(01-02-2018 08:06 PM)Bull_Is_Back Wrote: (12-27-2017 01:19 AM)arkstfan Wrote: Those starter jobs are the jobs now.
But what you fail to understand is that a job will only pay the value of the product it creates.
That's not how wages work. If my factory can hire people at $8.50 an hour to make a product I make a profit of $10 on and I add a new product that requires the same skills but produces a profit of $100 I'm not going to raise my wages as long as I can staff at $8.50
My local community used to have three man garbage crews and switched to advanced trucks and use two man crews with the outside man just there to handle any messes.
Wage costs didn't drop by a third. The new trucks require greater skill and they couldn't attract replacement drivers at the old wage scale who were ready to go without longer training.
This incredibly simple.
Society can choose to subsidize people who lack the skills to perform higher wage jobs or choose to force the employer to pay enough that people don't require subsidization.
The Silicon Valley folks think subsidizing workers is the path we will have to take as automation expands.
Forcing employers to subsidize just accelerates transfer of work from industrialized nations to non-industrialized and accelerates the automation process.
One might say well sucks to be you too bad you can't earn a living wage but anyone versed in history knows that's the path to revolution.
There are nine industrialized nations without a minimum wage. They have a social safety net that subsidizes the wages for the unskilled worker. Most if not all have a work requirement component. It can be scammed but it takes real effort.
We are blended offering the low wage worker food stamps, the earned income credit (if they have dependent children), and depending on the state Medicaid and CHiP for dependent children but still retaining the minimum wage.
I think in a global economy in makes more sense to be like Switzerland and not have a minimum wage.
