Economy Lobster plant can't function without TFWs, moves plant and hires middle school children.

[nostradumbass]

Wait, so we're saying $15/hr is "underpaid" for HS kids doing unskilled labor?

 

[PHATV]

Sounds like good use of your local economy.

If you want adult workers, stop paying them 100% of their salary on unemployment in subsequent months. Reduce it by a percentage, and they will have motive to get back to work.

It's over 100% here. $23/hour to sit at home (OH, some states are more), so if you "only" make $14, $16, $18 or even make $21 an hour...

But yes, it's a brilliant model. And Pelosi's bill extends that until January 1st. Everyone will certainly rush right back to work to make less than they will make sitting poolside drinking this summer, I'm sure.

 

[AndroidRage]

New Brunswick Lobster company can't operate because they can't use their usually temporary foreign workers. They had an online job fair to fill the roughly 600 positions aand got only 25 applicants.

So they moved the operation to Nova Scotia and will hire highschoolers ($15/hr) and Middleschoolers ($13/hr with their parents permission).

So yeah, not safe for kids to go to school but we can send them to work in underpaid factory jobs? Why do we have jobs in Canada that pay so low only TFWs will take them?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-...porary-foreign-workers-local-hiring-1.5570176

Lmao and those are considered good paying jobs here in the US. What a shit hole this country has become. It's sad to think that there are people against the idea of raising minimum wage to meet that of child labor in Canada.

 

[7437]

This is true, but you need to factor in automation as well. The only reason these plants haven't automated further is that they can still get cheap labour. Taking that option away is not as likely to lead to increased wages as it is to lead to investment in automation.

There are fabrication companies in Atlantic Canada and up the Eastern Seaboard in the US that can turn a 30 person line into a 6 person line for half a million dollars or so. Do the math. Your first inclination isn't going to be to raise wages.

Automation creates high paying jobs. I am ok with that.

And you can't build jack shit for half a million. Its damn expensive. If it was half a million every company would do it instantly.

 

[PainIsLIfe]

They're going to learn to keep their ass in school and get an education so that they aren't working in a lobster factory
.

 

[Andy Capp]

Many "shitty underpaid jobs" are essential to keep a society running and people have to work those jobs. The people who work those jobs should be treated with dignity, paid more money, and shown more appreciation for what they do. It is too bad education doesn't teach people to be more compassionate.

Funny how we can agree so completely on this yet disagree on so many other scenarios involving empathy.

 

[AndroidRage]

Raise prices to raise wages? But that's just inflation. Your income goes up and your expenses go up along with it. What would be the point?

Studies have shown that raised wages would be a benefit and while goods would go up in cost people would be able to afford more than they were before. Wages would raise higher than goods. Here


"According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1.54 million people working in food preparation and serving related occupations make at or below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. Raising their hourly wages to $15 -- a 107% increase -- would cause prices to rise an estimated 4.3%. That means your $3.99 Big Mac would wind up costing $4.16, and an average fast-food meal costing $7.00 would go up in price to $7.31."

 

[oldshadow]

Every kid should have a job like that in high-school. So they will think "fuck this shit I'm going to get an educate and or training so I don't end up working a job like this for life".

 

[ElKarlo]

Maybe. It's tough to say.

Social welfare, in theory at least, redistributes wealth. So it takes buying power from people who have more and gives it to people who have less. Inflation mostly just changes the numbers on the currency, but the redistribution that it does perform effectively is from those with savings to those with debt and/or property... which isn't the same as moving wealth from the rich to the poor.

Part of the side effect of inflation is wiping out the $10 k savings account of grandpa to the benefit of the over-leveraged billionaire.

Many times instead of having job that pays people a living wage, we have to subsidize it's workers. I think k if we forced companies to pay living wages and those wages were reflected in the product's prices, it would end up the same. We're just paying with taxes and social costs. Which I think is worse for society

 

[AndroidRage]

Many times instead of having job that pays people a living wage, we have to subsidize it's workers. I think k if we forced companies to pay living wages and those wages were reflected in the product's prices, it would end up the same. We're just paying with taxes and social costs. Which I think is worse for society

It is no doubt worse because while our taxes subsidize people who are being underpaid the businesses they work for are profiting off of that.

 

[tenniswhiz]

This may be a stupid question, but WHY do lobsters need to be processed?

 

[jeremyemilio]

Many times instead of having job that pays people a living wage, we have to subsidize it's workers. I think k if we forced companies to pay living wages and those wages were reflected in the product's prices, it would end up the same. We're just paying with taxes and social costs. Which I think is worse for society

Again. Maybe. But the difference is, again, that one method is a form of wealth redistribution that moves wealth from rich to poor, and the other is inflationary, which moves wealth from savers (not necessarily rich) to those in who are leveraged (not necessarily poor).

 

[Devout Pessimist]

Funny how we can agree so completely on this yet disagree on so many other scenarios involving empathy.

What do you mean?

 

[flashNsmash]

This may be a stupid question, but WHY do lobsters need to be processed?

two different sizes are harvested, markets & canners

markets end up in the tank at joe's in caesars, nearly all canners go to these plants and are shelled & processed into frozen bags or tins

 

[ElKarlo]

Again. Maybe. But the difference is, again, that one method is a form of wealth redistribution that moves wealth from rich to poor, and the other is inflationary, which moves wealth from savers (not necessarily rich) to those in who are leveraged (not necessarily poor).

