My favorite is the owner of a liquor store in my area. I indirectly know the guy — they are printing money from the pandemic, expanded the business across storefronts to keep up with demand, operate 4 delivery trucks, etc.
The guy gets on TV complaining that he has to pay $17 to hire drivers.
I think USA is still in a very good position compared to other countries as it is still seen as one of the best places to emigrate to. Other countries have it much worse and declining demographics will kill them faster.
This is a very good observation. And smaller business owners often really don't get the increases in efficiency because they skimp on tools and aren't great managers. So it's a double whammy of increasing costs and not getting the increase of efficiency that larger companies enjoy.
Basically, they're on the receiving end of Baumol's cost disease.
And because more expensive labor forces increases in efficiency (more tech, better organization), cheap labor is by far the worst drug for the economy, covering up for stagnation and exploitation.
I agree, but is it the best place for pernament emigration?
I always think of US like a 1-3 year journey and then go back to PL
Is it no wonder, then, we might feel like there are "different" Americas in the broad expanse of the US? And "different" Americans?
While I agree with you in part, another argument might ascribe many aspects of a perceived "polarization" to mere geography.
The "coasts rich and good, middle America poor and backwards" narrative that we get plenty of here, on Reddit, etc. is an over-simplification at best.
San Francisco and LA are infamous for large homeless populations. The inland South and West are flourishing.
Have a listen to "We Can't Make It Here Anymore", by James McMurtry
The USA still has a lot of private capital to attract talents. But eventually it's going to run out of it or the dollar will lose value. This will be accelerated by the growth of the Chinese renminbi, especially once countries start to use it as a base currency instead of the dollar.
The USA has high salaries and relatively cheap house but it also has high taxes, high cost of healthcare and education, a good amount of social craziness (political polarisation, crime, revolts, gun shootings in school, badly handled homelessness) - I personally think you may be better off living in Europe for the time being.
Still, Europe is a time bomb waiting to explode. The demographics decline and high paid jobs moving away to countries with lower taxation will trigger a pension crisis, eventually. When Italy needs a bailout, Europe will stop being what it is.
I think in x0 years South America could be the next Europe and China could be the next USA.
If we can do that without the EU so be it, it's not like we culturally merged just yet.
But not saying the situation is great in each country, but I suppose if Italy dies, we can still kick it out or stop the EU as long as France and Germany find a way to ensure no more world war. This is the only goal for most of us. Every other advantage is a bonus, every flaw a necessary sacrifice.
I still think that if the EUR currency were to fail all those countries will face tremendous adversities for quite some time. That could be a chance for countries like Italy and Greece to rebuild a less corrupted version of themselves, but I reckon it would take a long time.
It boils down to the following in the US. If you are upper middle class or above you have a very high quality of the life in the US. Healthcare is excellent, taxes are very low for the wealthy and unlike some parts of central and South America, you're free to openly enjoy your wealth here without fear of retribution. My parents live in the US and would love to retire in Spain. The tax burden alone makes that untenable.
China may end up being the dominant economic power but it's unlikely to ever reproduce what the US has in the last century. While the US has societal issues, it's not (currently) committing genocide and it's not facing a demographic time bomb with no ability to incorporate immigrants into society. For all the problems in the US, within a generation or two immigrants become Americans and participate at the highest echelons of American society. Please call me when that's the case in China.
What has made the US great is that it's been able to convince the brightest people in the world to make their homes here. From Albert Einstein to the Google founders and Elon Musk. I really don't see any of that that happening in China.
Could you expand on that? Does Spain heavily tax retirees?
I know the US taxes his citizens on global income though, so they would be taxed like US retirees.
The U.S. has plenty of problems but I think moral contest with China in this area is not one of them.
[edit] - I incorrectly identified China as the bad guy in a historical event where they were the victim. My bad. Point still stands.
They're actually recruiting foreign talent, they're building futuristic and liveable mega cities, they're collecting the capital needed for venture and they're growing their global VC investments.
I really don't like this development and I wished a free country would have achieved what China is doing (I think of them like the Galactic Empire in Star Wars), but I think they'll get there.
People are quick to forget the past and the majority of young people favour socialism. I'm sure they will be quick to move and work for the CCP.
I really don't have much hope left for Europe and the USA, things just keep getting worse. I hope South America will grow its economy and become the free society that can oppose China.
I mean, from a business standpoint, let's face it, employees are a pain and more of a necessary evil when needed. I dream of running a lifestyle business where I don't need any full-time employees. Not many people start a business wanting to employ lots of people and be a "model employer" (even though those who do are loud about it)
Less employees means less consumers which means less income for your lifestyle business. Economics 101 bud. But yeah, keep dreaming!
I fail to understand why any business should pay more than market rate for anything. I get that you want the market rate to be higher, but I have yet to ever have encountered a business that completely disregards market rate and just blows their wad on the first employee they hire.
It seems like the market rate for labor is going up, but the businesses are failing to deal with that reality.
How do you figure this? If businesses were not paying more the market rate would not be going up.
I believe we're currently at 5.8% unemployment for May 2021, down from around 15% during the pandemic.
Yes. Those are the options. The .001% is really cleaning house while smaller businesses are dying. And no way Amazon is going to absorb the cost, so all of this will just end wiping out the earnings and savings of most people while nobody's purchasing power increases.
If you are willing to pay $2/gallon for gasoline in June 2021, you are likely to have difficulty operating a car. Note that does not mean there is a gasoline shortage.