Imagine scenario where you have $100k and you can open a small restaurant, create jobs, maybe not best jobs but still some people will be putting food on the table with your help, some students will pay for their collage.
But you count the costs and it turns out you will break even in 50 years or if anything goes bad never, like, one bad hire will drown you.
You look at Google, Apple, Facebook stocks ... there is always a risk but no one got fired for buying IBM right? If you put your money in that stocks you don't have to worry about bad employees, sanitary inspections, paying rent, bad customers.
That is what those Adults and Experts are trying to tell you, local business is not some "magic" that makes money or loses it. Behind every local business with shitty jobs there are people, don't make every business equal to faceless Facebook, Google or Apple. Your local pizza shop has an owner who is as much an employee as his staff.
No. News sources are focusing on business instead of labor's issues, because news statistically favors business interests, not labor's.
If your hypothetical business owner is unable to start a business without paying a reasonable wage, then that business should not exist. And your hypothetical business owner should invest in Apple, Facebook, or otherwise.
If this causes less business entrepreneurship, then so be it. A business that cannot pay employees is not a business that adds value to society, and nothing of value is lost. This is a fundamental tenet of capitalism, the same way we say that businesses that cannot sell their product also deserve to fail.
But that is creating tragedy of commons that we have now. People who are having money are investing in stocks or ETFs, buying real estate because it is still better than having cash. Which inflates stocks/real estate bubble and when it bursts it will be much bigger mess than paying low wages but in constant manner, spread out over multiple people and multiple years.
I definitely did not write about business that cannot pay its employees. I wrote about business that lets people put the food on the table, which means also pay the bills.
What's a reasonable wage? Should any business in developing countries exist, given the incredibly low wages? Their wages can't be considered reasonable, right?
"A business that cannot pay employees is not a business that adds value to society, and nothing of value is lost."
Value is a tricky expression here. There is a short term value and a long term value, and they may be very different.
Let us say that a mom-and-pop restaurant that cooks fairly healthy meals is squeezed out by McDonalds and shuts down. 50 years down the line, the fast food triumph has serious consequences on health of the nation.
But immediate market interactions cannot capture this development. The short term "Yay for salty and sugary food for less money!" win does not include the fact that you are buying an invisible "Type 2 diabetes and morbid obesity at the age of 40" item, too.
"If this causes less business entrepreneurship, then so be it. A business that cannot pay employees is not a business that adds value to society, and nothing of value is lost. This is a fundamental tenet of capitalism, the same way we say that businesses that cannot sell their product also deserve to fail."
This is a false and dangerous, in that it ignores that the world isn't a free market, wage markets don't exist in a vacuum. Businesses might be able to pay higher wages if they weren't hindered by high rents, or if other restaurants raise prices in unison (e.g., in reaction to higher labor prices).
Just because a business can't pay a living wage in some setup doesn't mean it has no contribution.
But you count the costs and it turns out you will break even in 50 years or if anything goes bad never, like, one bad hire will drown you.
You look at Google, Apple, Facebook stocks ... there is always a risk but no one got fired for buying IBM right? If you put your money in that stocks you don't have to worry about bad employees, sanitary inspections, paying rent, bad customers.
That is what those Adults and Experts are trying to tell you, local business is not some "magic" that makes money or loses it. Behind every local business with shitty jobs there are people, don't make every business equal to faceless Facebook, Google or Apple. Your local pizza shop has an owner who is as much an employee as his staff.