Funny thing about the Middle Ages was that to be rich was to have, like, a chicken and a few grams of pepper locked away under 100 lbs of wooden chests.
I don’t really know if this “dropout of the service industry” thing is an actual phenomenon or is just being signal boosted thanks to social media. There is a pretty misaligned incentive when we develop a service industry economy while simultaneously telling (most) service industry workers that they are not important, disposable, and overpaid for their jobs.
There’s a reason that companies like Apple are focusing so hard into moving into places like China. The median wealth of a person in Hong Kong for ex. is twice that of the United States, and i expect the median wealth of China being reported is lagging the actual value. When you have a service industry economy while you have a silicon valley start up culture trying to eliminate or make more efficient (less labor intensive) basically all service industry jobs, there’s soon not going to be a large middle class to squeeze for recurring Netflix subscriptions. Giving everyone realistic wages is going to cause inflationary pressure. To a large extent import economies running on ever thinner margins can only last so long before the stone has been squeezed.
That BK is just across town from me, and I do sympathize with the workers. The local BK franchisee is notorious for running shitty restaurants and treating employees badly. Who then turn around and treat customers badly. The same company runs the BK that’s only a few blocks from my house and we almost never go there anymore because 15 minute drive-thru waits (despite no other cars in line) or randomly screwed up orders are common. Once we went and there was a paper sign taped up that just said “closed today, try again tomorrow” or similar. It’s a shitshow of low paid badly-treated workers who do not give a damn.
Now that this has generated national scrutiny I’m imagining that corporate BK is going to be bring a ton of pressure on the local franchisee company to clean up their act. I’m personally pleased with that, and pleased that the workers got this much positive publicity for leaving a bad situation.
Honestly if all these huge fast food chains went away, we’d be fine. We don’t need Burger King and Pizza Hut and the like. It will probably be a net benefit on public health and the environment.
Nesrie
3439
Monk Drapeaux-Stewart, who began working at the Topeka factory 16 years ago, told the outlet that he’s only gotten a 77-cent increase over the past 12 years.
“Fifteen, 20 years ago Frito-Lay had a really good reputation — all you need is a high school diploma and you’ve got this job with good pay and benefits,” Drapeaux-Stewart said. "But slowly all of that has been whittled away.
Low skilled job or not… this is just wrong.
vyshka
3440
Anyone know why they are touting the child tax credit as cutting child poverty in half? Are the saying the increase will result in that? The monthly payment is basically an advance on the credit for when you file next April, right?
For this year, it’s a fully refundable credit, which is a weird way of saying that it’s a direct payment. You get it whether you owe any tax or not. So it’s a direct payment of $3000 for each child and $3600 for each child under age 6. So yes, it’s going to take a bite out of child poverty in poorer families with kids.
vyshka
3442
It was already $2000 though wasn’t it? I guess $1k-$1.6k goes a year goes a lot further than I would guess.
The $2000 was a conventional tax credit, not a fully refundable one, which meant you could only take advantage of it to offset any taxes owed.
vyshka
3444
Thanks for the explanation
Marketplace had a big thing on it a few weeks ago, because before, if you didn’t pay enough in taxes, you didn’t get the tax credit. So the families that needed it most never benefited from it.
It was basically anther feel good tax give away to the middle class, designed to not help people in poverty.
Clearly insane! What about the poor entrepreneurial ownership class who will not be as rewarded for their risk of supplying an inelastic need? Those lazy people just need to learn some Javascript and rent a mobile trailer.
And it just so happens that the finns rate as the happiest people on earth on average. Yet they also have a suicide rate quite a bit above European mean. Hmmmm.
Latitude seems to have a strong impact on suicide rate:
And on number and quality of metal bands.
Sure, SAD does play a role, but there has been a strange argument going around that might help explain the numbers.
The fact that most people in Finland are happy might actually be driving up suicide numbers. Not because happiness causes suicide, but the theory is that unhappy people, living around other unhappy people, are less likely to blame themselves for their own unhappiness. They will have more external elementals to focus on.
When you are unhappy in a society generally filled with happy people, the argument goes, then you tend to focus on yourself as the cause of the unhappiness instead of a external factors that might be impacting other people.
It was an interesting argument, but Seasonal Affect Disorder probably explains more of the high suicide rates then anything else.
Excellent editorial by WaPo on how to smartly tax the rich. It is rare when I agree with an editorial virtually 100%
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/07/21/most-effective-way-tax-rich-capital-gains/
I am shocked - absolutely shocked - that the paper owned by the richest man in the world is arguing against a wealth tax. My mouth is agape, and it may be days before I can pick my jaw off the floor.
Bezos has nothing to do with the editorial content of the newspaper. I’m sure you won’t believe it, but then conspiracy theories aren’t solely a right-wing phenomena.
What’s the gist? Paywall…
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