Yaron Answers: Do Employers And Employees Have Equal Bargaining Power?

[eggory]

Whoever owns a business has the absolute right to keep whatever he doesn't consent to give away, including the wages of any employee not already committed by contract. There's no reason for any exception to this, since that would render the government a tool of coercion, and the market an environment of coercion, thereby obstructing for all the means to living and the joy of freedom.

[JaredLangdon]

This is just a specific case of the more general question: Do buyers and sellers have equal bargaining powers? It depends on supply and demand. If the supply of labour is high and the demand is low, then the employee (the seller) has less power than the employer (the buyer). If the reverse is true, then the employee has more power. In this way, the market encourages people to develop skills that are in high demand.

[pressxtojason]

"If rights aren't violated, government has no role."

Can workers organize in government to legislate more rights?

[RebelRadius]

Why are individuals made to be DEPENDENT on a government or police FORCE, to protect their rights?

An individual is born with 1 right. The right to life itself. If man has "rightS" Where did they come from? Laws created by the government? What the government creates it can TAKE AWAY.

Why would any OBJECTIVE individual not look after himself instead of being DEPENDENT upon a "government?

[Willsturd]

Actually unions have a very strong influence over the political system, same with special interest groups. This includes the NRA, teachers union, teamsters, and many more. They even have their own buildings on Capital hill. It is amazing how much power special interest groups have over our countries.

[RebelRadius]

Please show where I claimed that reputation is an enforcement mechanism?

The principles behind the meanings of "volunatry" and "self determination" are far more appealing to me as opposed to "compulsion" and "enforcement"

[RebelRadius]

"You're assuming uniform agreement throughout society" Yes, its called voluntarism. Just as Rand said. Payment for governmental services—would be voluntary.

[mik]

Where is an employee able to quit any time for any reason without consequence? What about the notice period defined by the contract?

[guscaldas]

Very simple: if you are a business owner, would you pay your employees $7.50 an hour? Educate yourself by reading these words by PROF. ROBERT POLLIN, CODIRECTOR, POLITICAL ECONOMY RESEARCH INSTITUTE: 1-The minimum wage in the country right now, at $7.25 an hour, is about $3 an hour--more than $3 an hour below what it actually was in 1968 in this country. In 1968 in this country, the minimum wage, after we properly adjust for inflation, was $10.65 an hour.

[MyAmericanMorning]

I agree with what you say in the video but there is one thing you did not mention that I'd like to hear from you. These employees who decide to start a union .... should the employer have a right to not employ them? If I own a company, should I have the right to not employ union members or should I be able to chose to fire my employees who join an existing or newly-formed union?

Are there circumstances where a private employer should not be able to choose his employees?

[eggory]

You are no more "dependent" on government police than you are on corporate farms, or indeed on the private alternative to police presented by the theory of anarcho-capitalism. Some people could survive without it, but life would be a lot more miserable. Once good law is established, there is no rational reason not to band together under it in common defense, or dispel dissidents from among your midst. If that law is merely counter to coercion, then so is its universal enforcement.

[guscaldas]

2-That means in 1968--let's take a young girl in Texas walking into her job at McDonald's on the first day. Legally she would have to have been paid $10.65 an hour. That's in 1968. So the proposal by Congressman Alan Grayson is basically just to bring the United States minimum wage today back to where it was in 1968.

[RebelRadius]

If a person does not honor a contract, he earns nothing but a bad reputation which is not in his self-interest nor in the interest of the success of his business. Are you suggesting that self-interest must be enforced at the point of a gun?

[guscaldas]

3- on top of that, if you allow for the fact that the economy's productivity has grown, which of course it has, which means that we can do things more efficiently, the economy's labor productivity has grown by 135% since 1968. So if you say that the--take the 1968 federal minimum wage and adjust for inflation and adjust for productivity, if you bumped up the minimum wage each time average worker productivity went up as well, the minimum wage today, the minimum wage today should be $25 an hour.

[guscaldas]

You have quite a tremendous gift of scanning the lives of millions of minimum wage workers, concluding that they don't have to work on minimum or near minimum wage jobs. Suppose he does need to work there, and supposing you own the coffee shop, paying minimum wage to an employee you would be honoring the life and work of your employee? Is that enough to survive? If YES, here is a chance to look straight to a mirror, point to yourself and partially claim responsibility for the state of the world.

[eggory]

You're assuming uniform agreement throughout society. That was the case in Galt's Gulch. Wherever it is not the case, wherever crimes by an objective standard occur, retaliation is necessary. Forcing other people not to use force is not an initiation of coercion. If that is the law and it is not obeyed, then it must be enforced. When rights are attacked, they must be defended.

[BuyTheDip]

Beautiful. This elucidates what I learnt from Jim rohn. You get paid based on the value you bring. That value is determined by the market ie people. The value is determined by how easily it can be replaced. A garbage man doesn't bring much value because he can be easily replaced. Someone in finance or a successful ceo is not easily replaced and as such, valuable employees have the ability to demand a higher price for their labor. If you're not as valuable, you won't be able to demand a high price for your labor.

[arthurmayfieldhowson]

Yes, certain individuals may have a higher bargaining power than employers due to their high skillset, but it's wrong to suggest that this is more than a minority of cases. Sure, you could argue that the solution is for individual workers to increase their skillset, but what about jobs that don't require a high level of skill? When I worked for a fast food chain, they provided me with an online contract, which I could either accept or not, there was no ability to negotiate. If I attempted to negotiate, the company would have simply chosen another worker who didn't complain. I'm not making any policy proposals, I'm simply saying that the argument that workers need only increase their skills in order to bridge the imbalance of bargaining power has holes in it.

[justlistenfornow]

Employees do not have the power to form the Union. Walmart crashes union even the talk of union within Walmart store.

[RebelRadius]

Economies of scale?
Many independent traders can ill afford justice. Seldom can any individual afford to "enforce" contracts especially against a corporation with seemingly unlimited funds versus the risk to the individual (namely the value of his house) in legal fee's.

Voluntary contracts generally do not require "enforcement" because reputation is generally the highest value to any individual with his name over the door. Reputation is paramount!

Please view at 00:48
/watch?v=JVBkBnGq-es