Originally posted by Pope:
Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favor of automation, programming the sh*t is fun, and I don't really have a problem with manufacturing going overseas; lower cost of living only requires lower pay.

The problem I have is the attitude that only the well educated should be paid enough to have a home (someplace to live), food, and clothing. All working adults should be paid average cost of living plus 1% despite what career field they are in. Let's face it, we need custodians, lawn-care, fast-food, cashiers, etc, etc... as much as we need doctors, lawyers, managers, etc, etc... However, there will never enough "High Paying" positions to support the demand if everyone has a college education. When mistreating employees can no longer be blamed on lack of a college degree, what will the excuse be then?

Unless more people are suddenly going to join my campaign to restrict/licence human reproduction, society will continue to grow and thusly require jobs for the adult population, jobs that MUST pay enough to survive on. Otherwise, we have failed as a society.



It's a great utopian ideal, but it just doesn't work in a capitalist society.

Let's say I ran a McDonald's, and my regular workers made $15,000, my shift managers made $30,000, and my general managers made $50,000. I want to raise my workers wage from $15,000 to $25,000 -- great idea. But now I can't find shift managers to work because there's no significant pay incentive to do so, so I have to raise their pay to $40,000. Now I can't find general managers because their pay difference isn't enough and they'd rather work the easier shift manager spot for a bit less. So I have to pay them $75,000.

We gained nothing.

Sure, the guys at the bottom are paid more. But when everyone gets paid more the price of everything just goes up to match. Supply and Demand.

Even if we presume that the other positions didn't complain that they wanted more money, if you jack up the pay of the lower-waged, their cost of living is going to go up simply because of supply and demand. If I know everyone gets paid at least $25,000 in the country I'm not about to lowball my prices to gain market share, I don't have to anymore. Everone's got money. Cost of living goes up as people make more, are you going to continuously adjust wage to Cost of Living +1% -- it'd be never-ending cycle of increases since the cost of living would increase roughly as fast as the average wage increased.

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