Couple questions

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Nathan_
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Joined: Wed May 11, 2011 10:30 pm

Re: Couple questions

Post by Nathan_ »

"a laborer will only accept a wage for what their labor is worth"
Your caveat is correct, demand for food is inelastic, and work or starve is not exactly a free choice. Though, for the time being atleast we have enough of a safety net to forestall such decisions, which is why so many are simply dropping out of the economy.

"Furthermore, the increased supply labor has been absorbed by an increase in the size of the economy/demand for labor."
During the period of stagnating wages, sure.

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Ktrain
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Joined: Sun May 08, 2011 12:39 am

Re: Couple questions

Post by Ktrain »

Just read that excerpt from Adam Smith, it deals with wage suppression irrespective to supply. It's all about the power to allocate economic rent, not supply. You're idea that there are too many workers is Malthusian, just play around with the http://www.bls.gov/ and see how growth in the economy without jobs growth is a relatively recent phenomenon. Wage stagnation has been occurring for far longer than the problem you denote. (The labor force could have very well increased by women entering the workforce due to declining wages).

Also Reich threw together a nice infograph on the issueImage
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Sanguinius
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Re: Couple questions

Post by Sanguinius »

I'm somewhat amused by that graph, one of the many things that amuses me about it is that the sharp drop off in the rise in wages which it shows happens at the start of the seventies not at the end, which the graph prefers to indicate. Indeed, there was one particularly noticable event to occur right around the time that this graph indictates that wages ceased their relatively rapid upward ascent. That event was the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system and the last remnant of commodity backing to the global currency systems, gee, I wonder why a man like Reich wouldn't want that relationship to be considered? and instead wants to put the focus instead on the eighties?

Nathan_
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Re: Couple questions

Post by Nathan_ »

Ktrain wrote:Your idea that there are too many workers is Malthusian
Malthas was wrong because businesses were actually investing their wealth in growing the economy, that has changed. How fast is world population growing? And just how long do you think that will continue?
Wage stagnation has been occurring for far longer than the problem you denote.
No, Wage stagnation did not begin until after global labor supplies were opened up in the form of trade and immigration. The middle graph you posted tells the tale: The part in which the average workers made the most gains, was between the 1890s-1920s mass immigration, and the current 1960-on mass immigration.

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junk
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Re: Couple questions

Post by junk »

Well the important thing in some cases is how many goods you can get for your wage. Which a lot of the graphs tend to forget. While the "wealth" of a middle class family or even a lower class one hasn't shifted as much, their expected goods range have changed quite profoundly.

Not perfectly certain thou what is productivity in this case? Company wealth transfer? Worker hours, honestly uncertain at this moment. Hell after checking past inflation, the majority of goods here today are cheaper than 30 years ago.

Karst45
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Re: Couple questions

Post by Karst45 »

junk wrote:Well the important thing in some cases is how...
much copper wire you can get away with! (free cookies if one know were that quote come from)

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Sprawl63
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Joined: Tue Apr 19, 2011 2:14 am

Re: Couple questions

Post by Sprawl63 »

Whats the rough population of Maia? I'm trying to get an idea of the scale of Loroi worlds.

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