Oh, I never disagreed about “unskilled labor” I tried to make that clear in my first comment, perhaps I failed in that. As I said “unskilled labor” is a term used to denigrate essential work that society chooses to look down on.
That said, that wages are often low in these work areas is a function of labor competition rather than capitalists or capitalism seeking an excuse to pay poverty wages.
That such low wages exists and insomuch as the workers can join and leave voluntarily (ie they are not slaves, waged or otherwise) suggests that there are people who can achieve more than subsistence on such pay. This is simply the nature of labor competition.
So perhaps we are in argumentative agreement here overall 😂
I think this is where we disagree. I do not believe low wages are a result of competition in a free market.
How are wages set then?
How would you explain all the fast food chains having to dramatically raise their wages (at least in nominal terms)?
A company that is operating in even a quasi-free market cannot say “you have no skills, the wage for this job is peanuts” in a vacuum. They set a wage and if there are enough people who are voluntarily willing to sign up to do the work, those people are signaling that the wage rate is worth their time. If not enough people who can do the job at sufficient quality appear, the wage rate must increase unit the gap is closed.
I am interested in your alternative to how wages are set.
You're describing how monopolies set wages. Small businesses pay fair wages because they can't exploit people.
But capitalism kills small businesses and prevents their growth.
So then why would McDonalds ever have to raise their hourly pay to $17/hour. They are one of the largest corporations in the world.
I’m not trying to argue, I’m genuinely interested in hearing an alternative model of how the world works.
How do you believe wages are set?
Why would McDonalds ever raise wages?
What do you propose in place of capitalism and would that work?
Why do I have to have an alternative? Why can't I just state that the term "unskilled labor" is a capitalist myth used to justify poverty wages?
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