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Comment by rumcajz | Hacker News Reader

I'm waiting for the crowd that asks for higher wages every time shortage of IT workers is discussed to rush in and demand pizzas $100 apiece. Nothing but a silence so far.

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It's more complicated than that, but refusing to pay $100 per is obviously part of why a business can't pay enough to attract pizza cooks. Ultimately the only way small businesses in a hyper market like San Francisco can survive is to get rid of employees almost entirely. You could do that in a restaurant. It would be harder in a bike shop. Maybe service bike shops will die in San Francisco.

They'd probably start operating on the dry cleaning model. The shop has one employee who takes custody of your bike. That night it gets loaded on a truck and taken somewhere cheaper. It's repaired using lower cost labor and shipped back to the shop the next night.

So the bike shop is still there, but it has only one employee and nothing gets repaired while you wait.

That actually makes sense.

Bleah.

Are you saying you think there's resistance here to an organic rise in wages? I don't see it.

I don't see any support either :)

I support it. I think higher wages for unskilled and semi-skilled workers is generally a good thing.

But then, I make a conscious effort to live in an area with reasonable housing prices.

I support it too. If it takes more money to attract people to work at your business, then you have to pay more. And charge more for your product. Your competition will be paying more, too, so it's not like you're at a disadvantage.

On the other hand, I don't actually live in SF, so if it costs $100 to buy a pizza there I don't really care.

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