Is income inequality unjust, and if so, where is the injustice?

mikerc

mikerc

Google is going to cut the pay of employees who continue to work from home after the pandemic (potentially by up to 25%!). Um, Google, you do know that the value of their work doesn't change depending on where they do that work right?

In fact since them working from home means that they're using their electricity instead of your electricity it might actually be cheaper for you this way.
 
Shakey

Shakey

That’s fucked up. Employers are freaking out because employees have shown they don’t need to be watched like little kids to get their work done. Working from home means you’re no longer restricted to jobs in your area and without the social ties from in office interactions, employees have even less incentive to stay with that company.
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

Imagine people getting paid google-in-Silicon-Valley dollars and living in actually-affordable-and-nice-to-live-in Nowhereville! We can't have that! Quick, find some way to keep 'm coming here!

WFH means a company doesn't need to provide as much office space, electricity, water, etc etc. It's a saving to the company and not even a small one. Trying to dock pay for it is incredibly backwards.
This really is all about control.
 
Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

Bubble181 said:
Imagine people getting paid google-in-Silicon-Valley dollars and living in actually-affordable-and-nice-to-live-in Nowhereville! We can't have that! Quick, find some way to keep 'm coming here!

WFH means a company doesn't need to provide as much office space, electricity, water, etc etc. It's a saving to the company and not even a small one. Trying to dock pay for it is incredibly backwards.
This really is all about control.
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One company I interviewed with recently had a base pay for the (fully remote) job, but then depending on where you lived, applied some formula to it to adjust the base pay up or down depending on the cost of living of where you were living. Still kind of bullshit, but still seemed more fair than just docking pay for working from home.

Early on, I realized that the whole WFH phenomenon would let workers do some kind of salary arbitrage. It's exactly why I moved back to Texas. I get paid a DC-area salary (which is high compared to here), and moving to Texas saves me about $15,000/year in various state taxes. Plus, the cost of living for most everything is so much lower here. I'll end up with a lot more money in my pocket.

Right now, I'm supporting two apartments, and with the loss of those taxes, I'll still have slightly more money at the end of August than I'd have had if I stayed in VA and only had the one apartment.
 
Squidleybits

Squidleybits

I’m in a union (which is hilarious, but awesome given what I do) and my pay for where I live is great. If I lived in a big city, I wouldn’t be happy. I think there should be a sliding scale/cost of living index or something, but there isn’t.
 
Celt Z

Celt Z

Squidleybits said:
I think there should be a sliding scale/cost of living index or something, but there isn’t.
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This is something I'm curious to see play out as WFH changes the playing field. Right now, cost of living is inflated in areas that have the highest/most competitive jobs. If WFH becomes more common place, how will this effect the market when demand for city and major metropolitan areas goes down? Will cities once again become majority of lower-income workers and jobs that HAVE to be done in person? How will it effect the housing market? Will small towns and places with "affordable living" become swallowed up by those making more money, but don't have to commute? Or will it bring life back to towns and states that have been suffering since production has moved over-seas? I don't know if we'll see the results in our lifetime, but I feel like this is something that millennials/Gen Z/etc. may become their new normal.
 
Squidleybits

Squidleybits

For us, we will be going back with a hybrid model. Certain positions will have more required days a week in person than others due to the nature of the job/public interaction.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Bubble181 said:
It'll make the whole "convince people to live smaller and closer together for the climate" sell a lot harder, I know that
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It's also going to make it harder for companies to "encourage" you to live in convenient, company-sponsored housing.

--Patrick
 
Frank

Frank

I fucking cant wait to hear the stories of restaurants complaining that their senior volunteer staff fucked off in the middle of a rough shift because "Fuck this, it's not worth it"

This happens to people who NEED the job to survive, let alone a bunch of likely well off pensioners.

Small businesses in BC have trouble finding workers? Workers in BC have trouble finding places to fucking live.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

I saw this linked last week, but the emphasis then was more “hero boomers step in to keep small businesses afloat” and not “bored boomers living off semi-secure government stipend hog all the jobs, ensuring students will never be able to pay off their loans."

--Patrick
 
Celt Z

Celt Z

PatrThom said:
I saw this linked last week, but the emphasis then was more “hero boomers step in to keep small businesses afloat” and not “bored boomers living off semi-secure government stipend hog all the jobs, ensuring students will never be able to pay off their loans."
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These are the people that were dubbed "The Me Generation", or to borrow a quote:
The 1970s were dubbed the "Me decade" ...on the rise of a culture of narcissism among the younger generation of that era. The phrase caught on with the general public, at a time when "self-realization" and "self-fulfillment" were becoming cultural aspirations to which young people supposedly ascribed higher importance than social responsibility.
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So business as usual. I feel sorry for those who are of this generation and are not like this at all, but few of those people, if any, seem to be in charge of things.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

arstechnica.com

Billionaire Sacklers granted lifetime legal immunity in opioid settlement

Several states already plan to appeal what the judge himself called "a bitter result."
arstechnica.com arstechnica.com
A federal bankruptcy judge on Wednesday approved a $4.5 billion opioid settlement that provides sweeping lifetime legal immunity for the billionaire Sackler family behind Purdue Pharma. [...] Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson [said,] “This order lets the Sacklers off the hook by granting them permanent immunity from lawsuits in exchange for a fraction of the profits they made from the opioid epidemic—and sends a message that billionaires operate by a different set of rules than everybody else[. T]his order is insulting to victims of the opioid epidemic who had no voice in these proceedings—and must be appealed."
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What.

--Patrick
 
Frank

Frank

Yeah dude, make billions, be responsible for thousands of deaths, be fined half of those billions, debt paid! Immunity forever.
 
figmentPez

figmentPez

Staff member
Jay Leno hates high-priced sandwiches does not understand inflation.

"CNBC notes that Leno used to frequent New York’s iconic Carnegie Deli before his rise to fame, back when the deli’s burgers cost $1.10 and the roast beef sandwich was $4.95. 'I always thought, ‘someday I’m going to make enough money that I can go in there and have the roast beef sandwich,’ Leno told the network. But when he returned to get that roast beef—as a millionaire, some 30 years later—he found the sandwich’s price had inflated to around $18. He walked out. 'I still couldn’t bring myself to do that,' he says. "

Jay first appeared on the Tonight Show in 1977. Using an inflation calculator, I found that $4.95 in 1977 would be worth $22.59 today. Guess $18 isn't that unreasonable.
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

Krisken said:
As frustrating as Unions can be, this is what happens without them.
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It's easy being opposed to unions or feel they aren't pulling their weight in a social-democratic country in Western Europe. I used to be fairly opposed to unions. By now I've become a member and I'm thankful they're around.
I mean, the ones around here are still a bunch of useless self-destructive idiots who don't understand business, but unions are absolutely necessary to curb the worst effects of runaway capitalism where labor is considered cheap and easily replaceable.
 
AshburnerX

AshburnerX

So why the fuck aren't we comparing this shit to the Triangle Shirt Waist Fire? We've got...

- Negligent Official Policy
- Workers forced to choose between their jobs and their lives
- A mountain of evidence that indicates that Amazon knew something like this could happen
 
ScytheRexx

ScytheRexx

Odd little fact, but I didn't know about the tornado until I was sitting around and my Amazon work app pinged me with a priority notification talking about the damage and loss of life at the warehouse. Went straight to the news to read up more on what happened.
 
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