<story><title>America is building chip factories. Now to find the workers</title><url>https://www.economist.com/united-states/2023/08/05/america-is-building-chip-factories-now-to-find-the-workers</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jacoblambda</author><text>Yeah and that can happen by paying everybody more.&lt;p&gt;Salaries have largely stayed the same while prices have risen and that excess has gone to profits. If workers demand more pay and they force the issue, the economy eventually will reach equilibrium.&lt;p&gt;The issue currently is that those workers can&amp;#x27;t really do that because the US government has shown time and again that they don&amp;#x27;t really care that much if a company violates organised labor laws or labor laws in general (you get a fine and a slap on the wrist) but they will bring down god&amp;#x27;s wrath if workers&amp;#x2F;a union has an &amp;quot;illegal strike&amp;quot; after the employer ignores their demands.&lt;p&gt;There is a reason why ever since Reagan took a hardline anti-union stance and disbanded the PATCO union for having the audacity to strike in the 1980s that the number of major strikes per year has steadily declined.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bls.gov&amp;#x2F;web&amp;#x2F;wkstp&amp;#x2F;annual-listing.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bls.gov&amp;#x2F;web&amp;#x2F;wkstp&amp;#x2F;annual-listing.htm&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>doctorwho42</author><text>You guys keep focusing on the wrong thing, salaries are a first order solution. What needs to happen is that the average salary can provide a citizen with a comfortable and simple life (housing&amp;#x2F;shelter, food, clothing, etc.).&lt;p&gt;Jacking up salaries without bringing the standard of living for the rest of your society will only lead to a continued breakdown of the social fabric that we have been seeing steadily happening over the past 30-40 years.</text></item><item><author>voidfunc</author><text>Or semiconductor salaries need to rise...</text></item><item><author>georgeburdell</author><text>Software salaries have to fall a lot more to keep semiconductor experts from doing lateral moves.  I have an EE PhD, concentration semiconductors, and worked in the industry for a while, and a decade out my entire group of semiconductor PhD friends has now moved onto data science, ML, firmware, etc.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>infogulch</author><text>A big part of the problem is the fed that literally pursues a monetary policy that intends to suppress real wage growth. This is why wages are flat for 30 years.</text></comment>
<story><title>America is building chip factories. Now to find the workers</title><url>https://www.economist.com/united-states/2023/08/05/america-is-building-chip-factories-now-to-find-the-workers</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jacoblambda</author><text>Yeah and that can happen by paying everybody more.&lt;p&gt;Salaries have largely stayed the same while prices have risen and that excess has gone to profits. If workers demand more pay and they force the issue, the economy eventually will reach equilibrium.&lt;p&gt;The issue currently is that those workers can&amp;#x27;t really do that because the US government has shown time and again that they don&amp;#x27;t really care that much if a company violates organised labor laws or labor laws in general (you get a fine and a slap on the wrist) but they will bring down god&amp;#x27;s wrath if workers&amp;#x2F;a union has an &amp;quot;illegal strike&amp;quot; after the employer ignores their demands.&lt;p&gt;There is a reason why ever since Reagan took a hardline anti-union stance and disbanded the PATCO union for having the audacity to strike in the 1980s that the number of major strikes per year has steadily declined.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bls.gov&amp;#x2F;web&amp;#x2F;wkstp&amp;#x2F;annual-listing.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bls.gov&amp;#x2F;web&amp;#x2F;wkstp&amp;#x2F;annual-listing.htm&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>doctorwho42</author><text>You guys keep focusing on the wrong thing, salaries are a first order solution. What needs to happen is that the average salary can provide a citizen with a comfortable and simple life (housing&amp;#x2F;shelter, food, clothing, etc.).&lt;p&gt;Jacking up salaries without bringing the standard of living for the rest of your society will only lead to a continued breakdown of the social fabric that we have been seeing steadily happening over the past 30-40 years.</text></item><item><author>voidfunc</author><text>Or semiconductor salaries need to rise...</text></item><item><author>georgeburdell</author><text>Software salaries have to fall a lot more to keep semiconductor experts from doing lateral moves.  I have an EE PhD, concentration semiconductors, and worked in the industry for a while, and a decade out my entire group of semiconductor PhD friends has now moved onto data science, ML, firmware, etc.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>qwytw</author><text>&amp;gt; Salaries have largely stayed the same&lt;p&gt;Salaries for the top 10% or so have increased significantly over the years. Of course it still pales in comparison to how much the incomes of the top 1% increased over the same period (meaning there is enough money&amp;#x2F;productivity to pay everyone more)</text></comment>