Readit Newshttps://www.bls.gov/IAG/TGS/iag70.htm tells me that the average hospitality worker is working 25 hours a week. Did we have another huge fight to bring the 40 hour work week down to 25 hours? I suspect not, or people would talk about that instead of the 40 hour week. That victory looks a bit hollow - much like any successes in pitching a minimum wage of low single digit dollars per hour which has been rubbed out by inflation.
Even the child labour one is interesting - children are unemployable regardless of the law, they don't have the skill, stamina or strength to participate meaningfully in a modern economy. It makes a difference, but this is a ban on something that doesn't make much economic sense to start with. This isn't a meaningful political question these days, the economy has no use for children. Child labour went the way of slavery - any society attempting to utilise it will get steamrollered by capitalists using productive techniques to do an order of magnitude better.
Your point against child labor is however complete nonsense. The fact that most so called "modern economies" are propped up by overseas labor often performed by children in the developing world is not an unfortunate accident. It's the consequence of the obvious fact that there are many jobs where businesses will happily choose low cost and high volume of labor over individual "skill, stamina, or strength".
Meanwhile, the GOP in America are trying to overturn long standing child labor laws in an attempt to battle increasing demands for higher wages by service workers so don't try to sell me the idea that it was businesses that decided to end child labor instead of the reality that it was activists and strikers - often facing heavy violence from the state in response - that ended the practice.
I think if I even started to talk about the laughable notion that slavery ended because of (instead of being massively bolstered and spread by) capitalists, I would be here all day so I'll save that diatribe for another time.
1) There is a frame that wages are decided by the government. There is a lot of evidence that this isn't how wages work - that isn't how the price of most other things a business expenses is decided.
2) There is a frame that a "living wage" is some magic number. I remember "fight for $15" being a slogan somewhere. Which, given how long the fight takes, has probably become a Fight for $10 after inflation by now.
The best thing that cooks, waiters and bartenders could have happen is some political leadership that stops picking stupid battles and takes a bit of time to articulate what the actual problems are and put some effort towards fixing them.
Greater government control over wages and prices is not going to help low status workers people. There is a very real chance that the more of those battles they win, the worse the outcome will be. Market inefficiencies usually make life worse for people with no money.
1. That is actually how "wages work". The state decides what is the minimal possible wage and then businesses will pay that amount to low status workers because businesses seek to maximize the surplus value out of their workers. Suggesting that businesses will opt into paying their workers a living wage without an external pressure is laughable and ahistoric.
2. Nobody serious is suggesting that $15 is some magical number but given political reality, it seems like an easier sell than proposing a minimum salary that dynamically adjusts based on local cost of living and inflation. It would also be a massive increase relative to the abysmal figure it is today.
"There is a very real chance that the more of those battles they win, the worse the outcome will be."
Such as the battle for minimum wage, the weekend, the 40 hour work week or the abolition of child labor?
I'm waiting for a credible example of a pro worker regulation having overall negative consequences for workers.
I wonder what represents a larger group of people: those at risk from side effects of the vaccination or every human being older than 65?
But, it came right out of the gate with The Message (Get Woke!) and I lost interest.
I am a black (descendant of American slaves) engineer who’s done well during his career, part of it writing video games. I don’t like leading with that info, but unfortunately it’s important to give context lest this comment be downvoted out of existence bc too many will assume I’m white.
I wish we could just tell the story of someone who did something noteworthy. If some physical attribute is noteworthy, then show a picture or tell the relevant attributes in order to surprise and/or delight the consumer.
But, please, enough finger pointing and nasty accusations in the name of The Message.
The Struggle is Real, but it ain’t all bad all the time, and I’m weary of hearing that it is.
In all seriousness though, do you not see how incredibly self absorbed and outright anti-empirical this comes across as? The article briefly mentions the directly relevant and real existence of sexism in computing in the first paragraph (40 years ago mind you!) and then goes on to be almost entirely about the woman and her game, and you couldn't manage to contain your faux outrage at being reminded of uncomfortable truths.
I think the fact that you thought being a minority gives you a free pass for not reading the article and giving this nonsense sermon about wokeism tells me you don't really understand the movement you're lecturing against.