Re:UK pay falls at fastest rate on record as inflation hits
by kmeisthax on Tuesday July 19, 2022 @10:26AM
(#32151983)
The funny thing is that most of the "being mean" parts also didn't make financial sense, either. In some cases you paid $2 to means test every $1 of benefits, which just jacked up the cost of social programs for zero benefit to anyone.
Well, except for politicians. They got to say they "fixed" the "problem" of people mooching off the system. Except what this actually does is create a bureaucracy that people have to specialize in, so only very dedicated moochers will know how to use the system at all. People who use the system for its intended purpose will not know what to do in order to navigate all the government bureaucracy around it.
Lots of employers were used to buying into a labor market in which their workers had zero negotiating leverage besides minimum wage. This is deliberate. If the labor market had consolidated or changed in such a way as to naturally make prices rise through market mechanisms, then those employers would be calling on the government to manipulate the market the other way. In fact, that already happened: the whole concept of trade liberalization was weaponized to do exactly this to union labor.
Speaking of, we also need to account for the fact that China has shrugged. The torrent of cheap-as-free overseas labor is now not nearly as free and comes with significant problems; i.e. being tied to the CCP's political priorities and frequent lockdowns as a result of China's COVID-zero strategies. So even if we weren't running a UBI experiment, we'd still see shortages and wage inflation, because the country we built the entire global economy around is no longer providing what it used to.
Well, except for politicians. They got to say they "fixed" the "problem" of people mooching off the system. Except what this actually does is create a bureaucracy that people have to specialize in, so only very dedicated moochers will know how to use the system at all. People who use the system for its intended purpose will not know what to do in order to navigate all the government bureaucracy around it.
Lots of employers were used to buying into a labor market in which their workers had zero negotiating leverage besides minimum wage. This is deliberate. If the labor market had consolidated or changed in such a way as to naturally make prices rise through market mechanisms, then those employers would be calling on the government to manipulate the market the other way. In fact, that already happened: the whole concept of trade liberalization was weaponized to do exactly this to union labor.
Speaking of, we also need to account for the fact that China has shrugged. The torrent of cheap-as-free overseas labor is now not nearly as free and comes with significant problems; i.e. being tied to the CCP's political priorities and frequent lockdowns as a result of China's COVID-zero strategies. So even if we weren't running a UBI experiment, we'd still see shortages and wage inflation, because the country we built the entire global economy around is no longer providing what it used to.