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A comment on A dishwasher can make or break a restaurant. Parent comment

Re:A dishwasher can make or break a restaurant by FredPret on Wednesday August 28, 2024 @09:25AM (#41379235)
While I agree with your sentiment, that logic doesn't hold.

If the wage for a job is too low to afford life, then we can say either the job is underpaid or the job is fairly compensated but simply not worth doing. If dishwashers quit in numbers for other jobs, dishwasher pay would have to rise if restaurants can afford it, or the restaurant industry would wither, and from an economic point of view, deservedly so.

Of course, this theory works best in a dynamic economy where people and capital can move around with a minimum amount of friction.

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Re:A dishwasher can make or break a restaurant by piva00 on Wednesday August 28, 2024 @10:25AM (#41379885)
> Of course, this theory works best in a dynamic economy where people and capital can move around with a minimum amount of friction.

This assumption is akin to a spherical cow, frictionless surface, etc.

In the real world capital and people won't ever move around with a minimum amount of friction, nor will people retrain for other jobs easily.

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Re:A dishwasher can make or break a restaurant by dfxm12 on Wednesday August 28, 2024 @11:22AM (#41380522)
Spherical cows are more or less a natural impossibility. The economic system in the US is designed to add friction for people like those in these types of situations to switch jobs, retrain, etc. That's an important distinction.
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Re:A dishwasher can make or break a restaurant by FredPret on Wednesday August 28, 2024 @10:32AM (#41379962)
Dishwashers can easily move to other low-wage jobs if they exist
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Re:A dishwasher can make or break a restaurant by romwell on Wednesday August 28, 2024 @09:33AM (#41379324)
The parent comment said nothing about the job, they commented on a full-time wage.

Their point stands.

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Re:A dishwasher can make or break a restaurant by bumby on Wednesday August 28, 2024 @12:52PM (#41381507)
>wage for a job is too low to afford life

This also simplifies the scenario to assume that wages are the only income. It would be like building a mental model around people who live at home with their parents and concluding whatever money they make is obviously sufficient to 'afford life'. It ignores all the extraneous ways their life is being subsidized by others. Whether or not those external subsidies are desirable or sustainable are intrinsically related to this problem.

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