]

The most significant technological advance AJ has been able to navigate is the new emoticons.

 

[Rightguide]

The restaurant business by its nature is not conducive to automation and off shoring. You can't have customers waited on by robots. You can't have tables bussed in Bangladesh.

Nobody is going to buy a $15.00 hamburger either.

 

[DeluxAuto]

Nobody is going to buy a $15.00 hamburger either.

I bought 2 yesterday. You should get out more.

 

[JohnEngelman]

I don't need a lecture on Economics here. I am a well-read follower of the Austrian school.

Libertarians swear by F.A. Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom. I wonder how many of them have actually read it.

----------

"F.A. Hayek Opposed laissez fair capitalism," by John Engelman

During and after the Second World War socialism was a popular ideal in the West. It was clear to many that socialism had enabled the Soviet Union to industrialize fast enough to build the weapons the Soviets needed to defeat the Nazi invasion. (The human cost of that industrialization was not yet sufficiently clear.) It was also clear that reform in a socialist direction had ended the Great Depression in the United States and enabled American industry to produce even more weapons than Soviet industry.

Consequently, when F.A. Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom was published in 1944 many educated people in the West responded with incredulity, and even anger. How could someone who wrote so well have so many discredited ideas?

Business owners and business executives, on the other hand, were grateful that someone so articulate had championed their economic interests.

Since 1944 the economies of the western democracies have moved to the left, particularly with the adoption of public health care. Nevertheless, the intellectual consensus has moved to the right. Consequently, much of The Road to Serfdom reads like something that could have been written today by a moderate Democrat.

To begin with, Hayek opposes laissez faire capitalism. This comes as a shock to those libertarians who urge me to read his book without having read it themselves. (When reading Hayek one should realize that when he mentions “liberals” he means nineteenth cent liberals, or contemporary economic conservatives.)

For these libertarians I am happy to quote from Chapter 1, “The Abandoned Road,” “Probably nothing has done so much harm to the liberal cause as the wooden insistence of some liberals on certain rough rules of thumb, above all the principle of laissez faire.”

Then on Chapter 3, “Individualism and Collectivism,” he writes, “It is important not to confuse opposition against this kind of planning with a dogmatic laissez faire attitude.”

And on Chapter 6, “Planning and the Rule of Law,” he writes, “the term ‘laissez faire’ is a highly ambiguous and misleading description of the principles on which a liberal policy is based.”

These passages come from my fiftieth anniversary edition. They can be found on pages 21, 41, and 89. Read them yourself.

Since the publication of The Road to Serfdom, Margaret Thatcher’s statement about capitalism that “there is no alternative,” has become the reluctant consensus of the democratic left. Nevertheless, within capitalism there are alternatives to the casino capitalism that prevails in the United States, where the odds favor the house. Some of the reforms Hayek recommends have become part of the status quo. Some are needed now.

Hayek’s most valid insight is that an advanced economy needs people in commanding positions who are willing to take risks, and it needs many precise decisions to be made regarding price and attribute. Socialism enabled the Soviet Union to quickly develop the industry that enabled the Soviets to produce the weapons that defeated Nazi Germany. Nevertheless, the Soviet economy was deficient in producing consumer goods.

Everyone can agree on what is a successful weapon. A tank should be fast; it should have armor that resists anti tank weapons; it should have a gun powerful enough to destroy enemy tanks and enemy fortifications. In a statement made in private, Adolf Hitler revealed how disturbed he was when he learned that one factory in the Soviet Union produced more tanks every year than every German factory.

It is generally acknowledged that the Stalin tanks of the Soviets could outperform the Tiger and the Panther tanks of the Germans, which in turn could outperform the Sherman tanks of the Americans.

However, the Soviets never produced a car that could compete on the international marketplace. The Germans could with the Volkswagen and the Mercedes.

