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Sunday, September 15, 2019

Wages and the Gig Economy



California passed a law that requires companies in the “gig” economy to treat workers like employees. Of course, the law is just a starting point. Companies like Uber are trying to get some watered down version when it comes to implementation.

Companies are complaining the law will ruin their businesses. My take on it is pretty simple. If your business model requires that your workers earn less than a living wage, you don’t deserve to be in business. Seems like a scam to me. Uber has never made money, yet it’s co-founder just bought an amazing mansion for 72.5 million dollars.

I am dismayed at the number of workers who don’t think they deserve a living wage. It’s not normal to have to work three low wage jobs to make a living. Productivity is way up and CEOs are doing quite well, thank you very much. Of course, at the end of slavery, some slaves were worried that they wouldn’t have their masters to take care of them anymore. The owner class has always done a pretty good job brainwashing people.

Even Henry Ford realized that the workers building his cars had to earn enough money to buy the cars they made. When the poor and working class earn more money, they spend it. That spending stimulates the economy and everyone benefits. The wealthy don’t stimulate the economy as much. They can only eat so many meals and wear so many suits.

At some point the economy is going to have to be reorganized. Even China, a land of low wages, is going into automation to reduce costs even more. If your job pits you against machines, you will lose in the long run.

I’m not sure what the solutions are, but building companies on the back of starvation wage workers isn’t going to work long term.

-Sixbears



12 comments:

  1. Your thoughts include some of the main ingredients for an Economic Collapse of a country.

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    1. I hope this turns around. It's even in the interests of the wealthy as they won't get out of this unscathed either.

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  2. I believe that a maximum profit law is the answer. Spread the wealth or we take it anyway.

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    1. There's a lot of things that could help, and it would nice to see at least some of them being tried.

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  3. That's why they want to kill most of us off, Sixbears, so they won't have starving masses on their conscience, just murder. As for Ford, he was only concerned about his own workers that he could see. He certainly had no compassion for the coal miners who worked at the mines where he and his buddies had invested.

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    1. Their actions indicate they have no difficulty killing us off for a buck. Coal miners have been getting the short end of the stick for a long long time.

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  4. I wonder about the unintended consequences. Barbers, manicurists, many construction sub-contractors, and quite a few in the tech industry all work as independent contractors. And, they enjoy the freedom that comes with it.

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    1. If you are independent, you still need a living wage.

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  5. Granted there are devils in the details. But it is important that those who do not have medical insurance know the costs are shifted to the county/state/federal when the medical bill is due. And it will be due several times in your life. Sayin that these persons are effectively slave labor is also true, without a living wage to pay for a place to live, food/clothing, and medical. Why does a business think it is worth sustaining on the back of specific laws; when the market would shut that business down in a day if the basics of life where required. As a society we love to shift our costs to the most vulnerable folks; and many business men have no problem doing that with justification they are creating jobs out of nothing. Sure slave jobs; where that person would be better taken care of to learn survival skills to plant/farm/build/grow than that job.

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    1. Somehow we seem to have blended the worse of capitalist and socialist systems.

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  6. Welp - that means a whole lot of young people out of work then. You know - the youngsters that are supposed to be paying for all that free health care and retirement bennies that you baby boomers voted for yourselves back in the 70's?

    Which begs another question: what did you old farts THINK was going to happen to the labour markets when you opened the borders up to mass immigration by low IQ/low skill vibrants from Mexico?

    When I see stuff like this I think our seniors should be ground up into food paste and fed to the hogs.

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    1. In reality, places with living minimum wages don't have massive unemployment and businesses are doing fine.

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