Starbucks Increasing Wages and Benefits for 150K Employees

[WritOfCertiorari]

Well, sure, I'd love to nationalize Starbucks in the abstract and give all of their workers a well-deserved raise tomorrow. Within the confines of capitalism, I'm fine with just smashing it to smithereens.

So do you actually think we would all be able to have a, vaguely speaking, relatively decent standard of living under a communist system? Would it actually improve most people's lives? Would the world innovate, and progress like, as even a communist would probably admit, we have over the past 200 years or so?

That's what I care about, honestly.

[IndustrialJustice]

1. I'm not a communist.

2. The "success" of an economic system is relative. For large swathes of people in America, capitalism has failed them and is still failing them. We can probably say this for a larger chunk of the population every year. And we can confidently say it has failed a majority of our country's minority population.

If you're looking for a deeper debate concerning the morality and efficacy behind different structures of economic order, I believe there are boards specifically for that.

[WritOfCertiorari]

1. Hint: If you are in favor of nationalizing a coffee company, you are probably a communist, or at least pretty close to one. Social democrats don't generally nationalize coffee companies.

2. Why don't we do regulation and programs to help those people, rather than destroying our entire economy?

[IndustrialJustice]

Hint: I may or may not be humoring you based upon your immediate willingness to call me a communist (after what was some pretty cookie-cutter economic justice rhetoric on my part).

[IndustrialJustice]

Ok.

I just think it's unreasonable to expect a corporation to provide a "great" working environment, yet also to maximize profit. This is why we have laws, and hell, a corporation gets a ton of benefits from the law, like limited liability. So why not make laws protecting workers. I dislike communism because it leads to stagnation, and inefficiency, and when the system collapses its always the friends of the former communist leader who get the spoils of unregulated capitalism. How about we just stick with regulated capitalism?

I love this post so much.

[Dr. Arch]

Are any companies cutting back in any way besides WalMart? Seems more likely that WalMart is just awful.

[pbrower2a]

What has happened? Big employers have been able to keep wages stagnant for a long time. There is now pressure in the labor market -- real shortages for good workers. Losing good workers and having to settle for not-so-desirable workers (such as ex-cons and the mentally-limited) isn't a valid choice for companies that rely upon trust in dealings with merchandise, complex instructions,  or good customer service.

A company like Starbucks might be able to attract workers who have the 'wrong' college degrees who would rather have interactions with customers than perhaps they would find in a convenience store. But as the economy improves one tuns out of such workers. If you want people capable of some intelligent chit-chat with customers, you now have to pay for people with some intelligence and education.

The tax cut had little to do with it. Corporate America had a gold mine with so many educated people and so few openings available.

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

Are any companies cutting back in any way besides WalMart? Seems more likely that WalMart is just awful.

Plenty. There's constant churn. E.g., Toys R Us just announced they're shuttering 20% of their locations and laying off most of the employees in those locations.

Well, that's a dying business. Amazon is killing it and the toy market is declining as a whole. I'm talking companies like Walmart and Starbucks that are booming.

Walmart is a notorious cost-cutter and treats its employees like garbage. That in general makes them a poor gauge of how economic conditions are affecting the workers - no matter what the climate, it's probably a bad day for workers at Walmart.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Are any companies cutting back in any way besides WalMart? Seems more likely that WalMart is just awful.

Plenty. There's constant churn. E.g., Toys R Us just announced they're shuttering 20% of their locations and laying off most of the employees in those locations.

Well, that's a dying business. Amazon is killing it and the toy market is declining as a whole. I'm talking companies like Walmart and Starbucks that are booming.

Walmart is a notorious cost-cutter and treats its employees like garbage. That in general makes them a poor gauge of how economic conditions are affecting the workers - no matter what the climate, it's probably a bad day for workers at Walmart.

Walmart is neoliberalism at its fines. A few rich people get richer, while everyone else gets screwed.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Are any companies cutting back in any way besides WalMart? Seems more likely that WalMart is just awful.

Toys R US filed for bankruptcy last year

[Sir Mohamed]

Well, they could have done it without the tax reform as well. Starbucks has nothing but money and is even avoiding to pay much taxes at all.

We also need an increase of the federal minimum wage.

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

Are any companies cutting back in any way besides WalMart? Seems more likely that WalMart is just awful.

Plenty. There's constant churn. E.g., Toys R Us just announced they're shuttering 20% of their locations and laying off most of the employees in those locations.

Well, that's a dying business. Amazon is killing it and the toy market is declining as a whole. I'm talking companies like Walmart and Starbucks that are booming.

Walmart is a notorious cost-cutter and treats its employees like garbage. That in general makes them a poor gauge of how economic conditions are affecting the workers - no matter what the climate, it's probably a bad day for workers at Walmart.

Walmart is neoliberalism at its fines. A few rich people get richer, while everyone else gets screwed.

...There is nothing remotely liberal about Walmart, "neo" or not.