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Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
That sounds nice and all. But: 1) How do you make multinational corporations pay decent wages?
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You strengthen labour laws like minimum wage requirements.
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2) How do you get the public onboard with paying more for stuff? Because if labour costs go up, prices go up.
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You pay them more so they don't notice the increase. See point #1 on how to do that.
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3) What to do about technology? Push the cost of labour high enough and it becomes more attractive to simply replace people with automation. It's already happening - self-serve checkouts everywhere from WalMart to McDonalds. Do you forbid companies from innovating with cost-saving technology? That would require massive interventions in the economy. And if you suppress innovation by Canadian and American companies., how do you stop them from being overtaken by companies in other countries that press ahead with technological advances?
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You impose new taxation on financial transactions to help pay a living wage so that companies aren't penalized for innovation and their employees aren't penalized for their loyalty.
Taxes on financial transactions helps curb runaway speculation which devalues currencies and contributes to boom and bust economies which impact the average worker more than the average beneficiary of the stock market game.
Because such a huge majority of transactions are now done without oversight, this would have a marginal impact on the financial sector itself. These taxes already exist in some of the largest financial markets on the planet. For example, this sort of tax is how the American Securities and Exchange Commission funds itself.