Re:The decline in unionization has fed the rise in incomes a...
by clusterfoo on Sunday March 22, 2015 @11:36PM
(#9249384)
But that could never happen to us, right?
> Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.
And apparently every programmer sees himself as a cunning negotiator, and irreplaceable genius 1000x-er.
We are collectively shooting ourselves in the foot.
Re:The decline in unionization has fed the rise in incomes a...
by vidarh on Monday March 23, 2015 @06:21AM
(#9250152)
Exactly. Which becomes downright comical when you read any of the HN threads on negotiating salary, and see the stream of people who take what they are offered or are pleased with negotiating 5% more.
I've never given an offer I wouldn't have been ok with upping 30% or more, and conversely I have never taken an offer I haven't negotiated up 30% or more. And I don't see myself as a cunning negotiator - if I had been, I probably would have been far better off.
But I do negotiate, which is something, by experience from the other side of the table, nearly nobody does.
This is an extremely dangerous myth.
Markets don't care how hard it is to define a job, how hard it is to do a job, or anything else of the sort. They care about supply/demand. If the supply of a certain kind of labor is too high, pay falls until enough people leave to restore supply/demand balance. It's that simple.
Example: chemists. It's an occupation that demands tons of creativity and is very hard to pin down, but the career prospects are shit. Why? We train more of them than industry needs.