RE: Why is it the employer's responsibility to provide a living wage?
May 10, 2014 at 5:08 pm
(This post was last modified: May 10, 2014 at 5:22 pm by Heywood.)
(May 10, 2014 at 8:17 am)Cato Wrote: Our system is broken. The expectation that people should work full time and not be able to afford basic shelter, clothing, food and healthcare is morally repugnant. This is a societal problem that our current mixed market doesn't address. I'll state right now that a short term solution I support is to enact legislation to grant a basic income to all citizens. This income is earned by our collective productivity and should be shared to provide basic life sustaining necessities for all citizens. Let me be clear about something; some will call this wealth redistribution which can only be done by ignoring the fact that our economic system is expressly set up to concentrate wealth where it should be set up to adequately share resources. As I respond to some of the themes in this thread keep in mind that my egalitarian nature stops once basic needs are fulfilled. Some people will have more than others. Sometimes this is earned, often times it is not (think Justin Bieber).
I was going to continue here, but think I'll go back and quote previous comments.
I agree about wealth distribution from the state(which is a huge ideological change for me). Not sure if it should come in the form of a Universal Basic income or a Negative income tax. I'm planning on doing a thread about it soon. Figured I would do a thread about living wage first to see if there is something about it I am missing.
(May 10, 2014 at 10:27 am)Deepthought Wrote: If employers don't pay a living wage, the employee will need to do two or more jobs to makes ends meet. This is not conducive to to the quality of work the employee provides because of tiredness and stress. Also pay rates have to attract talented and efficient employees. The car assembly line workers were paid very good wages not because the work was difficult/demanding - it was because it was boring and repetitive. To retain staff they had to be paid handsomely.
The natural state of homosapiens is to work until their nut is made. Its not the employers responsibility to lift man from their natural state any more than it is the streams responsibility to provide enough salmon. If it is anyone's responsibility it is the states.
(May 10, 2014 at 9:46 am)LostLocke Wrote: So, if from this point forward, all private business decided they were going to pay their employees $1 an hour for their work, that would be ok?
If not, why not?
I mean, the business is just providing the nut.
Business would not do that(unless their was some massive deflation). The couldn't attract enough employees.
