this post was submitted on 07 Nov 2023
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Work Reform
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A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.
Our Philosophies:
- All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
- Income inequality is the main cause of lower living standards.
- Workers must join together and fight back for what is rightfully theirs.
- We must not be divided and conquered. Workers gain the most when they focus on unifying issues.
Our Goals
- Higher wages for underpaid workers.
- Better worker representation, including but not limited to unions.
- Better and fewer working hours.
- Stimulating a massive wave of worker organizing in the United States and beyond.
- Organizing and supporting political causes and campaigns that put workers first.
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A lot of billionaires do wake up at 5AM.
I'm confident that a lot of them -- probably most of them -- do indeed work very hard, in every sense. Whether effective at their tasks or just fucking lucky (hint: it's the latter) the ones we know about do put in the hours. Hording wealth is their profession, hobby, and entire life all wrapped up in one.
But if the average lifetime earnings of the typical American is around $1 mil you would need to work 1,000 times harder than them, saving and investing every bit you earn and not spending it on anything including necessities, to just barely qualify as a billionaire in America by the time you retire. The average American works somewhere around 35 hours a week, so was the minimum billionaire working 3,500 hours a week? I suspect not.
There's no point or value in calling a billionaire lazy. It may or may not be true, but it ignores the point. It does not matter how hard anyone works. You don't get to a billion ethically.
I fucking hate these posts so much, they are obnoxious and misguided. Whether or not a CEO wakes up at 5am every day, or works as hard is completely irrelevant to solving the wealth inequality issues we face. We are allowing an absolute minuscule fraction of the population to gather wealth and allowing them to use their wealth to assert control over politics and the economy. Focus on that, not fantasies about how much smarter and harder working you are than CEOs.
While not often billionaires, if there's one thing I've learned from watching Undercover Boss is that most bosses wouldn't be able to handle the workload that they expect their min wage employees to on a daily basis.
And that's on top of the struggle that nearly every one of those min wage employees are going through in their life, which is infinitely more difficult than the problems of a rich person.
I don't think that all billionaires are lazy, but I also don't think they could do the work of their lowest paid employees.
Absent the coercion brought on by the threat of starvation, illness, and homelessness, most people wouldn't be able to handle a lot of minimum wage jobs. They wear down your body and soul. But having a gun pointed at you and your family is a hell of a motivator.
Who cares, though? Laziness is not the problem with billionaires. I wish for everyone to live in a world where they can get away with being "lazy". Where they can pursue their passions and refuse to do the tasks that make life a drudge. Not wanting to do thankless and brutal tasks for low pay is normal and healthy and refusing that bargain is what we ALL ought to be able to do.
The wealth hoarding is the problem. Even if every single billionaire was provably the hardest worker in their company, even if we KNEW that being a top 1%er in wealth absolutely mapped to you being a top 1%er in grit, it doesn't change how I feel about the injustice of the vast inequality.
I pretty much agree with all points.
The key part of the picture for me was they can "wake up whenever they want," which is true. But yeah a lot of "business guys" are natural workaholics. It's like most of their socialising and esteem and actualisation, all wrapped into one.
Of course they still shouldn't exist. They could do just as well as millionaire workaholics.
Why would anyone wake up at half 5 if they didn't have to? You only wake at half 5 if you have to. You may find the odd person who likes being up that early but 99% of people would want to get up at a proper time.
The difference is that workers have to get up at 5am to keep their housing, food, healthcare, etc. Billionaires get up whenever they want, and some might want to get up at 5am.
I have a dog and 5 cats, and they don't fuck with the time change
Well, some of them are psychopaths, and definitely outside of the middle 99% of societal norms. There are also those who think getting 4 hours of sleep per night doesn't affect their judgement, but who are they to say? I think we had one off those in the White House, but such claims are as suspect as any of the others (like being wealthy.)
5am is not that early.
It is if your second job, which you need because your soul-crushing full-time job doesn't pay the bills, ends at midnight.
The reality of the struggle which too many people face every day can't possibly be relatable to any billionaire on this planet.
The 24 hour clock is relative. And 5am is early, relative to when you go to sleep. Also, the sun's not out. For most people, that's too early.