La Cucaracha by Lalo Alcaraz for October 23, 2014

Sounds like a good job to me…but, now what happens to all those guards who don’t get hired as employees? I can’t imagine Google is going to hire all of the sub-contracted guards…too much money, no?

“‘Red Beans and Rice’” (?)

Though Lalo didn’t directly criticize those subcontractors by name, he did have a strip several days back criticizing the general low pay afforded security guards and cleaning staff in Silicon Valley. And as the ultimate client of their services, Google (like other companies that subcontract) has a responsibility to these folks. Similar to how companies such as Apple, Gap, Nike, Samsung, and all those other companies that subcontract major portions of their manufacturing have a responsibility for the working conditions of those workers. Looks like Google decided to step up and do the right thing.

As far as goods and services potentially becoming more expensive because of higher-paid employees, there are a few solutions. For instance, Google and Apple and other Silicon Valley giants operate with very high profit margins. They could, then, absorb the relatively negligible extra human resources expenditures by slightly reducing profits.

There is also the fact that wherever minimum wages have been raised, it has either had a neutral or positive effect on the overall economy where it happens. Basically, people at the bottom of the wage scale got increased spending power, without the rest of the economy taking a hit. This is because low-paid employees are much more likely to turn around and spend the money they earn, thereby circulating it and creating more jobs in the process. While a company giving its lowest-paid employees raises isn’t exactly the same situation as a new overall wage floor for everyone in a city or a state, some of the same dynamics may apply.

As an aside, it’s interesting that when general media discourse talks about low-paid folks getting wage increases, it is much more likely to be accompanied by worries about price rises, whereas when management gets exponentially larger raises and perks and bonuses, that doesn’t come into play. Which I suppose leads to another possible solution: limit the amount the highest-paid company employee gets paid to a reasonable multiple of what the lowest-paid employee gets. Especially since the average US CEO gets paid 331 times as much as the average worker and 774 times as much as a minimum wage earner.

By the way, there’s a fun song called “Red Beans and Rice,” by Spearhead. You can find the song here and the lyrics here.

Here ends a much longer post than I had intended. If you have read this far, congratulations. Or condolences. Take your pick.

@ ORMouseworks – Makes sense to hire the guards away from the sub-contractor, they already know the job.

Nobody has appointed Google arbiter of the web and masters of its content.What is needed is search engine neutrality.Search engines should be considered a utility and as such set up and run in the public interest devoid of exploitation, favoritisms and biases.Most desirable would be search engine results based on meaningful content not on popularity. This is not after all a beauty contest.Instead of having robots crawl randomly through the web with their hits and misses, web sites should be regularly submitted by their owners to a Search Engine Authority to be evaluated and ranked for meaningful content and category.It is paramount that with a few clicks the right information is retrieved devoid of useless crap like ads and suggestions.This Search Engine Authority need not be a US government agency. A consortium of Universities worldwide could manage it with funds coming from domain name registrations, donations.

I worked in and around a security environment for 25 years. The real drawback to hiring low paid workers is they usually aren’t the most attentive to detail, poorly motivated and poorly trained. That makes for cruddy security.

I submit that any member of any group (including Latinos) would act in the same way when faced with the prospect of lots of money and power.

Absolutely. (Though there are always individual exceptions—not everyone succumbs.) Which is why it’s important to put into place structures and systems that prevent that. Such as the laws in Northern European countries (which are doing economically quite well, thankyouverymuch) that, for instance, limit CEO pay to a multiple of a company’s lowest-paid employee. @Night-Gaunt’s figure of 24x sounds like a reasonable place to start. In 1965 the ratio was about 20:1, in 1990 it was up to 58:1, and it has exploded further since then.

But since this strip wasn’t about a particular ethnic group, but rather about a set of workers in relation to a particular corporation, I’m curious why you feel the need to import ethnicity into it? (Hint: The fact that it’s a strip with brown folks in it is not sufficient reason.)

Since a higher minimum wage doesn’t exist in a vacuum, it stands to reason that states with liberal policies in general will have stonger recoveries.God forbid anyone should actually try that, however.

OK, indie, what’s with the “BeansBeansThe MusicalFruit”?!

“Native Americans’ reservations pull in plenty of dough from casinos. The top Indian management live a posh lifestyle, yet on the same reservations live many in downright poverty.”.I’ll call you on this one, the local casino reservation pays every man, woman, and child in the tribe $1000 every month. That’s almost $50K a year tax free for a family of four IN ADDITION to what they could make working there, and they don’t have to follow fair hiring practices..When I worked in the mall you always knew what day that was becuase they’d hop in the car and drive for an hour to spend it all.