I can't afford food delivery as it is now, I'm afraid this will just push it to skyrocketing prices and demanding tips.
"no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country"
How many workers would work for less than a living wage and are prevented from doing so by minimum wage laws and instead denied jobs?
The argument could be made around required PPE as well. There are people willing to work without it, why aren't we jumping on that opportunity? Could probably employe another person or three if we didn't pay for PPE for the worksite.
The reality is that minimum wage jobs will sink to whatever level they can get away with, forcing everyone who works at that minimum wage level to put up with the new decreased wage.
There's no way to paint this as anything other than blatant extortion - just like prison labor. But at the same time it's a bit weird to me that we kind of set societal speed limits "unless you are providing at least $15/hr in value to society you are a ward of the state".
But I think an important caveat to Sowell's argument is that is he is kind of describing the intent of minimum wage. It's a tool aimed at labor monopsony and one of the purposes of minimum wage is to intentionally thin out the supply of low wage labor from the bottom. It was never about benefiting people making $0. It was about removing competition amongst the people making $15.
FDR's statement was also clearly implied a constant wealth level of the country overall. But you could imagine lots of runaway economic situations were pulling people out of the workforce causes the "living wage" to rise which would require pulling people out of the workforce until you just do not have enough economic productivity to support your population (which is kind of a version of what Venezuela went through).
A student living at home is explicitly not supporting themselves. Their parents shouldn't be subsidizing your food deliveries.
I hear a lot of complaints about food delivery prices. And I can't help but fight back a little because:
1. Food costs more. If you go to fast food or local restaurants you will see prices have risen. The cause of this is debated but it doesn't change the fact that food costs more.
2. Delivery workers work pretty hard to do what they do. Due to a lack of good American public transportation (especially outside of NYC) most delivery workers have to drive their own cars which is a cost that gets more expensive with time as cars have a limited amount of miles and tend to break down somewhat randomly with age.
3. Maybe most importantly, you don't need food delivered. Unless you're disabled, it's inherently an out-of-touch argument because there's nothing stopping you from making your own food or going to pick up food. It's a luxury, so I believe the prices aren't really that crazy if it means the workers can make livable wages. And if you're disabled, we should have better systems in place for you than saying "use doordash".
- edited to account for disabled people.
People with disabilities would beg to differ. There's a reason Meals on Wheels exists.
In the United States, there are in-home healthcare workers and adjacent support workers that can perform tasks such as grocery shopping and meal preparation, no?
What would the workers do without those jobs?
slavery, you say?
All they think of is the fact that eliminating minimum wage would create jobs, which is technically true, but imagine being one of those poor workers that cleans houses for $1/hr because they can't find anything else.
Paying someone minimum wage is sending the signal of "I would pay you less if I was allowed to". No minimum wage would create a race to the bottom on wages as employers are able to find more and more desperate people who just want to be able to eat.
Sadly, there are people that will never criticize a company for having shitty working conditions. Instead, they'll just say "If they don't like it, get a job somewhere else!", and it doesn't matter what extreme you take it to. They will never question the shitty conditions.
Food delivery always was a luxury especially when it's just for one or two people. Unfortunately, you can't generate exponential growth on wealthy families ordering Friday evening takeout.
It’s also better to have jobs that pay living wages than jobs that don’t.
That said, it sucks the government had to get involved at all.
> A driver recently shared with me that he made $5 on a $23 ride I booked recently.
If I order Doordash, the food is already way more expensive than in the restaurant. The driver gets a delivery fee. The driver gets a tip. Somehow, a $10 meal turns into $25. And there's still not enough money to pay the driver to bring me food from 5 minutes away? (I'm blind and don't have a car.) Of course there is. It's just all going to corporate.
You thought Hollywood accounting was bad, wait until you learn about delivery business accounting.
Look at Purism attempting to make a phone in the US: It costs 2000$...How many people would be willing to pay 2000$ for an iPhone? Lets say Apple can be more efficient than a startup like Purism, maybe they can get to 1500$?
The recent labor shortages in Florida were caused by undocumented migrants being scared by Desantis's stupid immigrant law.
Lets not forget the COVID supply shortages which in hindsight were not a complete collapse thanks to a lot of sacrifice by people who we never see and never think about.
China is going offline either now with greater tensions or later due to their demographic bomb and so far Apple and others are making progress transitioning to Vietnam, thailand etc to stave off the eventual truth that the west is structurally bankrupt. Maybe robots will save us? Thats what all the elites are banking on.
It seems like these delivery platforms have positioned themselves in such a way that they are extracting a pound of flesh from restaurants, customers, and underpaying their workers.
It was always performed by under-the-table workers and somehow VCs thought there's money to be made there.
Most people have a threshold for costs. And the head count in tech and marketing doesn't help at all with keeping it under that cost.