Can we drop this please?
Ray MacNair is back on the editorial page, this time refuting Archie Carroll's column against the living wage. It's the same one-trick pony from MacNair, though at least he put some thought into this one.
While I do agree that higher wages can lead to additional revenue flowing into the economy, again, it's only a temporary fix. Why? Because it hasn't done anything to increase the skill sets of those workers receiving those higher wages, thus meaning they stay in the same position which, when the economy corrects itself, puts us right back where we started.
Of course, I thought Carroll's column went too far as well because, as a rational individual, I happen to believe there must be a middle ground that ensures workers are compensated in a way that doesn't perpetuate their poverty, but also leaves ample room for increased pay with increased work performance. And it seems to me that most businesses outside of the service industry understand this concept.
While I do agree that higher wages can lead to additional revenue flowing into the economy, again, it's only a temporary fix. Why? Because it hasn't done anything to increase the skill sets of those workers receiving those higher wages, thus meaning they stay in the same position which, when the economy corrects itself, puts us right back where we started.
Of course, I thought Carroll's column went too far as well because, as a rational individual, I happen to believe there must be a middle ground that ensures workers are compensated in a way that doesn't perpetuate their poverty, but also leaves ample room for increased pay with increased work performance. And it seems to me that most businesses outside of the service industry understand this concept.
posted by Jmac at 9:11 AM
1 Comments:
Well, unless we cap the percentage of profit that a company can make (which I do NOT advocate), raising wages will only raise prices because it all goes into labor expense which becomes part of the costs that companies pass along to their customers.
So, giving everybody a $100/hour raise will simply raise the cost of all the goods and services by about that same amount and we're right back at square one.
That's a kind of simplistic view of it and there would be some exceptions but not enough. I think it would probably totally destroy the US in the world market where we have to compete with products made by "almost-slave" labor.
I don't know the right answers but I can recognize that "just give everybody a raise" is not a correct answer for more than maybe one month.
Al
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