Posted: Dec 04, 2010 1:56 pm
HAJiME wrote:The pay requirements are a bit more uniform in the UK, I think? They are slightly higher in greater London and then slightly higher again in central. Where I live it's £5.85 at the moment. Is that enough to live on? I have no idea. These are the kind of jobs that young people take as temporary positions. Those who stay at any given company for long enough move up to supervisor and then management positions.
So we should expect anyone who wants to live in financial security to fight their way up the company ladder and take more stressful, more demanding jobs, typically with longer hours? If the lowest paid in our society cannot put a roof over their heads and pay their bills, it's a disgrace; and yet how can anyone on minimum wage of less than £12k aspire to buy a house (present average price £246k!)? If they can't afford an ordinary rent, it's the state and not business who ends up making up the difference.
There will be people who simply do not have the aptitude for more responsible jobs, and personally I think you should be able to live in reasonable comfort at the bottom level even if you do have the aptitude for 'greater' things: what job we take should be a matter of choice, not necessity. House prices in recent years have reached absurd levels, which is a separate problem. But our aspiration should be to reach a point where no one need ever worry about obtaining the basic necessities of life (including housing), cradle to grave, and anyone in any kind of work should be able to obtain a few luxuries as well. After thousands of years of civilisation, it's a bit rubbish that we still have people working hard yet struggling to get by; and we can't expect business to fix that problem, because a degree of desperation among low-level employees is in their interest.
my_wan wrote:If they are payed everything a company makes, then the company can't stay in business to keep paying them.
Hmm, surely there are many organisations doing pretty much that, known as not-for-profits, charities, co-ops and nationalised industries? I tend towards thinking that life's necessities should be kept out of private hands, for much this reason: they want to provide the same service as a nationalised version, but with a layer of profit on top; whilst naturally, as in the case of banks, outsourcing risk back onto the state.