Re: Poor relations
The problem is global economics. The Internet truly does make the world “smaller”.
As a mechanical turk worker you are competing for jobs with other workers all over the world. That means if you are in a country with a high standard of living then the job probably isn’t one that you should consider, because workers in other countries can and will undercut you. As much as I dislike Wikipedia (the encyclopedia that anyone with an axe to grind can edit) they do have a good page on the list of minimum wages by country and comparison numbers indexed by purchasing power and percentage of per capita GDP.
Per that page the United States at $7.25 works out to 27% of per capita GDP. However, in Vietnam the wages and cost of living are so low that one week’s wages at US minimum wage are more than a year’s salary over there. They would be ECSTATIC to get that kind of money. They can live and live well on less than the average US worker spends on coffee. Other “less developed” countries are similar.
Instead of complaining that the workers aren’t making a US$ minimum wage, they should be touting the program as it and similar programs can truly help raise the standard of living in less developed countries, transferring wealth from richer counties to poorer ones while simultaneously generating value and worth.
Of course, that doesn’t fit their narrative – they would rather focus on the other side effect that unskilled people who can’t find work in a high cost of living country are worse off because there are now even less opportunities for them. Setting a global minimum wage could solve that – of course it would also simultaneously destroy half of the economies worldwide through inflation.
There is better solution – but articulating it here would only get me down voted.