In a world of QE, I don't think k some inflation is a bad thing. In fact it might take away from the asset inflation of property and stocks thays been occurring the past decade.
I think giving people artificially cheap items and shielding them from the consequences is bad idea and is why we have so much wealth inequality. If people saw their impact more and more profoundly, they might actually care

 

[jeremyemilio]

Studies have shown that raised wages would be a benefit and while goods would go up in cost people would be able to afford more than they were before. Wages would raise higher than goods. Here


"According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1.54 million people working in food preparation and serving related occupations make at or below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. Raising their hourly wages to $15 -- a 107% increase -- would cause prices to rise an estimated 4.3%. That means your $3.99 Big Mac would wind up costing $4.16, and an average fast-food meal costing $7.00 would go up in price to $7.31."

I don't know where that quotation comes from, because you didn't cite your source... but it looks to me like they are calculating the numbers as though you can isolate a certain group of workers and products as though they exist in a vacuum. Doubling wages in one sector, especially a sector as large as food preparation and service, is going to result in significant inflationary pressures in all other sectors. There would be a major rush into these sectors by employees, meaning that now you need to also raise the wages of, say laborers in the trades. So now the actual physical plant goes up in price, and that raises the price of your Big Mac meal, as well.

Also, the study seems to use MacDonalds as a model. That's an insane example to use. A large percentage of businesses don't even turn a profit, at all. Over half of them fail within 3 years. I owned a cafe. A general rule in the food service industry is that the cost of labour should be around 30% of your total costs. Most restaurants are in a constant struggle just to break even. Now you're going to double my labour costs, make them 60% of my total costs, and I'm going to raise my prices by 5% and that's going to take care of everything? Bullshit.

Do the math, yourself.

A restaurant that does $2,000,000 per year (which is a pretty modest revenue total), pays around $600,000 in wages. Then you have another $200,000 (10%) or so for rent/mortgage. Then another $600,000 (30%) in food costs. Then you're going to need to service and upgrade your equipment and furniture and space, which is going to be another $80,000 or so (4%), and you'll need a POS processor and book keeping and banking services at another $60,000 (3%), and then utilities and garbage removal and snow removal at another $60,000 (3%). Then you're going to need to do some marketing which will run you $40,000 (2%) if you're a great restaurant that can get by on word of mouth and a low marketing budget. And then you have a whole lot of miscellaneous costs from insurance to cleaning supplies to toilet paper at $60,000 (3%) if we're conservative. And that leaves me with $300,000 if I'm really, really careful, and pinching pennies. And from that I put $200,000 toward paying down my original investment for the first 10 years or so, if I'm disciplined.

And I'm left with $100,000, or 5% profit... which is good for the restaurant business. Really good.

But I'm going to double my payroll, to put myself $500,000 in the hole in the budget laid out above (not to mention the increase in my food costs as every employee down the chain is getting a raise that doubles their wage as well), and then I'll just make that up by charging you an extra $0.19 for your burger.

You people are drunk.

 

[xcvbn]

Educational child labor should be encouraged but only if it’s entirely voluntary, parent approved, fair wages, and absolutely no private profit making.

 

[Wet Blanket]

Wait, so we're saying $15/hr is "underpaid" for HS kids doing unskilled labor?

$13 for the middle school kids. I don't think they should working factory jobs. It's literally child labor

I am fine with the wage for HS kids.

I want to know why it's not safe for kids to go to school but its OK for them to work at a factory?

 

[jeremyemilio]

In a world of QE, I don't think k some inflation is a bad thing. In fact it might take away from the asset inflation of property and stocks thays been occurring the past decade.
I think giving people artificially cheap items and shielding them from the consequences is bad idea and is why we have so much wealth inequality. If people saw their impact more and more profoundly, they might actually care

Wealth inequality in the current economy is the result of exactly two factors:

1. Limited Liability Protections (including corporate bankruptcy protections).
2. Intellectual Property Laws (including patents and copyright).

Aside from these, income inequality is just the result of a combination of your own free choice and what you have to offer. If you don't like what your job pays, choose a job that pays more. If you can't do that, because the jobs you would prefer are already filled by people with more desirable and marketable skills, then maybe you aren't worth as much as you think you are.

 

[jeremyemilio]

Automation creates high paying jobs. I am ok with that.

And you can't build jack shit for half a million. Its damn expensive. If it was half a million every company would do it instantly.

Half a million is the actual cost of one of the better lobster processing machines on the market.

But you need to understand how these processors run. They are large warehouse spaces with tables, bins, air coolers, and a couple hundred employees. You need 10 or 20 machines to get to your peak efficiency. And you need to train the workers to operate the machines and to gradually increase efficiency.

You're talking about $5-$10 million in up front costs if you do it all at once, and these are cash in, cash out businesses. (You purchase the lobster on credit, your employees process it, and you sell it just in time to make payroll, and pay down the original investment, repeat).

They are all automating. They are just doing it one machine at a time because for most of them that's what the business model allows.