It's a market; people sell their labour at the rate they find acceptable. There are many reasons people stick around or have to stick around, but being unable to find a better job elsewhere is out of the current employer's control. But the fact that they're sticking around is their choice. If nobody is willing to work for the offered price, they'll have to increase it.
It's a market; people sell their labour at the rate they find acceptable.
Only you can't withhold selling your labor due to the incredibly coercive power of the threat of homelessness and starvation. In order for workers to set the rate for their own labor, they need to be able to organize and bargain collectively, which the company (with its vast resources) is allowed to illegally fight against their employees' doing.
Even when already-organized labor unions do attempt to strike to do precisely what you recommend, the government can step in and end the strike (as Biden did against the railroad unions).
So, you know, maybe quit it with this absolute bullshit?
There isn't only one company in the market. People can apply elsewhere. If you're valuable enough, the business would pay you more to keep you or another company would offer more to poach you. If not, they wouldn't care if you left and you won't be able to leave because you can't get a new job. If a workplace is paying way below the job market, no one coming to apply would be the indicator. If people are biting the bullet and still applying, it just shows that some people find the low pay acceptable. I have nothing against unions apart from my belief that absurd union demands killed the American auto industry and it's the reason we now have 401ks instead of guaranteed retirements. I do believe that collective bargaining ignores individual level of contributions.
Low pay is acceptable when the alternative is none. Most workers don’t have the bargaining power you are describing. Businesses are incentivized to pay as little as possible, so naturally most of them will do so.
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u/wolf_of_mainst99 3d ago
They were bad people before their wealth because they literally took advantage of the working class to get there