Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site amdahl.UUCP Path: utzoo!utcs!lsuc!pesnta!amdcad!amdahl!gam From: gam@amdahl.UUCP (gam) Newsgroups: net.politics.theory Subject: Re: Wage Rates: Unions, Minimum Wage Laws, and Employer Oligopoly Message-ID: <1133@amdahl.UUCP> Date: Wed, 13-Feb-85 14:33:30 EST Article-I.D.: amdahl.1133 Posted: Wed Feb 13 14:33:30 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 13-Feb-85 22:42:54 EST References: <811@ratex.UUCP> <593@tty3b.UUCP> <1080@amdahl.UUCP> <595@tty3b.UUCP><1376@dciem.UUCP> Organization: Blue Mouse Trailer Resort, Hellmouth, CA Lines: 32 > Martin Taylor {allegra,linus,ihnp4,floyd,ubc-vision}!utzoo!dciem!mmt > If I am making widgets, and using 10 man-hours to make one widget, a > machine that can make them in one man-hour should be cost-effective > for me no matter what the capital cost, if I sell enough widgets. > Hence, I should fire 90% of my workforce, and sell cheaper widgets. > This is probably good for society as a whole, as well as for me, > because more production is achieved with less effort. But it isn't good > for the workers I fire, as matters stand. The problem is what those > workers can do. They are trained as widget-makers, and no-one wants > widget-makers.... This problem has come and gone innumerable times in human history. > I contend that society would be better off training these people to > appreciate leisure, and to pay them WELL for not making widgets, so > that we all can have cheaper (and probably better) widgets. If they > wanted to work DESPITE being better paid for not doing so, we should > then and only then help them to find work. Where do we get the money to pay these people WELL for not making widgets? Raise the price of widgets? You are right that workers should be retrained for new jobs when old jobs become obsolete (for whatever reason). Education should probably be subsidized, as it better than pays for itself in helping to provide an employable (ie, trained for needed jobs) work force. But subsidizing people to not work is just plain wasteful. -- Gordon A. Moffett ...!{ihnp4,hplabs,sun}!amdahl!gam