> Technological benefits make individual workers more productive, allowing them to be exploited for more profit.
It also makes harder jobs easier and in some cases allows someone unskilled to perform a job that a only a more highly skilled person could do. Thus someone is easier to replace and thus cheaper.
> If you don't understand the economics or incentive of the situation, there's no reasoning you out of a box you didn't reason yourself into.
I understand it fine. Technological advances is a double edged sword with regards to Labour. It may create whole new industries while destroying old ones.
Depends what they mean by Productivity. Other things can be productive other than Labour. Also it still doesn't mean you should be paid twice as much.
If I can hire 3 unskilled workers for less than the price of a skilled worker that is twice as productive as a single unskilled worker. I would just hire 3 unskilled people.
> The fact remains that the bargain has changed over the last 40 years, with the bulk of the benefits of technological change not reaching workers. Now it is becoming common for even well-paid jobs to move to an assumption of no annual raise.
Tell me why should technological change benefit workers?
> Fact remains, here we are. Employers do not hesitate to take ground when they have the advantage, which is usually. Use yours while you have it.
Sure. I run my own business and I am a consultant \ freelancer. I am my own employer.
> And in a labour shortage, the value that someone brings to the company increases :)
Sure. However that won't last forever. It will drive companies to innovate away your job. I go for a McDonalds breakfast after my bike ride on a Saturday and the checkout staff are basically non-existent now. They instead have self service touch screens.
> Demand a doubling of pay to match productivity increases. The power is in our collective hands.
Why? The productivity increases might be for other reasons. Automation (many jobs have effectively been automated away), outsourcing to other countries.
Also I am not a socialist so don't include me in that nonsense thankyou.
Just because productivity has doubled in 40 years doesn't mean that people have been twice as productive.
Also salaries and wages aren't dependent on how hard you work. It is how much value you bring to a company (and how easily you can be replaced).
About 15 years ago .NET programmers were getting much higher rates than they are today in the UK (at least in London). The last time I looked node, go, AWS and other things were much more highly paid.
I've read that takes 2 years to get a new semi-conductor fab up and running. While demand for GPUs has skyrocketed not only in crypto but in other areas.
Couple that with us going into 2 years of global lockdowns and subsequent supply disruptions have probably exacerbated the situation greatly.
The healthcare isn't free. It is paid for through taxation. They have paid into the same healthcare system (through taxation) as everyone else and should be entitled to the care.
Draconian measures such as what you suggest just make people more suspicious of authority not less.
It also makes harder jobs easier and in some cases allows someone unskilled to perform a job that a only a more highly skilled person could do. Thus someone is easier to replace and thus cheaper.
> If you don't understand the economics or incentive of the situation, there's no reasoning you out of a box you didn't reason yourself into.
I understand it fine. Technological advances is a double edged sword with regards to Labour. It may create whole new industries while destroying old ones.