stella41b
Posts: 4258
Joined: 10/16/2007
From: SW London (UK)
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Not sure how it is in the US, but enough Americans are telling me that there are more than a few similarities to here in the UK which taking into account differences in society and culture is probably true.
But I know how it is better here in the UK, which has a minimum wage of (I think) £5.75 an hour. But there's an army of workers, especially migrant workers, who don't even get that. I've come across hotel workers being paid as little as £3 an hour and even hospital cleaners on £2.75 an hour.
Now if the general concept of success was based on 'quality' such as quality of life, quality of work and so on, we wouldn't need a minimum wage. No sorry, I will rephrase that, if the concept of success based on 'quality' was more widespread, we wouldn't need a minimum wage.
But no, the general mindset appears to be that success involves making money or a profit at any cost, even to the detriment of other people and often involving their exploitation. If they could get away with it I'm sure many employers would hire people and forego paying them wages. And it isn't the minimum wage, but this very mindset which is causing the most damage to our economy.
It's this concept of a 'something for nothing' society where people seek the maximum profit and to gain through putting in the minimum amount of investment, money and/or time.
This is why, unlike the States and everywhere else Britain appears to lead the trend of corporate businessmen who are greedy, incompetent and not very good at business. Can anyone think of five British CEOs of really successful corporations? Maybe you can, but it won't be easy. Not least when most of our corporations were sold off anyway and no real investments in new business are happening anyway.
But the thing is there's no way round this. By exploiting one's workers and paying them as little as possible, employers are offsetting the real costs of human resources to others, in most cases the government who have to pay more out in welfare benefits longer not just for those who cannot afford to work (yes, consider that, there are people who cannot afford to work) but in supplementing the incomes of those who do take low paid jobs.
I mean in that case why bother having a free market economy at all? Why not just hand over all responsibility to the government and have communism or state capitalism?
But the thing is, when you have widespread exploitation, and no government support, almost invariably organized criminals step in and you end up with a situation just like in Russia, a country which has lost almost its entire middle class and which is largely ruled by gangs and organized criminals. Crime is one of poverty's best friends.
This way of thinking also hurts society and damages it in ways which may take years to repair and recover from. Term makes the excellent point about how exploitation is taking and keeping parents out of the home and the importance of state-sponsored education. We are already facing the issue of having more elderly people than the working population which is about to take place sometime around 2020. Cuts in education and a lack of parental presence in the home may well be a significant factor in creating a generation many of whom appear to be unemployable past the age of 30 through not having the necessary skills, education or social skills.
It's actually a sad state of affairs that any government has to impose a minimum wage at all, but there you have it, we have created a society of people who expect the freedom, the rights, the privileges and the wealth but who are not prepared to face up to the responsibilities, the actual costs and who appear to have little interest in investment in the future.
I'm not sure exactly what or who Term was referring to, but I'm inclined to assume that it was in reference to Mikhail Gorbachev who saw back in the 1970's and 1980's that the writing was on the wall and who did his level best to warn everybody about it. But no, it seems most people went for the easy option and listened too much to the opportunists like Thatcher,. Reagan, Walesa and Yeltsin.
It's no wonder then why we have a recession and our economies falling apart right across the Western world and the truth is - accept it or not - that we are running out of people to exploit and we're pretty much going to lose out to those who are able to exploit people better, such as China, parts of Asia and Africa.
I'm no business or economics expert but this much I do know, that the fundamental principles of any successful business includes investment, including investment in people, and a desire to earn a stable income or a sustainable one from providing quality products and services.
And like it or not that is our only way forward - investments, investments in people so we can create a committed, quality workforce with the necessary skills and training, and we invest in education so that young people are prepared for life with adequate skills and training and in turn, we create a stable society and sustainable economic prosperity.
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RE: Minimium Wage Rant - 
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