Ask HN: How can we disrupt Governments?

8 pointssteejk10y ago11 comments

From recent events in the UK & US it is clear that something is wrong with capitalism and the way current governments operate. How can we make it better? Minimum wage may be part of the answer, but what else?

11 comments

11 comments · 7 top-level

sharemywin10y ago· 3 in thread

Every time you raise minimum wage people lose jobs. You raise wages prices go up, prices go up people buy less. people buy less, you don't need as many people.

JoeAltmaier10y ago

That's one effect. How about "Raise wages - people have more money. They spend more - business expands. Business expands, they hire more. Jobs are created."

Both processes happen. And more. Its not simple. But its the right thing to do, to increase the standard of living for the most vulnerable among us.

meric10y ago

>> But its the right thing to do, to increase the standard of living for the most vulnerable among us.

Minimum wage decreases the standard of living for the most vulnerable. i.e. physically or mentally disabled persons, people who have been in prisons, unskilled labor, new immigrants with language difficulties. The minimum wage forces them to provide a minimum price for their labor services, resulting in unemployment.

You want to hire a person for a typical minimum wage job - would you pick a high school graduate at the minimum wage, or a physically disabled high school graduate at the minimum wage? The minimum wage just gave the latter the shaft because they can't negotiate to get the position for a lower wage.

For the slightly less than most vulnerable, then yes, minimum wage is a good thing. It's cannibalisation of the most vulnerable by the second most vulnerable.

MichaelBurge10y ago

When you raise the minimum wage, businesses that serve poor people benefit. As you get further and further from chicken, weed, and used cars businesses benefit less and less.

meric10y ago· 1 in thread

Political power is concentrated among a small group of people. This happened because of centralisation of and amalgamation governments and corporations. To reverse it, logically you'd just have to reverse this trend. Break up the EU. Break up the corporations. We might sit here and think it's people like to do "dumb" things like elect volatile politicians like Trump and Sanders to upset the status quo, or do "dumb" moves like leaving the European Union. I'd like to say people are a smarter than we think. I am one of the people, and I think people will figure things out by themselves, just fine. Don't worry. Be happy. :)

sharemywin10y ago

The problem is people in power are happy with the status quo.

tmaly10y ago

I think you first have to rethink your assumption of what capitalism is. What we have now is clearly not capitalism. If it were, the biggest banks would not have gotten bigger after the 2008 financial meltdown.

antoinevg10y ago

Maybe focus less on disruption and design for long-term stability and sustainability instead?

alexmingoia10y ago

Well first you need to identify the problem you're trying to solve. "something is wrong with capitalism and the way current governments operate" is completely arbitrary and meaningless.

dc1710y ago

An excessive active сitizenship as well as an indifference or failure to intervene in a political life both disrupt stable political system.

varunom10y ago

Prout maybe the answer. http://www.prout.org/

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse