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by InFlightThrow 1306 days ago
Isn't this exactly how wages are set in tech?

Google, Amazon, Meta, etc. all report their payroll data to a centralized third party who then reports back to them what they should be paying their employees. Sure, companies can choose to nudge those numbers up or down, but it's exactly the same thing landlords are doing here.

We need to make colluding to keep rent high and wages low illegal.
1 comments
luckylion 1306 days ago
Wages in IT are high for the same reason that rents in these neighborhoods are high: demand is far greater than supply.

It feels great being on the supply-side and getting crazy money, but it feels bad to be on the demand-side and having to pay crazy money. And everyone will say that one of these is perfectly fine and the other is outrageous.

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socialismisok 1306 days ago
No, I think the point being made is that it's bad to set wages this way. If every company is colluding, then wages are being kept artificially low. (Even in tech, where engineers are in demand.)

Neither of these is fine.

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luckylion 1306 days ago
The salaries are high because of supply and demand. Big tech companies collude to "keep them low" because they are high.

Nobody here has a problem with their salary being high, they feel it's totally fine because it benefits them. It's only when they experience the other side that they're outraged and want regulation.

Which is totally natural and fine, and I'm not saying it shouldn't be allowed or whatever. But we should still be aware that that's what it is.

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Spivak 1305 days ago
As long as workers aren’t colluding this argument doesn’t work.

Colluding to raise rent and colluding to lower salaries are the same action taken by different people.

Employees enjoying high salaries means nothing as long as they’re not banding together to distort the market outside of a union or workers guild.

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InFlightThrow 1306 days ago
Wages are lower than they should be. Wages would be higher if employers were not colluding. Collusion is hurting both high demand engineers and renters.
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luckylion 1306 days ago
100%. And house prices are where they should be. Supply and demand, there's someone willing to pay more, so they charge more.

Again, why are you fine with supply & demand raising prices in one situation but furiously outraged when the same thing happens in the other?

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InFlightThrow 1306 days ago
> Again, why are you fine with supply & demand raising prices in one situation but furiously outraged when the same thing happens in the other?

Because both are at the cost of workers and for the benefit of capital.

Owners win both ways, workers lose both ways.

Edit: Also, the collusion is by the few against the many in both cases.

Also also, the prices are artificial -- collusion is keeping rents artificially high and wages artificially low.

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