Companies and paying proper wages

[Swirlythingy2025]

if companies paid proper wages for the roles that people do most companies would not make enough profits so when is society getting a better economic model than capitalism ?

Societies have tried various over the years, what do you suggest? Communism, serfdom?

Even the ones that seem like utopia fall down in practice because people are essentially selfish and (especially) will stop at nothing to get the best for their DC.

but then why should people be paid basics wages while everything else rises in price ?

I agree with PP. Huge inequality has existed within enough societies over enough periods of history for us to conclude that this is driven by the human condition. We are intrinsically selfish. All of us. The vast majority of people that purport to care about improving equality are either those that would stand to gain personally from this or at the very least would not be expected to lose out from it.

It doesn't really help. Wages go up, prices go up.

prices have gone up alot more than wages have

Yes, that's what happens, what mechanism would you use to change that?

im not sure but it does take the biscuits

So you know it should be different but don't have a single suggestion as to how?

Do you think that might be the problem?

Come up with an alternative

OP are you aware that the government also pays NMW for a lot of roles? It's not just private businesses. Earlier this month lot of civil servants and NHS workers needed a pay rise to bring their salary up to NMW.

Plus how do you determine what is a 'proper wage'? To earn the amount that people would need to earn to attain the lifestyle many expect, NMW would need to go up by 2/3/4 times. Then prices would rise and people would be no better off.

Or people with families would need to be paid more than the child free which sounds dangerously similar to illegal discrimination.

Or housing could be made cheaper but what about the people who have a mortgage based on current prices?

So not as easy as 'just paying proper wages' is it?

all i know is people deserve to be paid a good wage and what they are worth.
we all clapped for the essential workers during covid and yet their pay levels are omg.

yet someone plays the stock market or investment banks etc and their wages are omg

and yet society still managed to abolish slavery.

After the war, we did have an alternative, high taxes for the rich but in return there was plenty of social housing, a well funded NHS, grammar schools, free universities with grants and a proper safety net in the welfare system. There are companies and individuals with billions which they will never spend no matter how hard they try but unless Governments actually tax them very few will willingly hand it over to help the poorest in society.

An incredibly wealthy widow who was left a billion by her husband donated it all to a US medical school and that school is now able to fund fees for all their students in perpetuity. If we had an emergency tax of the super wealthy individuals and companies, I am talking the 0.01% of the population, and invested that money into our own sovereign fund, we too could help out out younger generations. Maybe this is pie in the sky, like something I read recently, " everyone has something to say about how the poor should spend their money but when it's the rich, they say it's their money they can do as they like!".

I find the fact that you have written this post and not noticed the obvious contradictions within it astonishing.

You have literally just proposed a wealth tax that would take away a proportion of rich people's money and assets. How does this align with the idea that people say the rich can spend their money how they like? The actual reality is that lots of people, like you, believe that rich people's money doesn't really belong to them and that you can dip into it as and when you like.

Lol, I wasn't agreeing with the quote. I was saying loads of people are happy to tell the poor how they should live or spend their money etc but the same people will defend the rich doing whatever they like. The rich are part of society! History teachers us if they don't act as part of society, the result ends in heads rolling.

"People like me???" 😂you are hilarious!

'People like you' as in people that believe in a wealth tax. I wasn't making a broader comment on your character. If you believe in a wealth tax then you think that the state is entitled to a proportion of someone's money and assets just because they are wealthy.

well they are otherwise why do ordinary average workers still get taxed etc ?

Because they offer basic skills.

I don't mean that in a derogatory way, but it is the reality. If you fulfil a role that requires skill and/or experience that is elevated from something that can be done by most people with a bit of training, your salary tends to reflect that.

Plenty of skilled workers have seen their wages stagnate so how does that work @NoSoupForU?

A basic job with basic wages used to be enough to live on. Now it is not.
The cost of living and housing has got ridiculous.
It is all very well saying that people should upskill so they can earn more, but not everyone is capable of that. Plus we need the people doing those basic jobs for society to function.

Housing costs have fucked things up
particularly for younger generations.

Plus we never recovered from the crash, productivity is still low. Things are not working

Companies haven't invested in their workers

Capitalism requires consumers. Those consumers need to have enough money to buy the goods and services that capitalism is built on. It also requires a broad group of unskilled/semi-skilled people to produce the goods/services those consumers need. The consumers and the workforce are often one and the same, with the goods/services becoming more expensive the greater your salary.

If you discount the environmental impact of production of ‘stuff’ just to satisfy consumerism, capitalism seems quite sensible. But it’s actually most successful when those the bottom actually have a decent standard of living. What we’re seeing now is a return to Dickensian levels of contrast between rich and poor. We’ve a long way to go before it gets as bad as some other countries, but it’s often the degree of inequality, not inequality itself, that causes social unrest and revolution.

I see a simple solution being a mandated link between top salaries and lowest salaries in companies. Not allowing the haves to make obscene levels of profit when the workers can’t afford to feed their families.

Wages going up generally will mean product prices have to rise.

but it shouldent