Jobism

[futurebird.livejournal.com]

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Andrew Sum, an economics professor and director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston. “Not only did they throw all these people off the payrolls, they also cut back on the hours of the people who stayed on the job.”

As Professor Sum studied the data coming in from the recession, he realized that the carnage that occurred in the workplace was out of proportion to the economic hit that corporations were taking. While no one questions the severity of the downturn — the worst of the entire post-World War II period — the economic data show that workers to a great extent were shamefully exploited.

A Sin and a Shame by Bob Herbert

I don't know if I agree with Bob Herbert that regulations like those in Germany are the answer to this problem, but I do see that the problem is real. I thought we could talk about some of the different ways to address it. In short, companies are not passing on the gains they have made off of better productivity and a recovering economy to workers.

I think it's possible that to some extent companies are still spooked, they don't think the worse is over and they don't want to increase payroll until they are in the clear. The other explanation is simply greed.

So, how, within the confines of a capitalist system, can we provide a market pressure that will lead to hiring and to higher wages?  There has got to be a way to make this happen without involving the government. But what is it?

It is only in the world of Chamber of Commerce propaganda that businesses exist to create jobs. In the real world, businesses exist to create profits for shareholders, not jobs for workers. That's why they call it capitalism, not job-ism. There's no reason to beat up on business owners and executives simply because they're doing what the system encourages them to do. 

Washinton Post, Steven Pearlstein

Do you think that Mr. Pearlstein is right? If so what happens if, even as corporate profits rise unemployment dosn't change? Do we suck it up? Work harder for less?

I'm trying to save and invest money as well as buy land so that income isn't based on someone paying me. But, not all people have the capital to benign such a project.

Comments

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

Keeping an unproductive person employed, and here I mean unproductive in a technical sense, without attaching any particular stigma to the individual, keeps them out of other more productive work and makes it harder for a business to adapt to changing markets. If I pay excess payroll costs that money can't flow to other areas of my business and that labor is cut off from other markets that might be able to use it more productively. Unless I am hedging my bets against an imminent influx of work, it is better for all concerned if supply and demand are balanced.

Real world example: Every summer I front load my labor costs in the Spring. I am way over hired in May and June and run a nightmare producing labor cost. This is because I know that the money I spend in May, I'll save in August. Once September comes it becomes my job to prune hours as much as possible, since the salad days are 9 months in the future. I don't have to fire people, technically, since my staff is smart enough to be on their way south to Florida or West to Colorado, but the result is the same... labor costs stay in line with sales.

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

Seasonal.

[pastorlenny.livejournal.com]

Sure that makes some theoretical sense if there is low unemployment and relatively easy physical access to jobs. But if someone who is currently, say, only a mediocre call center worker and would be much better suited to be a UPS driver, the chances aren't that great that such a person is just going to chance upon a local opening for the driving job after they lose their job at the call center. Who's to say they won't wind up in a job for which they are even more poorly suited? And what if they can take the bus to the call center job -- but there's no public transport to the UPS terminal?

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

For any given call center worker, you are correct. But it seems to me you need to look at aggregates, not one specific case. Life is hard, it takes hard work and perseverance to succeed, it takes a little bit of luck to succeed at a job you enjoy. People have to chart their own course and do the best they can.