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Comment by throw9away6 | Hacker News Reader

Medium/low pay for the work required

This statement sounds cynical.

I hate the fact that I agree - feeling cynical myself.

At this point when I read about $megacorp moving production to the US, I see an indication of globalization-level exploitation and profits being applied to the US labor market.

Those are still quite livable wages, I'm not seeing tremendous wealth but I'm not seeing any exploitation either. I imagine in fifty years some people will be getting paid minimum wage accomplishing basically the same output that a masters degree + 250k+ salary is pulling in now, it all depends on the technology in the tools.

These were livable wages 3 years ago. Now it’s surviving wages

> At this point when I read about $megacorp moving production to the US, I see an indication of globalization-level exploitation and profits being applied to the US labor market.

What do you expect or want to happen? Companies will pay the lowest price they can to adequately fill the role they need to fill. As everything it comes down to demand and supply. If lots of folks are available who can fill the role well, the comp is gonna be pretty low. Do you want companies to pay more just out of charity? When apples are on sale, do you ever just pay double the price because it feels fairer? The only place where we do this is with tips and that's usually already priced in.

At that pay band they are looking for warm body levels of fill. Like we need a guy to sit in chair for compliance reasons but he probably shouldn’t touch any of the controls level of pay. Like for reference brown bear car wash pays 22 per hour and a straight out of 2 year trade school mechanic gets 37 with union benefits in Washington state (outside Seattle)

Sounds like they won't be able to hire at that price then. Nice how these problems solve themselves.

> what do you expect to happen?

I am not surprised, I am disappointed.

I hope that we’ll at some point consider economic models that account for externalities, for the finite nature of Earth, for our humanity.

Like the donut economics model aiming for sustainability - or a similar approach.

I too am hoping that we could account for negative externalities and therefore would love to see a carbon tax for example. Can you explain what the unaccounted externality is in this case?

I've got to admit I was pretty surprised when I learned about the pay + hard work setup for semi engineers at TSMC in Taiwan. I'd be curious if anyone has any first hand experience with it.

A (westerner) friend who lived in Taiwan for a few years returned recently. He keeps on saying the general lifestyle and living conditions in Taiwan are really lousy compared to Australia.

eg the climate is so wet/humid in Taiwan that the buildings tend to generate mold, most things are run down, and that kind of thing.

Didn't sound like a good place to live (yeah, as a generalisation), if you've got a choice in the matter.

Total comp for onshore TSMC engineers is surprisingly low compared to finance or tech jobs in the US. Yes, cost of living is lower in Taiwan, but most of the big factories are outside mid-sized, unappealing cities. (I'm looking at you Taichung and Hsinchu.)

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