a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment
salathor  ·  3419 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Anyone here a socialist as well?

Hi deepflows,

I am not sure it's a valid question--what makes something a "rare commodity" is its relative lack of availability in a market. The very sign that makes work a "rare commodity" is that workers of a particular skillset are NOT easily replaced. In our market (U.S.), for example, we have a large population of low- and medium-skilled labor leftover from demographic shifts toward a highly skilled tech economy. That level of work may be common, while tech/STEM/trade skills may be less so. In such an instance, wages for low-skilled employees will drop as they fight for fewer jobs (since automation is reducing the manpower needed to complete any task) while wages for highly skilled employees rise as employers fight to adapt to a new economic model.

If the workers are easily replaced, that skillset is prevalent, and the employer will gain pricing pressure to decrease wages until enough workers move into other fields to make replacement difficult. After that, the work will become rare, wages for that skillset will rise, and companies will have to pay more to attract labor.

And then the cycle will repeat.