02-04-2025, 02:27 AM
(This post was last modified: 02-04-2025, 02:28 AM by danbrotherston.)
(02-03-2025, 11:31 PM)tomh009 Wrote:(02-03-2025, 09:06 PM)plam Wrote: And it would be even more true if there was a Universal Basic Income. Otherwise, well, people need to work to pay their bills.
And companies need employees to get work done.
There are times when there are not enough jobs for the job-seekers, and there are times when there are fewer job-seekers than jobs. Usually, these is a reasonable balance between the two, and people are able to quit their jobs and switch to something else. It's not as if we have indentured labour and companies can prevent people from leaving.
Surprising conservative take from you. Canada is clearly not the US but I think this applies across the boarder as well even if it is more true in the US. I’m not going to argue that this is the same as indentured servitude but it is also absolutely clear that with the decimation of unions the majority of lower income people are not negotiating on an equal footing with employers. Not even remotely close. They generally must accept the terms they are offered because they have to work. Where as companies can generally replace people pretty easily. I don’t really believe the labour shortage arguments I heard a few years ago. That was a unique pandemic related situation not the typical North American situation.
As for higher income workers like office workers, the reality is that flexible work arrangements are an incredibly cheap perk for a company to provide (generally having negative cost) and the only cases where it has been pulled back is through incompetent and spiteful management and as a mechanism of doing layoffs in secret (which I also consider incompetent).