But it is fair to say that economies that look remarkably like our own are able to support higher wages with no catastrophic downsides. The same argument goes for universal healthcare, family and sick leave, etc.
No I don't think that is fair at all and I feel that you need a source that dives deep into the details because it is far more complicated than X country's wages > U.S. wages.
I am saying there are a dozen countries, including several that are extremely similar to the US, that not only have higher wages, and higher minimum wages, but also extensive paid family and vacation leave, universal healthcare and a wide range of quality of life metrics around or above what we see in the US.
I wasn't arguing against those things? I was just referring to the parent's comment that based on our GDP we could afford to pay everyone a living wage. Maybe we can, but using the GDP to gauge that is not a valid way to demonstrate that.
Which part do you want to dive deep? High minimum wages? Or universal health care?
Australia has both, and a smaller gdp/capita than the US. Happy to dive as deep as you like.
On both front, Australia still has effective unions with political representation, and thus corporate interests don’t always win. That’s the main difference with the US.
"The 5 largest companies in the US are all computer software/hardware.
Australia's largest company is in mining, and 4 of the next 5 are banks.
Australia really needs to join the modern world..." [1]
--
On top of this you haven't compared -
1. The quality of life difference between minimum wage workers in those countries
2. The quality of health care between these countries
3. Median house hold income (not everyone is on minimum wage)
4. Differences in taxes and "net" pay
5. The differences in the makeup of the economies and conditions of jobs
Honestly the factors are endless and I am not going to spend more time enumerating them all.
You want to talk about quality of life difference between $7/hour and $23/hour ??? Sure where do you want to start?
Want to talk about quality of healthcare… the US will lose badly here (except in certain types of cancer). And skewed statistics because the US just refuses treatment to a bunch of folks which hides treatment/mortality rates.
You want to talk about median income 33k (us) vs 43k (au)?
Or back to the more pressing point: when you only have corporate lobbyists and no lobbyists for workers (unions) workers get skrewed across the board.
Look, all I was arguing is that the economies are vastly different. So what if Australia wins on all of those? I don't believe that is true, but it doesn't matter.
All I was saying is you can't use GDP as a gauge for how much money is available for payroll (as suggested by the grandparent). That is very dependent on the economy producing it.
… I don’t understand your point. If you are generating a net surplus, then your economy is growing. If your per capita size is large, then inequality is something government can solve with taxation/redistribution it has nothing to do with whether it is iron ore or software generating the taxable $.
And yes, Australia beats out the US on pretty much any metric you like (unless you are looking for corporate benefit, then the US will win out, it’s much better to be a capitalist in the US)
Who is talking about government spending? The OP I was responding to was talking about livable wages provided by corporations. This has nothing to do with the government.
I was clarifying your point, you were saying positive gdp didn’t imply positive economic growth… or size of economy but it does. So what was your meaning?
