It’s a requirement for people to suffer for others to get ahead. It’s the entire basis of our economy and given the unsustainable population, it’s only going to get worse. Like much much worse. The redistribution of wealth would probably take a war tbh. There’s a ton of people who just don’t care, or have been indoctrinated to believe they deserve to suffer. No one wants to fight a war. We maintain status quo until the earth kicks us off. And we’re left with sustainable population.
Spot on. The “elites” and their puppets will not face consequences because they designed the system to benefit themselves. He will continue to be a corrupt parasite and make rulings that will take rights away from people not of the moneyed class.
its more like, if people would stop settling for wages below what you need to survive, then businesses wouldn’t be able to function without paying a living wage. but there is always someone willing to do the work for less so they get away with it. imagine a world where restaurants and farms were forced to employ fully waged employees, the entire country would cease to function.
This assumes that there’s an infinite supply of well paying jobs that are freely accessible to everyone, but that’s not how reality works. If the options are “work for shit pay” or “don’t work at all and starve” then people will choose the shit job. It’s why market economies aim for a few percents unemployment(and why places like the US really don’t want to forgive student debt) because people need to be desperate for whatever job they can get to keep wages low.
A much better way to solve it is just to legislate that if you work a fulltime job you have to be paid a livable wage.
So in essence you just want to ban employers from being able to offer poverty wages.
Doesn’t that mean even more people would be out of a job as the jobs paying poverty wages disappear? They won’t pay more, they’re way more likely to close up shop.
By what scale? Medieval peasants only had to pay 10% in taxes and got sooooo much free time. Technology even today is still bad for us, but nature and free time? Come on, what’s the point of having all these gadgets and what not if we don’t have the time to use them, and they’re all run by faceless corporations who make things as addictive and monetized as possible?
Productivity. That’s what you want to compare to wages, and it has definitely increased faster than wages, so why aren’t the workers being paid proportionately to their increased productivity?
Care to have a conversation and not just repeat random excerpts you read from a textbook?
So tell me, how exactly are we expected to consume all those goods in that basket that are used to measure inflation, when we are not paid in proportion to our increased productivity? Do those goods just pay for themselves with wages we do not receive?
Experience? If you say so, again just sounds like you’re quoting a textbook.
If you’re referring to experience all the way back to your quality of life comment, how old are you? Quality of life has definitely dropped since baby boomers were in their 20s and 30s and 40s
Sure we have netflix, we’re all interconnected and have instant access to information on the internet, but we can’t raise a family on a single income, we can’t pay off college or university with a single year of a summer job
In what way has quality of life dropped? We wouldn’t be having this conversation 10 years ago. I enjoy being able to experience an open source platform such as Lemmy, from my smartphone while getting drunk and lounging about at home. I couldn’t have done that without advancements in technology. I feel like that improves my quality of life at no cost. An example of how my life is improved, regardless of wages.
I’m paying devils advocate. I’m all for wages increasing for the average person. I just want people the feel happy for all the amazing things we have in our modern world.
A big problem because it means a federal worker in NYC gets as much as a federal worker in Mississippi. That it hasn't changed for 20 years suggests both are underpaid, but the NYC worker has definitely got to get another job.
The minimum wage rate in New York is $14.20 per hour as of December 31, 2022. The minimum wage rates differ based on industry and region. The minimum wage will increase each year until it reaches $15.00 per hour
Does it not? It still does in my experience. Our company has these weird company wide meetings where they tell us how they’re doing great, everything’s great, but because growth isn’t “double digit” due to inflation so there is a pay freeze. (I’d love even a less than double digit pay rise - even though that’s still a pay cut with inflation).
Pretty much exactly what you are saying. Employees are grumbling, but don’t want to get laid off and are uncertain about the job market.
That’s a good question. If you don’t mind, I’m going to use the “Speak as moderator” button here (although i don’t really know what that does).
I see a few things necessary to reform the current economic system - let’s call it Awareness, Advocacy and Action:
Awareness means getting people to realise that the corporate propaganda they’re hearing isn’t the whole truth.
Advocacy means going out and telling people to join the cause, form a local union, etc.
Action means taking organized action - writing to politicians, organising dialogues and strikes, etc.
I’m completely open to using this community for any and all of the above. When we have a good critical mass of users, we can all vote on this, and I’ll abide by the consensus.
In the meantime, however, we need to get more people to rally behind the cause. We have ~500 subscribers here from all over the world in a variety of jobs. That’s not nearly enough to do any sort of Action. All we can do in the meantime is Awareness and Advocacy. That means posting memes and screenshots, that means posting news that counters corporate propaganda, that means posting news about organised action taking place elsewhere that we can celebrate or contribute to.
If anyone disagrees, please share your opinions here, I’m totally open to suggestions, criticisms, insults even.
I think “speak as mod” adds a red “mod” logo (kinda looks like a shield) next to your username. That’s it, as far as I can tell - it doesn’t pin the post or highlight it or do anything else.
Juneteenth is a federal holiday, but private employers don’t have to observe it. Mine sure doesn’t. I have never heard of any employer observing Mother’s or Father’s day with a paid holiday.
Work Reform
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