Winter of Discontent (202)2

[Pat ex]

And guess what happens - the wages go up, because the employer cannot fill the vacancies or the work is moved to a country where people can do the work for the pay on offer and support themselves. Any company who wants to exploit these low paid workers in low cost countries risks their brand not to mention modern slavery laws.

If the wages don't go up, then economy is depressed and inflation falls.

And there's a labour shortage and productivity falls, with the resulting knock-on effects, (investment, national debt, GDP, national income, even shortages, etc)
All this can lead to political instability, which becomes an ever increasing circle, and facilitating corruption.
Are we there yet?

 

[JohnD]

how the market works.

How the market works is that buyers try to get the price down, and sellers try to get the price up.

For some reason you are complaining about that (but only blaming the seller). So you don't support the free market.

 

[JohnD]

Highest price for selling the product

In this case, the vendor is selling his labour. Of which he has a limited and perishable supply. But he is faced with a monopsony. This is an unequal exchange.

 

[JohnD]

“It is a serious national evil that any class of His Majesty’s subjects should receive less than a living wage… It was formerly supposed that the working of the laws of supply and demand would naturally regulate or eliminate that evil. But where you have what we call sweated trades, you have no organisation, no parity of bargaining, the good employer is undercut by the bad, and the bad employer is undercut by the worst…. Where those conditions prevail you have not a condition of progress, but a condition of progressive degeneration.”

 

[Notch7]

The government and strikers are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

If govt negotiate a settlement with one set of strikers….that will lead to contagion.

and all the time the govt don’t settle any pay disputes…..there will be more strikes as people get more desperate…..and the govt will be thinking f****k me I can’t deal with all these.

 

[JohnD]

Some people think that workers wanting a pay rise should be put in prison.

 

[^woody^]

I agree, but you'd have to raise your prices to cover costs and make any money. Who covers those costs for you? The customer. Public Sector workers cannot enjoy such latitude, and if one of them has to employ a tradesman for a job they end up paying for it more than once.

If I can't make my job pay, and have cut costs but still my customers can't afford the prices I need, then I will have to look for another job that customers can afford to pay for.

Same with any employed person

 

[Pat ex]

In this case, the vendor is selling his labour. Of which he has a limited and perishable supply.

Or someone else's which isn't limited.

 

[Pat ex]

If I can't make my job pay, and have cut costs but still my customers can't afford the prices I need, then I will have to look for another job that customers can afford to pay for.

Same with any employed person

And if you can't find another job, which suits your skill set, and in a location that suits you, you're either stuck in the same job, or you do not work at all, or you find a way to increase your wages.

 

[JohnD]

A working man is a vendor. He sells his labour, time, skills and abilities.

An employer is a buyer.

 

[Pat ex]

A working man is a vendor. He sells his labour, time, skills and abilities.

An employer is a buyer.

The average working man usually has little choice to whom he sells his labour.

 

[JohnD]

Hence he is facing a monopsony.

A single worker is in an unequal negotiating position.

Hence employers hate workers to join together.

 

[Notch7]

ed, then I will have to look for another job that customers can afford to pay for.

NHS staff are doing exactly that…..they are leaving

which is why the NHS is in a state of collapse.

 

[JohnD]

Woody uses the word "afford "

This need not be the true reason why a buyer seeks to hold down prices.

 

[^woody^]

which is why the NHS is in a state of collapse.

Standard headline since the 90's

The problems within the NHS are not related to staff turnover