Trump will use his significant trading power to force the UK to open up to US products and drop (much higher) EU standards. E.g. E numbers, GM good, food grade ingredient quality standards etc. Trump will squeeze us hard! We are a smaller fish than the EU and look what he is trying to do to them.
It's rather low for London.
Interesting people get up in arms at this but not at the fact CEO pay themselves inflated salaries whilst paying their workers an amount that they struggle to live off.
I love Varoufakis, have read all his books. I don't understand what that video or that quote has to do with what I'm saying. In 2010 I believe that there had to be austerity, in the sense that welfare budgets had to be cut and government departments had to find out how to become more efficient. Whenever cuts are made there will be people who suffer, and once governments realise who is suffering efforts should be quickly made to rectify the situation. This is what hasn't been done effectively enough since 2015.
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To be fair he dealt with that much better than Bojo and Jez have when confronted by hecklers in the street.
No, not really. At the moment there is no way to pay extra tax, so you get to decide exactly where your excess money goes. If you're willing to pay more tax, you'd have no problem with the government deciding where it goes would you.
Classic. This is why Labour surge in the polls in the short term run up to the election. The media have to be (a little) more balanced and can't get away with only parroting 'Government sources' every time.
I edited the post and put another Varoufakis video in soon after, so you might have missed it but I'll just quote it here -
There was never any need to have the welfare budget cut. The only thing the welfare department has become more efficient in, is the suicide rate of poor disable citizens. The one single goal of welfare since the tories took government is to make it as difficult as possible to get welfare.(I can send you links for all of this although its all very depressing).
Hang on let me think about that
Denmark seems fine with it.
seriously though at least the robot might get your order right.I’ve actually worked in mcdonalds.
Well the short of it is that currently, a £30k paying job takes more than 10 minutes to learn. Even if such a policy came to pass, which let's be honest, it's not going to, minimum wage being jacked straight up to £15 would simply introduce mass inflation to the economy.
Great post RD but I fundamentally disagree with most after the "- - - " (that I added)
No. Market forces would still be the same after a pay rise for the poorest. Their purchasing power will still be a slice of the total purchasing power and hence have a minimum impact on prices that aren't a result of their direct labor.
Do you think a plasterer is still going to skim your walls for £150 a day when fast food workers are suddenly on £120?
Do you usually tell your trades people the current McDonalds wage when asking them for their price?
Let's not act as if conservatives couldn't think of more ways to torture teachers in the future.
Ought to be replaced by computers anyway. They do less work than McDonalds workers.
You say that as if nurses etc. weren't already highly educated people working near McDonalds wages. Why don't they just all quit?Why bother with any form of training when we can all just work in fast food
Do you assume tradesmen are too thick to realise what the minimum wage is and are subsequently going to charge more without me having to tell them?
No. Their wages will be over or at the £15 but after that the same market forces apply that do now. They aren't just gonna charge £300 if they previously charged £150 because there will be a lot doing it for £160.
So tradesman aren’t going to increase their prices when the minimum wage just doubled because someone will be prepared to live in the past and just charge the same? What do you base that assumption on?
You don't understand markets do you? They aren't going to charge the same because they live in the past, they're going to charge (nearly) the same because they won't get the job if they don't.
Of course they will
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They may do so, but then if someone's willing to undercut them then people will still be able to get tradesmen for decent rates.
A plasterer plasters, a teacher teaches, and a solicitor conveyances. Are you saying we will lose professionals because they’ll all be lining up to work at McDonalds? Or are you saying that everyone will suddenly want more money for doing their job because other people make more money than them? Have you any idea how the free market forces work? Do you know what happened to all the plasterers that refused to take work for less money than they were used to charging because of the flood of cheaper labour from the EU8 countries in 2004? I’ll tell you. They stopped getting work.Do you think a plasterer is still going to skim your walls for £150 a day when fast food workers are suddenly on £120?
Are teachers going to remain on £30k when the fast food industry is now paying just as much?
Are the solicitors working on your conveyancing going to stay on £30k now that the fast food industry paying just as much?
Why bother with any form of training when we can all just work in fast food
Inflation? Why would there be inflation?
Pretty sure he’s right but he’s expressing it badly. If the minimum wage went up to £15 an hour it would put the operating costs of scores of businesses up massively, Labour is often the largest overhead of a business. In turn they’d have to put up the prices of their products in order to stay profitable which would cause inflation. In turn the cost of living goes up for everyone so tradespeople would have to put up their prices up too. Within companies that have minimum wage workers it would also drive up the wages of their other higher ranking and more qualified employees.
I’m an employer....of tradesman. I understand my sector very well. I’ve never known any decent tradesman with all the equipment, skills and experience necessary work for anything close to the minimum wage. It wouldn’t take very long for the the wage demands of any skilled worker to follow if the minimum wage were to suddenly double, which it won’t, because it’s nonsense.
Why not £40k or £50k?
Because the likely effect of it would be to price low skilled, inexperienced people out of a job and increase unemployment.
This were true if the British economy were isolated, self sufficient and all product costs were a direct result of labor costs. As it is your spend is broken up between a lot of different factors, and depending on what it is you're purchasing very little of it actually goes into wages (say rent, energy, non processed food). The businesses that rely heavily on labor costs would be hit... but then again they'd have a lot more potential customers to compensate. 12.5 or 13 might be better/more achievable than 15, but to say things would just increase in price proportionally is wrong in my opinion.
And everyone would be far better off with a higher productivity, the workers producing more with higher productivity can earn and purchase more and those that aren't needed can find different jobs because other industries become competitive with a higher productivity. Any business in it's right mind would rather pay more for higher productivity workers than less for lower because all the other costs for that person remain the same.
Why didn't you increase your employees pay in line with bankers pay then?
Why does minimum wage have anything to do with what your tradesman earn? You bid for a job based on cost and profit not on what other professions are earning, that has never had anything to do with it until now so why would things change?
I’m not saying all the costs come from labour but generally labour costs are one of, if not the single biggest overhead in a business. Having a quick glance at some sources and a higher minimum wage is thought to cause inflation because of higher operating costs for businesses but also because of the higher spending power of earners. If inflation occurs then tradespeople will put their prices up to maintain their standard of living.
It would surely depend on the business. McDonald's will obviously be hit if they increase the wage of the average employer, but then it's also a cost McDonald's will be able to afford due to the sheer amount the company is worth, and there's a solid argument is something they should be paying to their employees if they're worth more. Presuming wage increases are gradual and don't come to all companies at the same time, I imagine there'd be a potential economic boost that could come from some companies giving employees more, insofar as people would have more to spend on the economy which could thereby fuel growth. I agree it's obviously not as simple as just giving people more money and assuming they'll be fine from there, but in the past history has shown there are ways in which you can boost the wages of unskilled workers while benefiting the economy in the long-term.
It’s a moot point we’re talking about why you wouldn’t want people to earn x amount of money not how realistic it is to double wages overnight.
What do any of these professions & their salaries have to do with a potential minimum wage increase?Do you think a plasterer is still going to skim your walls for £150 a day when fast food workers are suddenly on £120?
Are teachers going to remain on £30k when the fast food industry is now paying just as much?
Are the solicitors working on your conveyancing going to stay on £30k now that the fast food industry paying just as much?
Why bother with any form of training when we can all just work in fast food
