The Labor Pains Megathread

[Josquius]

There should be tax breaks from pubs to get people to stop drinking at home and drink out instead. For the good of society and all that.

[Jacob]

Beats liberal arts.

Your STEM love may have been overly optimistic though - just saw a thing about a guy with a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Pharmacology bemoaning his long term unemployment

[Admiral Yi]

Service workers should have rights too

If working evenings and weekends is so onerous and unpleasant, fewer people will be willing to do it and wages will have to rise accordingly.

[MadImmortalMan]

Insert the concept of the shift differential.

[Sheilbh]

If working evenings and weekends is so onerous and unpleasant, fewer people will be willing to do it and wages will have to rise accordingly.

So what? There's people willing to work in unsafe environments or to bargain away other labour rights for a job that doesn't mean it's okay and we should just let the market set the rate. I don't entirely agree with European system which is way too restrictive for me but it's the same as holidays or health and safety, in my view it's a right that shouldn't be negotiable or set by the market.

Ultimately consumers aren't the only people in the world who matter.

[crazy canuck]

If working evenings and weekends is so onerous and unpleasant, fewer people will be willing to do it and wages will have to rise accordingly.

So what? There's people willing to work in unsafe environments or to bargain away other labour rights for a job that doesn't mean it's okay and we should just let the market set the rate. I don't entirely agree with European system which is way too restrictive for me but it's the same as holidays or health and safety, in my view it's a right that shouldn't be negotiable or set by the market.

Ultimately consumers aren't the only people in the world who matter.

We went through this a while ago regarding minimum employment standards.  Basically there will always be the folks who think the market always provides the best answer despite all the evidence to the contrary.

[Jacob]

People sometimes sell themselves or their children into slavery - legal enforced or sometimes not - in response to the incentives of the free market. That doesn't mean it's the right outcome.

[derspiess]

So the future should include freer, better off landlords, more diverse ownership and cheaper, better beer and every Englishman can dream once again of retiring to own a country pub somewhere

Wow.  Totally different world.  There aren't really many restrictions on bar or pub ownership, except that big breweries aren't supposed to own them nor control distribution.

But what I was referring to were fairly recent discussions (I believe they were here 3 or so years ago, or possibly EUOT) about not trusting the bartender to give you the full pint when you order one, or pub owners watering down their beer. Also about brewers cheating on the amount of beer they put into a can or bottle.  I said that was pretty much nonexistent at any halfway decent place around here.  Bar owners are more concerned about drawing people in and keeping them in their seats than trying to cut corners on the product, plus bartenders generally don't want to dissuade generous tips.  And if a rumor came about that Brewery X was watering down their beer or purposely underfilling, that would kill their business.  I was told I was naive and that the same stuff had to be going on here.

[Ideologue]

Beats liberal arts.

You're STEM love may have been overly optimistic though - just saw a thing about a guy with a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Pharmacology bemoaning his long term unemployment

STEM isn't all about monwy, Jake. It's about being a good person.

[Jacob]

STEM isn't all about monwy, Jake. It's about being a good person.

[Ideologue]

You're so materialistic.

[crazy canuck]

People sometimes sell themselves or their children into slavery - legal enforced or sometimes not - in response to the incentives of the free market. That doesn't mean it's the right outcome.

[Yi] If selling themselves or their children into slavery  is so onerous and unpleasant, fewer people will be willing to do it and wages will have to rise accordingly. [Yi]

[Ideologue]

In seriousness, Pharma and Bio are glut subfields, or at least glutting.

Your friend still has a lot to.offer society, tho.

[CountDeMoney]

People sometimes sell themselves or their children into slavery - legal enforced or sometimes not - in response to the incentives of the free market. That doesn't mean it's the right outcome.

[Yi] If selling themselves or their children into slavery  is so onerous and unpleasant, fewer people will be willing to do it and wages will have to rise accordingly. [Yi]

  The Invisible Hand, right up a 12 year old's junk.

[Admiral Yi]

So what? There's people willing to work in unsafe environments or to bargain away other labour rights for a job that doesn't mean it's okay and we should just let the market set the rate. I don't entirely agree with European system which is way too restrictive for me but it's the same as holidays or health and safety, in my view it's a right that shouldn't be negotiable or set by the market.

Ultimately consumers aren't the only people in the world who matter.

Your punch line is about consumers, but your argument had nothing to do with consumers.

You hypothesized a person who was willing to bargain away safety or whatever and said that it's not OK.  Why is it not OK?  Is the hypothetical person stupid and unable to make informed decisions for himself?