There is no consensus about what constitutes a good automobile. Some consumers want a car that can go from 0 to 60 miles per hour in a few seconds. Other consumers want fuel economy. When it comes to what makes a car beautiful, there is even less agreement. The same can be said about other consumer goods. A consumer good with a new feature may sell well. It may hardly sell at all.

Decisions about what consumer goods to produce, how to produce them, and how much to charge for them, are better made by many competing companies, than by government departments. The leaders of the Soviet Union did not learn this quickly enough. The Soviet Union fell. The leaders of Communist China did learn this in time. Much of what you buy in department stores is made in China.

Hayek is less insightful when he warns that democratic socialism has a tendency to devolve into totalitarianism. The closest approximation to democratic socialism can be seen in Scandinavian Social Democracy. It is difficult to think of nations less likely than Sweden, Norway, and Denmark to follow someone like Vladimir Lenin or Adolf Hitler.

Totalitarianism is what may happen to a nation that has been severely traumatized. Totalitarian dictatorships in Russia, Germany, and China resulted from the devastation of two world wars, not from the popularity of democratic socialism.

Hayek’s useful recommendations are likely to surprise libertarian ideologues who revere him without reading The Road to Serfdom. He is in favor of government work projects during periods of severe and durable unemployment. He thinks the government should assist those whose skills have become obsolete because of technical advances. He supports environmental protection, and conservation.

Public opinion surveys indicate that in the United States socialism is becoming a more popular ideal, especially among the young. This is not because Americans preferring socialism to capitalism have not read The Road to Serfdom. It is because capitalism is not working for those Americans. Not only are American paychecks shrinking, so are cubicles and seats on airlines. Nevertheless, the rich get richer. A natural tendency of capitalism is to accumulate wealth at the top. One does not find that insight in The Road to Serfdom. One finds it in The Communist Manifesto. Political thinkers should be read for insight, rather than doctrine.

In his review of The Road to Serfdom George Orwell wrote, “The trouble with competitions is that somebody wins them.” The more serious trouble is that most people lose them.

Emile Durkheim wrote, “Socialism is not a science…it is a cry of pain.” Politicians that revere The Road to Serfdom without understanding it are likely not to listen to that cry, to the peril of their careers.

 

[JohnEngelman]

The only way to adequately and fairly tax the rich is at the point-of-sale (POS).

FairTax.org

A point of sale tax (AKA, a national sales tax) would cut taxes for the rich, while raising taxes on most other people, especially poor people. Most of us do not think that would be fair at all. For years public opinion surveys have indicated popular support for a more progressive income tax.

https://www.google.com/search?q=pol...4xLjIuMC4zLjKYAQCgAQGwAQq4AQI&sclient=gws-wiz

 

[ll74]

Simply put, wages haven't kept up with inflation...in my lifetime.

If the value of a job hasn't changed, then the wages should keep pace with inflation. Full stop. I should be able to have the same job someone else had 10 years ago and afford the same things as they could. If I can't, then the value of that job has dropped.

 

[Chobham]

A point of sale tax (AKA, a national sales tax) would cut taxes for the rich, while raising taxes on most other people, especially poor people. Most of us do not think that would be fair at all. For years public opinion surveys have indicated popular support for a more progressive income tax.

https://www.google.com/search?q=poll+++taxes+++rich&source=hp&ei=W7rnY9XGFpumptQPzNWzqAs&iflsig=AK50M_UAAAAAY-fIaxI-ASwZQ8p7qYUlxA84LXNS31p2&ved=0ahUKEwiV4NKa6o39AhUbk4kEHczqDLUQ4dUDCAs&uact=5&oq=poll+++taxes+++rich&gs_lcp=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&sclient=gws-wiz

You have NO CLUE as to how the "Fair Tax" law is written.

How much more "progressive?" The top 1% pay 47% of all taxes. The bottom 50% pay 1 3/4% of all taxes. We need to tax that bottom 50% more, a lot more. Teach their economically ignorant asses about taxes.