[crooked-v]

So pay them more.

[rhexs]

No reason to do that with current immigration "policy", or lack thereof.

[tntn]

Quick recap:

Article: "there's a labor shortage"

'crooked-v: "So pay them more"

'rhexs: "No need," because there is plenty of cheap labor.

Something here doesn't add up.

[mozumder]

and increase inflation, punishing the poor and elderly on fixed income the most?

[zaccus]

Inflation happens anyway. Unless wages rise faster than inflation, you can't really argue they drive it.

[conanbatt]

There isnt a market for that: increased wages would increase house prices and the developer estimates he cant sell the house.

If land were cheaper you would see rising wages.

[CydeWeys]

If there isn't a market for it then there isn't a shortage of labor -- the correct equilibrium point has been found. And yet, they're claiming a shortage. They want to eat their cake and have it too.

[conanbatt]

If the amount of workers is down, and the wages are similar or up, then you have a "shortage". In comparison to the point you measure of course.

Construction pays rather well actually, though it does have high strain on the body.

[mozumder]

And this is how you cause an economy to collapse, by raising inflation.

The market doesn’t know what’s good for it. It’s only interest is the immediate short term.

[zaccus]

Inflation provides an incentive to not hoard cash. As long as it's under control, it's not a bad thing.

[conanbatt]

If I tell you im burning your wallet at the end of the day, will your spending be better or worse?

We can test this :)

[OldSchoolJohnny]

I think companies have enjoyed historically high profits for a long time now and are simply loath to give that up. What is a reasonable, sustainable level of profit that benefits everyone? It's certainly not what we've seen for the last decade at least. Profits are sky high and wages are deeply stagnant. I've run my own company for decades and I can tell you there isn't a business person alive who will willingly say in public "we're making excellent profits" no matter the situation it's always doom and gloom and the taxes are too high and the wages are too high and there aren't enough qualified candidates etc.

[conanbatt]

Profits are not what make wages go down. Profits make wages go up, because then more gets invested and capital competes for labor. We are also in a decade since the recession of record profits, but that might not be so in the next decade or so (from a macro perspective).

Putting a ceiling on profits will not raise wages.

[platz]

"a labor shortage that has meant fewer homes built and rising prices" (emhasis added)

So are prices rising or aren't they?

[conanbatt]

You can have rising prices and less sales. Its important to look at volume as well.

And land probably is what increased prices the most in the share of costs for developing, due to macro economic reasons.

[LargeWu]

Prices are definitely rising, but it's debatable whether that's due to a labor shortage.