The US workforce is the most productive, best educated in history and unemployment is at an all-time low, but wages are stagnant

[tsath]

The IWW was absolutely right. That’s why they were reviled l, imprisoned, and killed

[sdmikev]

@astazangasta

Capitalists are not doing this to help the poor, they are doing it to bid down the cost of labor globally.

This.
Perfectly summarized.

[milliefink]

@astazangasta

What WILL help workers, here and everywhere else, is increased labor bargaining power - that means rather than pitting all workers against each other in the same labor pool, workers be allowed to organize for rights, be guaranteed safe, humane working conditions, living wages, etc.

Yes, there is that, and/or taking over the means of production.

In It Together: How Worker-Owned Cooperatives Are Revolutionizing Businesses...

[astazangasta]

@tlwest

Of course they aren’t - but then nobody is claiming that they are. The ethical question is do we have the right to force companies to favour our citizens over foreigners. In other words are foreign livelihoods worth less than native ones. And the answer has generally been all human lives have the same intrinsic worth, so we don’t have an ethical right.

This is what is known as a “false dichotomy”. This is not an either-or equation; both workers in the developed world and the developing world may prosper. In particular, developing countries do NOT need foreign investment in order to prosper, nor do their workers need American corporations as employers in order to earn a higher wage, this is a total myth. You might consult the writing of Ha-Joon Chang - he describes the history of Korea, which went from one of the poorest nations on Earth to one of the wealthiest in a mere half-century - all without substantial foreign investment.

This equation, of course, is what capitalists WANT us to believe, because they want to sell us on the idea that somehow we need them to prosper - we don’t, at all, anywhere, in the US or China or India.

[RedFury]

Don’t forget that hiring managers like to hire workers who seem the most like themselves. What demographic does your hiring manager belong to? That’s who they’ll view most favorably. Just like how old married farts start to look alike, if you sit and watch employees exiting a building, you’ll see a certain sameness to them.

[RedFury]

But wait…I’ve never been ALLOWED to join a union… wrong gender, over-educated, or most usually, I had to be in the job starting back when the company formed.

[sdmikev]

@RedFury

Don’t forget that hiring managers like to hire workers who seem the most like themselves. What demographic does your hiring manager belong to? That’s who they’ll view most favorably. Just like how old married farts start to look alike, if you sit and watch employees exiting a building, you’ll see a certain sameness to them.

Taken a step further, it starts at the top.
I’ve asked people to do this many times, and I’ll do it here.
Pick 20 random companies on the Fortune 500 or from the nasdaq 500, or all the Dow 30 and have a look at the “leadership” page on their respective web sites.

[RedFury]

Oh, yeah…we’ve been making fun of that for at least two recessions:

[gatto]

@Boundegar

Who need wages when you have Freedom? At least by those communistical union bosses aren’t taking away your Right to Work! Did you know socialists don’t even have that? The government forces them to sit around collecting disability and social security and going to free government elementary schools!

wait. is that sarcasm or a quote from fox news?

@anon61833566

Now…let’s look at executive compensation… ruffles through paperwork…

Oh…That is at an ALL TIME HIGH, and is ridiculously higher than ever before? Says here executive compensation has not just gone up in the last 30-40 years, but it has gone up exponentially as compared to anything and everything else!

hmmmm. who’d have thunk

well, who do you think educated the workers, made them so productive, and kept their wages low?

that doesn’t just happen by some invisible hand, you know.

[edit]
wait. who’s being sarcastic now. is it me? i can’t tell.

[sdmikev]

@RedFury

Oh, yeah…we’ve been making fun of that for at least two recessions:

I’ve lived through 3 so far. Old AF.
Actually I’m only 52 this year but I’ve been working non stop since 1984. I told my wife when I hit 59 1/2 I’m quitting wherever I am and doing something fun. After a break. 41 years of the corporate grind is enough.

[bobzwrz]

@Seska_Orion

when someone advertises a job and receives 200 applicants, at least 50 of which can do the job, they can afford to low-ball the salary they offer

Bingo. And even if the business is required to pay a higher salary to the person hired, that accomplishes nothing for the other 199.

We ought to be thinking about how to create labor shortages, rather than how to put bandaids on labor surpluses.

[Seska_Orion]

@bobzwrz

We ought to be thinking about how to create labor shortages, rather than how to put bandaids on labor surpluses.

That’s also easy; Teach children how to be entrepreneurial. If almost everyone can make more than minimum wage by creating their own business, then employers will need to pay a premium to get people to put aside their own ideas and be an employee.

[john_c]

If inflation has been approximately 10% for the last 20 years or so, then you believe that the real value of US GDP is now much less than it used to be. And way less, if you consider per capita. I don’t buy that.

Secondly, the Shadow Stats methodology is very likely to be flawed. If you don’t think so then you have to have an answer for the double counting argument that’s towards the end of this: https://www.themaven.net/economonitor/emerging-markets/deconstructing-shadowstats-why-is-it-so-loved-by-its-followers-but-scorned-by-economists-DWhA0PwhhkOHkzTLLeCvpQ/?full=1