How to keep employees was always a crucial question for every business. There is a way but the future is dark.
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Let's see why all those prices are going up.
First, we have the usual inflation that happens. Then, some speculators bought large amounts of everything even before the war between Russia and Ukraine started and are now using the current crisis, inflating prices even more, to the point where everybody is asking when this will stop.
Unfortunately, more and more companies have been driven by greed.
Sooner or later the employer will demand more working hours because "you have everything you need", "you have a good salary", to "you have to be loyal to the company" and finally "you leave, you never come back".
An employee who leaves has two main options.
The first is to find another job with a bigger salary that will cover all expenses, and preferably to enjoy a better working environment.
The second is to start their job and be their boss and this is something that a lot of them are pursuing. People are changing careers later in life, no matter the years, just to be more fulfilled and do what they want.
More and more people are choosing to leave big cities to enjoy a more relaxed and secure life in a small town. When the town becomes full of newcomers, and thus more expensive, people are searching for new pastures. So, there is a clear trend of leaving big cities and that's why news comes from all sides: "We can't find workers!".
Of course, they can't. Companies are buying houses and don't ask for the price and an average worker can't follow that. So, whole blocks in big cities are already alive only during working hours, and in some cases, people simply refuse to work in the office when they have everything to work from home.
All those city buildings and apartments companies bought hoping for even more profit, now are starting to turn into ghost cities.
And shareholders are not just demanding a company to grow, they demand the growth to be bigger and bigger. That leads to exponential growth and that's just not possible.
So, people are leaving and starting a new, cheaper life.
How much profit is enough? It seems that nothing is good enough for shareholders. It is important to realize that if shareholders destroy one company with that approach they will simply turn to another one, they will never accept a lower return than they expect.
And people are tired of listening about billion dollars worth companies and CEOs while they struggle to survive.
Another very important thing is the slow vanishing of private property. There are no affordable houses, everything is on subscription, companies even try to sell the story that you don't need your car but just a subscription to it.
That's dangerous. Private property is the essence of capitalism. Tangible and intangible assets are the pillars of capitalism and we can forget all other embellishments: without them, a society collapses.
Private property gives the owner an incentive to maximize its value. The more valuable a resource, the more it provides the owner of the resource. In a capitalist system, not even the government can take away private property without paying the fair value. This is important because in socialism, where things belong "to all", a simple thing happens: "What nobody owns, nobody takes care of." Everybody expects somebody else to take care of the stuff and we know how socialism ends.
The problem with a subscription model is that companies are trying to squeeze every cent from their subscribers, making them weaker and weaker, thus drying up their market. On the other hand, more and more people want to go back and own something when they pay for it.
But, greed is driving things these days. Companies are earning billions yet at the same time they keep wages as low as they can. An average worker can't buy a house anymore, cars are extremely expensive, and everything is more expensive than it was yesterday. The media are full of billionaires with hundreds of billions yet their people are struggling.
So, how to keep employees?
First, all wages should be raised to enable people to live a decent life. Research shows that people would need a few million to be perfectly happy, they don't need billions. Yet, billionaires are keeping their dollars like they will take them to the grave.
Second, life and work balance is important. Nobody wants to work 14 hours a day and drive for hours to work just to find out that they can't pay all the bills and secure the future for their kids. And if we will be forced to choose between paying bills or buying a new washing machine when the old one breaks, expect riots.
Third, and most importantly, the subscription culture must be canceled. People must have private property or capitalism will destroy itself. There will not be enough people with good buying power to buy things and then all those billionaires will realize there's an extremely small amount of people able to get their products.
Greed is not good. Greed is extremely dangerous and, unfortunately, big companies seem to don't understand that. And the price of that will be enormous.
So the question is not how to keep employees, really, but how to save economies. Greed will not do that. Return to the basics of capitalism society will. ■