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Comment by phenkdo | Hacker News Reader

>There NO labor shortage when many big companies belong to billionaires that get wealthier every day (even during Covid).Those companies obviously CAN pay more. The owners are not going to sleep under a bridge anytime soon.

It's this manichaean view - business bad, me good - that's the crux of the issue. You assume every business is a FAANG and sitting on piles of cash. Most businesses (50-60%?) - even in tech - are small biz and biz owners are in the same boat. Very very few companies even come close to the level of your straw-man.

And you are very wrong with the (rather comical) assumption business-owners are scrooge mcducks sitting on piles of cash. In tech, programmer salaries are hyper-inflated (compared to most other professions) and already out of reach of many SMEs and we are scraping the bottom-of-the-barrel for talent. I'm a business owner myself and I have seen this first-hand, so don't tell me there's no labor shortage.

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I think a more charitable read would be to say that businesses have a strong incentive to increase profits and for many businesses, worker compensation is often a big expense, so they are very motivated to drive that down, regardless of whether their workers can make it on their compensation. That's why we have minimum wage laws, child labor laws, worker's compensation, etc. Even today, businesses would and do pay $0/hr if they can get away with it. Not every business, but enough to count.

Whereas workers have a strong incentive to both make a living wage and to keep the business profitable so they can continue to enjoy that wage.

I think the best move forward is to have more worker co-ops, so that the board is more in line with the interests of the workers vs. an owner who may not even be active in the management of the company.

I would also take issue about developer salaries being hyperinflated. Software companies are not losing money paying developers and then making it up in other areas of the business. Revenue per employee at Facebook was around $1.5 million per employee. The ridiculous thing about software is not only is it really, really scalable unlike any other profession's work product, it can and does continue to make money even if you don't put any more work into it. Look at Gumroad that basically stopped development but keeps on trucking.

> comical assumption they are scrooge mcducks sitting on piles of cash

Strawmanning my arguments with insulting remarks does not change the reality of income and wealth inequality in the US.

> You assume every business is a FAANG and sitting on piles of cash

I never said that. The article is about labor shortage in general, not in tech only.

Big players drive market salaries. That includes baristas at starbucks, truck drivers and so on. This is a well known fact.

You can also look at how many restaurant/cafe' owners complain that they cannot hire employees at wages that would require the employee to work 40 hours a week only to pay for rent.

I wonder if you have an axe to grind here.

> I'm a business owner myself

Ah, there you go.

>> I'm a business owner myself

>Ah, there you go.

Ah, there you go to you as well.

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