Fed Ends Zero-Rate Era

Re:Fed Ends Zero-Rate Era by ap22213 on Wednesday December 16, 2015 @05:21PM (#10747810)

So, the alternative is what? Allow wages to move toward zero? Then what?

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Re:Fed Ends Zero-Rate Era by theseatoms on Wednesday December 16, 2015 @05:30PM (#10747868)

A global minimum income. Or the strictly-superior-to-a-minimum-wage Earned Income Tax Credit [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earned_income_tax_credit

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Re:Fed Ends Zero-Rate Era by creshal on Wednesday December 16, 2015 @05:47PM (#10747962)

Why is it superior? That looks a lot like making the government subsidize worker exploitation.

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Re:Fed Ends Zero-Rate Era by vezzy-fnord on Wednesday December 16, 2015 @05:58PM (#10748037)

How does a negative income tax subsidize any of that? If anything, it's much more neutral regarding wage labor (since it's based on the broader definition of income in tax codes) than, obviously, minimum wage mandates.

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Re:Fed Ends Zero-Rate Era by Yrlec on Thursday December 17, 2015 @03:51AM (#10750305)

http://www.wsj.com/articles/better-than-raising-the-minimum-...

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Re:Fed Ends Zero-Rate Era by eru on Wednesday December 16, 2015 @06:34PM (#10748250)

Allow competetion to set the wages, just like all other prices.

Singapore doesn't have a minimum, and wages there are not zero. (Neither did Germany until recently.)

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Re:Fed Ends Zero-Rate Era by latch on Wednesday December 16, 2015 @07:03PM (#10748447)

Not all other prices are set by competition. There's much manipulation through things like subsidies, tariffs, tax incentives, and bailouts.

Also, having lived in Singapore for years, it's a wonderful city and I love it, but the wage story isn't necessarily one to mimic. It might look grand as a foreigner, but your cleaning lady is probably sharing a 3 bedroom apartment with 16+ other women and doesn't see her family more than a few times a year.

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Re:Fed Ends Zero-Rate Era by eru on Wednesday December 16, 2015 @08:40PM (#10748909)

And, yet, she still makes more money than in her home country.

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Re:Fed Ends Zero-Rate Era by TheOtherHobbes on Thursday December 17, 2015 @02:39AM (#10750137)

And spends almost all of it on rent.

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Re:Fed Ends Zero-Rate Era by eru on Friday December 18, 2015 @07:13AM (#10758038)

At least they are building up like crazy. No NIMBYs there.

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Re:Fed Ends Zero-Rate Era by crdoconnor on Wednesday December 16, 2015 @06:47PM (#10748339)

Singapore wages aren't zero but they are really low for the non-managerial classes (i.e. the people who do all the work) and oversized for the managerial classes.

It's about 3x the size of San Francisco and clearly has aspirations of becoming a similar center for startups but with the prevailing wages for the people who do all the actual work so low the quality of what is produced is usually shitty.

It's not a place you'd want to emulate.

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