wage discrepancy in different countries - does bitcoin fix this? \ stacker news ~bitcoin

wage discrepancy in different countries - does bitcoin fix this?

695 sats \ 17 comments \ @stack_harder 20 Sep bitcoin

ok, this is a thought experiment, but if we imagine a full bitcoin standard scenario across the planet where everybody is using the same money system, will we still have the same discrepancy in wages?

say a McDonald's worker in California v one in Manila?

I'm not an expert in this but i do know that the skill level between the two is equal, one lives in a country with a weak currency which explains a lot, but I'm interested in what it doesn't explain.

or, if we had a full bitcoin standard, would they still be getting less, just in btc instead of shitty fiat (maybe because their economies are weaker or something).

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17 sats \ 2 replies \ @Cje95 20 Sep

I mean the cost of living in Cali vs Manila is astronomical so 1 sat in Cali vs 1 sat in Manila is going to result in enormous differences because of the cost of living. I don’t see how BTC could affect the cost of living itself in an area due to the multitude of factors.

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @stack_harder OP 20 Sep

if we presume that a bitcoin standard is deflationary in nature (things getting cheaper in btc is a common theme), then over time , would Cali not become cheaper overall in bitcoin terms, especially as things like real estate stop being used as investments?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Cje95 20 Sep

Ehhh I’m not sure it would work though because of the regulatory Enviroment in Cali for something like electricity. So much has to be clean and procured in X,Y,Z way that I think that would continue to inflate the costs. Not to mention all the government programs.

If the two were starting out at the same time on the same level I think it could work but not in the current landscape.

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @didiplaywell 20 Sep

It's not necessarily about a "weak currency", salaries for a same job are different within a same country solely due to differences in contexts, and bitcoin wouldn't make that reality any different and it doesn't haves to because at that point the difference in wages is, indeed, just compensating different contexts. You can not judge your wage by comparing it to the wage of a person who lives a completely different context than yours, but only by the living standard it allows you to get within your specific context.

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @DarthCoin 20 Sep

Wages depends on your own ability to negotiate the price for your labor. Bitcoin will not fix this, Bitcoin will not fix anything if people will still have a fiat mindset.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @stack_harder OP 20 Sep

not really, if you want to work in macdonalds, you cant just walk in and demand you want 100k dollars, or one bitcoin. this is not a fiat mindset.

if we were on a barter economy and all the macdonalds workers got paid 2 apples per hour, what makes you think you could walk in and demand 3 apples?

if you are self employed , then yes, price depends on your ability to sell your service, but in most other areas of employment, there are industry norms

so again, i ask the question, if on a btc standard, would a Filipino still make less than a US person doing the same job. if yes, i doub the reason is because he didn't negotiate hard enough

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @oliverweiss 20 Sep

the planet where everybody is using the same money system, will we still have the same discrepancy in wages?

Well, you say that a country with one currency doesn’t have discrepancies in wages? You would be surprised.

32 sats \ 4 replies \ @Undisciplined 20 Sep

the skill level between the two is equal

Likely false, but definitely irrelevant. Wages are determined by the amount of value you're able to add for your employer. In a poor country, consumers can not spend as much on a product as they can in a wealthy country, so the producers cannot be paid as much either.

Where this question gets really interesting is in considering the downstream effects of bitcoin adoption. If bitcoin makes it more difficult for rent seeking politicians to extract wealth from the rest of us, then fewer people will go into politics and the political class will shrink. That would even things out to some degree, between those who live in relatively free societies and those who live in relatively oppressed ones.

38 sats \ 1 reply \ @stack_harder OP 20 Sep

but if, in a poor country, they were able to stack more, they would start to become a non-poor country and therefore their purchasing power would go up, no?

i feel like the rent-seeking class would still be able to convert some assets into btc and then find a new way to get an advantage , after all, they could swap assets to acquire more btc

it should stop people using things like real estate as a store of value which would be good for people that actually want to live in houses / apartments

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 20 Sep

The downstream effects are many. I agree that adopting bitcoin will increase prosperity, but it will do so in rich and poor countries alike.

It's only if poor countries are more artificially poor (which I think is largely the case) that bitcoin would even things out.

48 sats \ 1 reply \ @SpaceHodler 20 Sep

Poor countries are less productive. Bitcoin can make them more productive by incentivizing capital accumulation and better capital allocation, but that takes time.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 20 Sep

That's aligned with my point. Poor institutions discourage capital accumulation, because people aren't secure in their possessions. That leads to capital misallocation.

Bitcoin reverses that by making people more secure in their possessions (at least wrt their money).

32 sats \ 0 replies \ @BTCLNAT 20 Sep

In a Bitcoin-only environment, the first thing to understand is that 1000 SATs in one place is the same 1000 SATs in another place. Therefore the value of a product or service will depend on factors such as the time and resources invested in them, the availability of the service or product, the specialization required to obtain the product or to provide the service. The quality of the product or service.

But all the raw material, the machinery will have the same value. The cost sheet is made everywhere in the same way in principle.

Now for me something that will determine some differences is where the coins are concentrated, whoever owns coins will have advantages over those who do not. The first will be able to pay because they have the coins, those who do not have them would have to do a lot of PoW to obtain them since there will be no fiat money to buy. Only products and services

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @023ad18700 20 Sep

Unifying the social classes through classes

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @bitalion 20 Sep

That is an issue that has nothing to do with Bitcoin, but rather is related to the geographic location, the demand for it in the place. What you can be clear about is that what they pay the person in California has the same value and purchasing power as what the person in Manila has, 1 SAT = 1 SAT.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @SwearyDoctor 20 Sep

"weak currency" isn't the explanatory factor here. Imperialism is. Western/northern countries actively keep wages low in so-called "developing" countries, it's part of a multi-level system of robbery (cheap to free resources, including labor, are what keeps the economies of the North/West running). (Famously. when haiti wanted to raise their wages, hillary Clinton intervened to keep them at less than 50 cents an hour, to keep US buisinesses' ability to exploit them super-cheaply).

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @stack_harder OP 20 Sep

this reminds me how even China now imports north Korean defacto slave labour.

if countries adopted a bitcoin standard though and wealth independent of currency etc, would this not give them the leverage to more or less, break free of imperialism?

or would they then become the new imperialists and bash the countries that failed to stack hard enough?