I also like the idea of requiring young adults to do paid service jobs for a year--kind of like Peace Corps but expanded to include caregiver and the kind of social jobs that are now done by volunteers.

@pluralistic

Adore this definition of economics:

"... neoclassical economist (someone who has experienced a specific form of neurological injury that makes you incapable of perceiving or reasoning about power)"

It's like doing statistical analysis without examination of bias.

Republican administrations suppress wage growth
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/13/business/economy/middle-class-pay.html

Women's wage suppression
If women counted : worth and value in the global economy 
Marilyn Waring; introduction by Gloria Steinem

1/

2/

https://www.epi.org/publication/economics-of-abortion-bans/

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/13/american-economy-wage-suppression-how-it-works

https://www.epi.org/publication/47-ways-trump-has-made-life-less-affordable-in-his-first-year/

POC wage suppression
https://racism.org/articles/basic-needs/economic-issues-and-race/12678-economic-apartheid

https://www.epi.org/unequalpower/publications/understanding-black-white-disparities-in-labor-market-outcomes/

https://www.epi.org/publication/rooted-racism-tipping/

https://equitablegrowth.org/latino-workers-are-often-segregated-into-bad-jobs-but-a-strong-u-s-labor-movement-can-boost-job-quality-and-u-s-economic-growth/

https://www.npr.org/2020/05/10/853049239/historic-wave-of-latino-prosperity-is-threatened-by-devastating-job-losses

LGBTQ wage suppression
https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/557798-wage-suppression-not-stagnation-is-costing-workers-10-an-hour/

https://www.hrc.org/resources/the-wage-gap-among-lgbtq-workers-in-the-united-states

Immigrants' wage suppression
https://www.epi.org/publication/immigrants-and-the-economy/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2024/05/01/immigrants-raise-wages-and-boost-employment-of-us-born-workers/

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/what-immigration-means-for-u-s-employment-and-wages/

https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/archive/2024/11/immigration-worker-wages-myth-jobs/680523/

https://newsletter.economics.utoronto.ca/understanding-the-immigrant-pay-gap-stephen-tino/

https://econofact.org/how-tighter-curbs-on-immigration-impact-the-u-s-economy

https://www.epi.org/publication/trumps-deportation-agenda-will-destroy-millions-of-jobs-both-immigrants-and-u-s-born-workers-would-suffer-job-losses-particularly-in-construction-and-child-care/

@pluralistic

As I mentioned in my own blog on the subject of work: I recall a conversation here on Mastodon where one person said that everyone needs employment. Another responded that no, everyone needs food, clothing, shelter, and health care. We just happen to have a society where in order to get these things, you (normally) need to be employed in a job.

https://funcrunch.medium.com/redefining-work-3c4e85614fb0?sk=5dcdc83576f11c803b709bdc517bc52e

@pluralistic

Fun fact: This kind of stuff has a long history. For instance, in the Harz Mountains of Germany, miners were only paid for the time they were working within the tunnels, but not for the time they needed to get down to their designated tunnel.

This was a problem, since for the deepest mine - such as the Samson Pit in Sankt Andreasberg, which had a depth of 800 meters - it could take one hour to get down and two hours to get back to the surface.

Eventually, a technical solution was developed - the "Fahrkunst" or "Man Engine", which cut down the time to 20 minutes in each direction. You owe it to yourself to read up on it - it's one of the more unhinged modes of transportation out there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_engine