I've definitely shared this concept or observation or whatever you want to call it before, but recent events have made me think of it again. I should clarify first that what I base this train of thought on isn't entirely something that clicks for me, something I might not get into expressing, but it definitely makes you or at least me wonder why the implications in the train of thought aren't considered, at least outside my occupation (since I'm in an occupation designed to work around the otherwise neglect of the concept), and I thought of running this by.
Back in the old days, it was common for business people to pay their workers more honestly, as in based on what they thought the worker seemed to deserve. Often the workers would seem underwhelmed. Organized criminals would then step in and say "you'll get more out of us" and so that part of society grew. For some reason, the first thing within the mind of the people in charge, trying to assess everything, was "let's invent this thing, we might call it the minimum wage". Alrighty. So this side thinking, what do we think of it? Something happened, right?
So here is where the train of thought works into the picture. Matters of monetization are just one arena up the sleeve of bad actors. A lot of people feel abruptly socially isolated. When this happens, instinct is often to seek out companions. Social life might be dead or people might be avoidant. Someone I know is in such a situation. Along comes what might be called a bad actor. To them, they might see a potential extension of themselves with freedom of minimal effort. And voila, someone new joins the "bad crowd" or "dysfunctional crowd".
Watching this unfold myself, I think to myself. Places have a "minimum reference point" for the topic of exchange/payment/whatever the word is, so then what does the non-thinking come from to apply this thought to the whole isolation thing mentioned? Anyone here have people they know who were absorbed into a bad part of society when everything seemed dead and thought "well, it's not like anyone else was going to give them what they need"?
Right there with you. I understood none of it so here's chatGPT's intrepretation of it:
They reminisce about how, historically, business people paid workers based on perceived merit, leading to feelings of underwhelm among workers. This dissatisfaction opened the door for organized criminals who promised better compensation, thus fostering a shadow economy. This historical anecdote sets up a discussion about the introduction of the minimum wage as a regulatory response to such economic exploitation.
The author then draws a parallel between this economic dynamic and social dynamics. Just as bad actors exploited workers' dissatisfaction, they argue that social isolation makes individuals vulnerable to negative influences. When people feel isolated and lack social support, they might be more likely to fall into bad company, similar to how workers turned to criminals for better pay.
The crux of the argument is that just as there is a "minimum wage" to ensure fair economic treatment, there might be a need for a "minimum reference point" in social contexts to prevent isolation and the subsequent vulnerability to bad actors. The author is pondering why society doesn't apply the same proactive thinking to prevent social isolation as it does to prevent economic exploitation.
The concluding thoughts suggest that the author has observed people being drawn into negative social circles due to a lack of alternatives, similar to how workers once turned to criminals. They are calling for a societal reflection on how to provide better social support and prevent people from being lured into detrimental situations due to loneliness or isolation.
Assuming this is correct I kind of understand what OP is saying but I still don't get what they're actually suggesting. Some form of mandatory socialization for isolated people perhaps?
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After going back and forth for a bit in the threads below, I'm going to say the plan isn't workable.
As far as I can tell the core thesis here is Businesses should be responsible for the social well being of a employee outside of the business
Without a concrete definition of what well being actually means, we can't have a productive discussion here, but its moot. Whatever definition you provide, a business will simply pre-select employees to already satisfy the well-being standard to be eligible for employment.
Looking for a happy employee from a two parent home with a great social life and no drug problem, living in a low crime neighborhood to work 8 hours a day at my coffee shop
Typically businesses become responsible for employee benefits in broken systems where they want to externalize the cost of the benefit without raising taxes (like the USA), but in well function social democratic societies the government actually provides benefits directly via taxes (Scandinavia)
Right now wages are taxed, and companies paying wages are also taxed, that tax money goes to the government. The government is an organization of the people. Shouldn't the taxes count as investing back into the social structure?
I don't think this is something that can changed with laws. It has to be a cultural thing or else there wouldn't be that same weight / understanding behind why they need to do it and actually trying to socialize.
Also socialization isn't as easily quantifiable as money is and once you start doing that then it loses something in the process.
Because trying to make laws around socialization, at least for businesses, will lead to them just optimizing how to be just within the bounds of the law which pushes the problem down further and they have to create a new law for it. This is worse for socialization because it's ambiguous meaning it can be "satisfied" without really being satisfied.
It's like a parent telling a child a rule for the house without the child understanding why. The child will follow the rules because there is expected punishment but it is fragile. If the child understands why and agrees then the child will follow the rules and it will be robust.
So yeah you can do both but I think only one of them actually solves the issue, the other just delays it.