http://www.wsj.com/articles/better-than-raising-the-minimum-wage-1432249927
And he proposes a solution: An expanded EITC.
And he proposes a solution: An expanded EITC.
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Warren Buffet nails it on inequality
- Thread starter Loren Pechtel
- Start date
SimpleDon
Veteran Member
I don't understand why anyone would prefer expended government aid to the most obvious and most direct solution of increasing the wages of the poor. Increased government aid has the following problems associated with it.
You are subsidizing low wages. The easiest way of getting more of something is to subsidize it with more government aid. We don't want more low wages jobs, we want fewer of them.
Of course, Warren Buffet wants the government to subsidize wages. Higher wages means lower profits. The government subsidizing lower wages, resulting in more lower wage jobs and in higher profits. At the cost of whoever is taxed to provide the government aid. Is he proposing to tax corporate taxes to pay for the increased government aid.
Products made with the lower wage workers whose wages are subsidized with government aid will have an advantage in the market over products made with higher, unsubsidized wages. This also will increase the number of workers whose wages are subsidized.
Government aid to individuals is always going to be subjected to demonization, unlike government subsidies to corporations. People are going to attack any government aid to individuals as welfare. Look at the barrage of abuse leveled recently at food stamps, the SNAP program.
NobleSavage
Veteran Member
All very good points. The problem that I see is that in the not to distant future there will simply not be very many jobs left. There is very little a computer and robot can't accomplish. People bitch about Walmart and shitty wages, but look at Amazon, they just automate everything. Have you seen the Kiva robots that run their warehouse? I'll find a video if you haven't. It's just a matter of time before Walmart says "fuck these employees" and boom goes the biggest employer in the US. No way in hell are all these people going to be retrained as "knowledge workers" because I guarantee an algo will take 99% of those jobs as well.
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Seems to be about the best way of moving into guaranteed income.
Thomas II
Contributor
untermensche
Contributor
Yes.
What is somebody like Buffet anyway?
Just somebody who got rich by taking a lot of money that really belongs to workers.
Axulus
Veteran Member
FIFY
untermensche
Contributor
What is a profit?
It is theft from workers.
That is how people like Buffet get rich, finding the best thieves and taking a share of the theft.
Because he recognizes that a high minimum wage causes unemployment.
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You just don't believe in profits.
untermensche
Contributor
Not true at all.
The problem is not profits.
The problem is when profits are controlled by a tiny group within a large organization of workers.
The problem is when profits are more important than paying people a decent wage.
The problem is the ability of people who do absolutely no work within an organization to take profits from that organization.
You can either value people or value money. You can't value both.
Harry Bosch
Contributor
You're shitting me. I had no idea. What law is it that shifts all profit to the workers rather than the owners???
NobleSavage
Veteran Member
Why not?
untermensche
Contributor
That it is legal to steal from workers, under capitalism, is no argument in its favor.
NobleSavage
Veteran Member
You really do have a limited script that you just repeat ad nauseam, don't you?
untermensche
Contributor
Because by valuing money you end up devaluing human life.
You do things like paying people as little as possible because you want more money.
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Truth doesn't change.
NobleSavage
Veteran Member
Money is a unit of measure for things like food that humans need to live. By valuing money things tend to get allocated in the most efficient way possible...It's not perfect, but what is your better method?
That is not a universal. Sometimes you pay workers very well: when their work has significant value i.e. they help generate goods and services that a lot of people want or need. I have a close friend from HS. He makes well over $100K a year designing a fuel injection system for Ford that millions of people use to do things like get to work or take their groceries home with less fuel. He would NEVER want to own a business. He likes being done at exactly at 5pm with the weekends off and nice vacations. He would never want to take out an SBA lone or risk his live savings.
untermensche
Contributor
I didn't say having money was a problem. The problem is when money means more than human life. To people. That is the reason there is so much economic inequality.
It is an inherent feature of capitalism, which rose, in the US, directly from slavery and is just a baby step from slavery.
We still have masters and wage slaves.
We haven't progressed to anything fair or decent yet. That some think a system is laudable where wage slaves create wealth that is promptly stolen from them and replaced with a market wage is pathetic.
NobleSavage
Veteran Member
I don't think money means more than human life for most business owners. Getting rid of capitalism won't get rid of greed or inequality: those in charge will just find a way to make sure they have more than anyone else. Have you ever heard about the Iron Law of Oligarchy?
So, you don't have a solution, you are just bitching? Warren Buffet gives a possible way to progress and all you do is hate.
Axulus
Veteran Member
If an owner had a business with three employees and decides to use his own money to buy machinery and equipment and maybe a robot, and is able to lay off one of the employees, and is able to double profit a result, on what basis do those profits belong to the two remaining employees?
This whole idea that profits don't belong to the business owners is an idea that has been tossed into the dustbin of history.
You're the thief--you want to steal the profits that would be reasonably attributed to the invested capital.
arkirk
Veteran Member
Buffet is just an accident of the stock market, not some brilliant social planner.