Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/09/05/stop-bezos.html
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16 Likes
I can see what will happen. Instead of raising wages, companies will just no longer hire anyone with children, or anyone who can bear children.
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It seems like a good idea. The only hitch I see is that some people might work only a few hours a week, and still be on benefits. Perhaps that is addressed.
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That would open said companies up to massive potentially feasible lawsuits, while simultaneously denying themselves access to a huge chunk of the labor pool.
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OK. Here’s an idea.
Go to your local super market. Ask people to sign a petition demanding that the supermarket put 20% on prices, so they can raise wages for their staff. Tell people that this also means the state will tax those workers more, and cut their welfare.
Do you think you will get many signatures, or will people spot the flaw?
That’s some top-level trollin’ right there.
41 Likes
That would be some darn big raises, considering that payroll is less than 12% of gross expenditures. https://www.fmi.org/docs/facts-figures/marketingcosts.pdf?sfvrsn=2
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Or… employee pay raises can come from the bloated salaries of the upper executive / CEO etc. No need to add 20% to products. The money is there, you just gotta know where to look.
Fortune Magazine: Top CEOs make more than 300 times the average worker
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It would have in the pre-Roberts and particularly pre-Kavanaugh days. Not so much anymore.
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Tying corporate tax rates to the difference between executive compensation and their low tier workers would probably work equally as well also
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This. I spotted the flaw: why raise prices? The money’s already there.
Nice try.
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Next up in “not a chance in hell” theater.
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Hey here’s an idea. Go to your local supermarket and ask people to sign a petition that they cut the wages for their CEO’s by 20 percent, so they can raise wages for their poverty level staff.
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Already done. Winco Foods. Employee owned. Lowest prices and highest pay for a general grocery store around here.
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I say, he has a lively whit! I’ll grant you that!
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You’re free to shop with them. I’m all for it.
Equally, employees are free to leave Amazon and work else where.
The problem comes when people are forced to do things.
Notice what’s missing from the posts of those advocating forcing people to do things. They leave off the side effects. Namely increased prices.
So lets take the cut the pay of the CEO.
Walmart employs 2.3 million. The made a whopping 22.4 million.
So lets give ever employee a $10 bill. Does that work for you? [Walmart is one of the largest differentials]
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Wally World, Mc Poison & Amazon just pooped their collective pants.
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And then insist that all the other supermarkets play by the same rules, hire employees, and try to generate profit.
I’m willing to bet they’ll find a way to do it without raising prices very much. Plus, more money will be circulating and more goods will be purchased, because more people are paid a livable wage.
Right now, the people at the top are extracting profit at the expense of the rest of us. These sorts of policies make it more difficult.
The notion that the richest man in the world can’t pay his employees is absurd. Amazon can’t significantly raise prices and still be competitive. Higher wages would mean they would have to either eat the expense in the form of margin, or sacrifice wallet share. I’m ok with either of those.
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Yep. Election-year stunt.
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This is a really great idea, but why single out Bezos personally?
The issue is not with one person it’s a problem with a whole system the encourages companies to pay below-subsistence wages, and this is an elegant solution. It would encourage companies to pay a living wage to their employees rather than pay these amounts to the government.
Can’t something just be a good idea without there being a bad guy?
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