There was talk about renaming the Krugman thread for this purpose, but that seems to be going nowhere. Besides which, I feel the Krugman thread should be left to discuss Krugman while this thread can be used for more general economic discussion.
Discuss:
- The merits of competing theories.
- The role of the government in managing the economy.
- The causes of and solutions to our current economic woes.
- Comparisons between the economic systems of different countries.
- Theoretical and existing alternatives to our current market system.
edited 17th Dec '12 10:58:52 AM by Topazan
The thing is, if you really can't afford the minimum wage increase, then just raise your prices without making a big deal of it, and if people even notice they won't make a big deal of it. By making a political statement of it, all you do is generate ill will.
Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers
Exactly. I do get that some small businesses are operating on margins small enough that they do have to hike prices or lay off staff immediately, but don't be so brazen about it.
The US economy is kept afloat by two things - slave labour and the international oil market.
1) US prisons use the prisoners as unpaid labour. All of a US infantryman's webbing and helmet is made by prisoners, for example. The US can't afford to employ people to do the jobs prisoners currently do. Course, this puts non-criminals out of work.
2) The US dollar is supported by the fact that it is the 'International Reserve Currency' by dint of being what most oil is traded in. This is why the Fed can fine foreign banks for breaking US sanctions, even if the bank has done nothing illegal because the trade was conducted outside the US.
Economist on Radio 4 pointed out just before the invasion of Iraq, Iraq had sold some oil in Euros. He said he wasn't saying that was the reason for invasion, but it did send a clear message to other oil producers at how co-incidental the timing was. Imagine if China bought all it's oil in Euros.
Citation on the first statement? I know that there isn't much good to say about the US prison system but that seems somewhat outlandish.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Professional Forum Ninja
Fischer as a reminder is Ben Bernanke and Mario Draghi's teacher, essentially, and formerly ran the Israeli central bank, keeping the country out of recession.
Employers need to learn that they have to raise wages if they want to attract people to their business.
Lost in Space
Up until 2006 or so, it was sort of expected. One of the most far-reaching effects of the recession is that the business community as a whole has apparently become infected with a "never raise wages ever again" meme.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Cracked made a note of this a while back, but probably the surest sign of rising wages is when Mc Donalds gives in. When Mc Donalds changes standards, it affects a lot of the rest of the business industry.
The CEOs and other people on top being the exception, of course.
edited 13th Aug '14 7:10:46 AM by Quag15
V
Don't give 'em a choice. Mind you, on wages...
Humans Need Not Apply: A video on the fact automation is inevitable, even for creative jobs.
Arguably Gans' article sounds like what would transition into actual communist society. Or something possibly similar.
edited 18th Aug '14 11:27:07 AM by PotatoesRock
I think the counterpoint, to turn the tables, is "How sustainable is a human labor force economy at current pace"
Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers
I mean, it's simple. You either share the abundance to an acceptable degree (e.g. not everyone has to be rich, but a baseline "middle class experience" is going to need to be maintained, especially in the Western world), or you have revolution, because it will be IMPOSSIBLE to control that number of unemployed people unless the plans of various governments involve employing a lot of those unemployable to shoot at the other unemployable (or, robots, but combat automation wouldn't work in a revolutionary scenario, at least not to be anything more than a deadly annoyance for the rioting masses). If 35% of the working-age population becomes unemployable, it's obvious that someone's going to get the idea that "hey, best thing we can do with our time is change things," whether violently or non-violently.
V
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
You mean some sort of Luddite backlash?note
Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers
Not necessarily Luddite, since the Luddites were wreckers. Folks these days are smart enough to know that even if ex-cashiers organized a revolutionary brigade and went around chucking grenades at the machines that replaced them, do they REALLY want to go back to doing that? Truck driving is HARD, staying up all night at a 24-hour gas station is boring and wrecks your circadian rhythm, leading to health problems. Being a paralegal and having to do all of that discovery crap is boring and stressful.
I think the average person understands that life would be better if we didn't have to work, but merely does so for the money (if they're in a job that they don't thoroughly enjoy, anyway. And then there's the question of preference falsification, where people think they're happy in their work just because they're not turned on to the idea that they could be even happier by not working), so any revolution would not be regressive in nature, it would simply be redistributive.
It's like those "Obamacare" surcharges that you got at some other restaurants.
It's a way to make a political statement, definitely, but it's also a way to make all of your customers who bother to notice, hate you, and in this specific case, piss off all of your workers.
Hopefully they all walk out in the middle of a busy dinner rush and leave this guy up a creek.