Are workers a resource or a burden...?

zagubov

I think the Iron Curtain was mostly about the fact that the Soviet sector of Germany invested a lot of education and healthcare in their young (as did the west) but when these people reached adulthood they underwent a brain drain from the east to the west, to basically another part of their own country where they were already recognised as citizens and would be welcomed and encouraged to work and stay.

I think about 4 million Germans switched zones, always East to West (except the Merkels). Well-educated and talented people could make a lot more money in the west and were a disproportionately large amount of the migrants.

Later the East Germans only made it easy for retired people to travel to the west where the rest of Germany would take on their care and support if they stayed.

The rest of western Europe didn't make any such deals available to the rest of eastern Europe.

Having said that you did get footballers defecting from Romania to Yugoslavia where they could make more money and have more access to consumer goods.

phillw

chris_m wrote: »

I think they must be a resource, because I don't recall our Personnel department being renamed to the Human Burdens department

Everything Human Resources does is for the benefit of the employer, there is no reason to believe that the name was chosen for any other reason than to lull you into a false sense of security.

Employees are a resource, but not one that is universally valued.

martinthebandit

They are a resource and, like every other resource, the less of it there is the more valuable it is.


Basic economics init

phillw

martinthebandit wrote: »

They are a resource and, like every other resource, the less of it there is the more valuable it is.

That is true, but employees aren't one homogeneous group.

Some companies do treat all their employees with contempt and live with the consequences, relying on Stockholm syndrome to avoid mass migrations.

Herzlos

When the economy is great and unemployment is low, workers are a resource.
When the economy is poor and unemployment is high, workers are a burden.


That's why freedom of movement is great, workers can move to places with low unemployment and boost the economy, and then move away again when things turn bad.

phillw

Herzlos wrote: »

That's why freedom of movement is great, workers can move to places with low unemployment and boost the economy, and then move away again when things turn bad.

The downside is that half the country hates the idea that foreign workers have a positive contribution & are willing to spin an entirely different story to cope with it.

martinthebandit

Herzlos wrote: »

When the economy is great and unemployment is low, workers are a resource.
When the economy is poor and unemployment is high, workers are a burden.


That's why freedom of movement is great, workers can move to places with low unemployment and boost the economy, and then move away again when things turn bad.

Ah, you do seem to have a problem understanding the basics, I'll explain it again, workers are always a resource, the value of that resource depends on how much of it is available.

The more that workers are available, high unemployment, high unskilled immigration etc the less value those workers can get for their labour.

Herzlos

They are purely a resource if they can leave the system (why freedom of movement is good), and a burden if they can't and we need to look after them. Any worker without a job needs some kind of upkeep.



You are right I guess, that they are always a resource, as the same would apply to anything else. If you have 100 dairy cattle and can sell 100 cows worth of milk, they are all assets. If you have 150 of them then the other 50 will need to be kept at some cost whilst providing no value.


Same would apply to robots, or solar panels, or taxis or whatever.

phillw

martinthebandit wrote: »

The more that workers are available, high unemployment, high unskilled immigration etc the less value those workers can get for their labour.

High unemployment and high unskilled immigration doesn't reduce the value if there is a lack of people qualified for the position you're advertising.

martinthebandit

phillw wrote: »

High unemployment and high unskilled immigration doesn't reduce the value if there is a lack of people qualified for the position you're advertising.

But it does increase the amount of training your willing to invest in a person.