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For the past four decades, the majority of American workers have been shortchanged by economic policymaking that has suppressed the growth of hourly wages and prevented greater improvements in living standards. Achieving a secure, middle-class lifestyle has become increasingly difficult as hourly pay for most workers has either stagnated or declined. For millions of the country's lowest-paid workers, financial security is even more fleeting because of unscrupulous employers stealing a portion of their paychecks.
Wage theft, the practice of employers failing to pay workers the full wages to which they are legally entitled, is a widespread and deep-rooted problem that directly harms millions of U.S. workers each year. Employers refusing to pay promised wages, paying less than legally mandated minimums, failing to pay for all hours worked, or not paying overtime premiums deprives working people of billions of dollars annually. It also leaves hundreds of thousands of affected workers and their families in poverty. Wage theft does not just harm the workers and families who directly suffer exploitation; it also weakens the bargaining power of workers more broadly by putting downward pressure on hourly wages in affected industries and occupations. For many low-income families who suffer wage theft, the resulting loss of income forces them to rely more heavily on public assistance programs, unduly straining safety net programs and hamstringing efforts to reduce poverty.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Monday May 22 2017, @10:14PM (6 children)
Stay around enough and, without checks, there will be a single burger provider and the burgers will be as expensive as you can pay for them. If not enough of population can afford to pay for burgers above the production cost, the quality of them will degrade until it becomes profitable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Tuesday May 23 2017, @03:02AM
Just as an aside, I think horse meat would be much better than some of the things that end up in burgers.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 23 2017, @07:49AM
Yup, capitalism may be an ideal that could work in an ideal world where everyone could easily set up their own shop. Human greed results in many situations where newcomers are forced out, can't afford to compete with economy of scale, etc.
Regulation is required to keep capitalism working properly, otherwise it devolves into monopolies and cartels as c0Lo pointed out.
(Score: 2) by migz on Tuesday May 23 2017, @08:07AM (3 children)
If the price of burgers gets high enough, then I will go into the burger business and get rich. If the inputs get too expensive to produce decent burgers, then that's economics telling us to become vegetarian. It is much better then getting the tax-payer to subsidise the production of cheap corn, to be fed to cattle, to make cheap burgers.
Also correct, that the government is a monopoly. Under capitalism abusive monopolies are unsustainable, because new entrants can enter the market and take away their business. Under government an artificial monopoly can be created and protected from competition, and abuse its patrons at will.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday May 23 2017, @12:19PM (2 children)
Cool.
Here's an opportunity for you: iGadgets are overpriced for their capabilities.
Now, get off your ass, stop wasting time and get into business of making iPhones or their equiv - sorta like Samsung, only cheaper.
I'll meet you in a year at the Ritchie-Rich club and you'll pay me a beer for the tip I gave you today. Deal?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Tuesday May 23 2017, @02:37PM (1 child)
"Gadgets are overpriced for their capabilities.
Now, get off your ass, stop wasting time and get into business of making iPhones or their equiv - sorta like Samsung, only cheaper.
I'll meet you in a year at the Ritchie-Rich club and you'll pay me a beer for the tip I gave you today. Deal?"
That's a saturated razor thin margined commodity market (albeit with ludicrously high cost of entry and high switching costs for consumers, which are a slightly different discussion.) It is the exact opposite of 'price of burgers gets high enough'
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday May 23 2017, @09:57PM
So the burger analogy/model is of limited value when applied to the entire economy? And conclusions based on this analogy may be terrible flawed? Who would have thunk?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford