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In this case the threat of violence by the state breaks the prisoner's dilemma of 'if the company guarantees paid holidays, it won't survive against the ones that don't'. The company doesn't have a real choice in either case.
Who are the two players in this Prisoners Dilemma?
A company that guarantees paid holidays and a competing company that doesn’t.
Idk if prisoner’s dilemma is the right model to use here. But the point is you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t.
Scott Alexander’s article ’meditations on Moloch’ in Slatestarcodex illuminates this idea very well. It’s one of the best texts I’ve read. Highly recommended.
I see what you mean. I just wasn't think about their competitors.
My mom worked at a place that started giving Black Friday off (it wasn't called that yet, though) because everyone was so useless that day they may as well have been home.
your mother must not work for Best Buy
No, it was a small business. Now she's retired.
I think it's the opposite
If one company offers paid holidays to employees, then its competitors have no choice but to do the same
I believe that was the point.
In a prisoner’s dilemma situation, the two competitors could cooperate by not offering paid holidays, but if one defects and offers them the other would have to do the same.
🤠 Will they ever be threatened? Or is it already too ingrained in the culture?
Good questions. I don't know. I wouldn't say it's ingrained in the culture, most people to get paid holidays in one way or another and most people support paid holidays.
There may be some legal hurdle that makes it very difficult to mandate such a thing.
All the places I have worked paid holidays.
Rephrase: "The US is the only advanced economy where employers aren't threatened with violence for not guaranteeing paid holidays."