[stein1946]

> You can just as well argue that labor is getting more expensive in the West because of two non-market pressures. First, we have a multitude of government programs that seek to eliminate extreme poverty, so there are fewer people who are desperate to take any job for any money. Second, you have consumer protection policies that make it genuinely expensive to, say, be a HVAC repairman. Educational requirements, permits, licensing, business insurance, waste disposal, etc.

How's what you wrote substantiated at all?

To me it seems you are suggesting we let people starve so that labour you characterize as "minimally-skilled backyard" is cheap.

You also seem to be suggesting that consumer protection policies need to go as well. I assume we are going to trust the end consumer to do due diligence cause "they know whats better for them?"

If they get a quote of 10k and they cannot get a better one, they might as well start writing that check.

[toomuchtodo]

I don’t think that’s what they were saying, but instead, labor is expensive now because labor is scarce, which is true. And that regulation is expensive, which it is, but also necessary.

Perhaps the question is why wages are not high enough to support these prices (globalization, productivity wage gap over the last fifty years, etc). This will change over time due to structural demographics [1] making labor much more scarce (pushing up wages), we’re still in the early days. Software is not going to eat the trades and HVAC repair.

[1] https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~jesusfv/Slides_London.pdf

[margalabargala]

I didn't see anything in their comment where they added "and therefore we ought return to rampant extreme poverty", did I miss it? They don't appear to be suggesting anything you say they are, just describing the effects of what exist.

It can be true that consumer protection laws raise the price floor for certain goods and services without "and therefore consumer protection laws are bad".

[locknitpicker]

> I didn't see anything in their comment where they added "and therefore we ought return to rampant extreme poverty", did I miss it?

The US is already experiencing rampant extreme poverty. There are people in the US holding multiple jobs and still can't afford to eat, let alone healthcare.

Again, this argument that things are expensive because the poor can't work and regulation somehow is suffocating businesses is purely ideological and not supported by facts.