this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2024
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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.

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[–] [email protected] 87 points 1 month ago (6 children)

That's never getting fixed through voting. Only violence will change things. These cunts seem to forget that once we have nothing left to lose, they have EVERYTHING to lose.

[–] [email protected] 125 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Well, here I go clubbing again.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Clever clogs.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 month ago

the most obedient and loyal slaves are the ones who think they're completely free

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 month ago

Well, if the government heavily taxed everything above like 100 million $$$, then the money would flow back into the economy, which it obviously doesn't while being sat on by pathologic hoarders.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

People should push for ballot initiatives in the half of US states where citizens can practice direct democracy.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Legislators have simply been refusing to implement winning initiatives.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I am actually still not sure why it isn't fixed through voting. And I mean shareholder-voting, not public voting.

But after things like Elon Musk's compensation package getting approved (again) it cleared won't work through that mechanism either.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Why would it be fixed through shareholder voting? Most employees aren't represented in those votes. The major shareholders have fundamentally different interests that are opposed to the interests of the employees. If employees were a majority shareholder, then that could work, but that's almost never the case.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

My comment was aimed more towards the excessive CEO pay, not the stagnation in worker's pay.

Probably not the best source (just one of the first Google results), but as an example, if I read something like this:

How much money did Marissa Mayer make while running Yahoo? During her five years at Yahoo, from 2012 to 2017, Marissa's total compensation, including salary, stock, and bonuses, was $405 million. Verizon acquired Yahoo for a little over $4 billion in 2016. Marissa earned roughly $120 million from the acquisition through a mix of bonuses, accelerated stock options and salary. For example, she was paid a onetime bonus of $23,011,325 once the Verizon acquisition was finalized.

Then it seems to me like the shareholders somehow got the short end, despite being the ones with the power to make changes.

[–] ICastFist 5 points 1 month ago

Because shareholders can pay some armed thugs to keep them safe from the dirty plebs, which is cheaper than paying said plebs decent wages

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

no, half of your country votes for trump. You have absolutely no right to complain about voting not working or calling for violence.

Again, half of your country strongly disagrees with you and you suggest violence? No wonder your democracy is so bleak.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago

Your comment is partially correct, but not totally. 63% of republican voters want to increase taxes on the wealthy and large corporations. Reoublican voters are just very stupid and are easily convinced to vote against their own interests because you can easily scare them with some "other" that isn't a threat.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It’s even worse than that. The Republican side is full of all the gun enthusiasts. In a civil war I don’t like the “north’s” chances this time around.

Not to mention all the fighter jets, bombers, tanks, and drones the military has.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 month ago

That's another point lemmy warriors don't consider. US is getting closer to a civil war no matter which side wins the elections. And, I got some news for you lemmy, you will lose that war and fast.

[–] [email protected] 66 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Just a bit off the top, please

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

Best I can do is 98% off the top.

[–] [email protected] 48 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Pay raise means jack all for ordinary people. Our buying power went down a lot more than 24%.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This does seem to be adjusting for inflation; according to one of the sources they cited:

From 1979 to 2020, net productivity rose 61.8%, while the hourly pay of typical workers grew far slower—increasing only 17.5% over four decades (after adjusting for inflation).

That said I think there's some problems with how inflation is calculated, and the implications of the distribution of total ownership of wealth isn't really mitigated by increasing affordability of consumer goods.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

So we should be paid what, 3x more? Or am I too reductive? I’m trying to understand how much we SHOULD be getting then (in 2020 btw), and now more actually, as shit got expensive af thru Covid and is still lingering today.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Dunno, not sure there's a way to conclusively pick an amount that's "fair" since any metrics for that are arbitrary. Just going by productivity vs wages and the premise that what people were paid in 1979 was what they "should" be paid given that ratio, you could say 3x, but there's a lot of assumptions there. To me the bigger story seems to be the ongoing trend of how capital keeps accumulating capital, and the share of the pie owned by regular people continues to decrease regardless of their contributions, and what that might mean for our future.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Existential crisis: Activated

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 month ago (2 children)

And here we have the root cause of every other problem that plagues the US - the entire nation, socially, politically and even psychologically, has been warped towards the sole purpose of pouring as much wealth as possible into the pockets of a relative few.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago

Always has been.

The United States was founded by land owning business owners who didn't want to pay taxes that didn't benefit them directly (partially justified because of what it was for) who owned slaves and committed genocide to expand territory. The most venerated citizens are those that built their wealth by ruining the lives of their workers, abusing the patent system, and gangsters. Today's hustle culture is just the current trend of tricking the poor into working 24 hours a day since we only get to have legal forced slavery in prisons.

US culture has always been about the centralization of weath.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

That's human history. The wealth gets pulled towards a small elite because king, high priest or banker. It reaches a peak and then there is a revolution, the debt records are burned and the land is redistributed. Measures are out in place to prevent wealth concentration and the new elite starts chipping away at the measures. Rinse and repeat.

We know this but always choose to ignore the dynamic.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago

No! It's the browns and the Jews and the gays and them book learned women! No 99%!

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago

Sounds fair to me. I keep reading every year that the super-rich get ever richer, so these CEOs have clearly done their job. Exploit everything and everyone to make their billionaire masters richer.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago

As it should. They bring so much value. /s

We need to rise up and topple this gd system.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Yeah but they do 1,085% more work. /s

I wish I could say they are liable for the company or they have to make stressful decisions. Except, nope and nope. If they ever were, that's the first thing they gutted from the judicial system. Then by being rich and immune to criminal prosecution what sorts of things would stress you out?

It's really a wonder that Martin Shkrelli got toasted so badly. Definitely new money and he definitely pissed off some people he wasn't suppose to. Remember folks, scam all the poors you want but don't kick up any dirt on the kings shoes.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago

Remember this guy?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

For any EU citizen I can recommend to sign the official petition to the European Commission — so that billionaires can finally contribute their fair share to society: https://www.tax-the-rich.eu

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

The photo of Leon dancing to Copacabana is making me feel more than a little punchy.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

WTF happened in the 1970s?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

Neoliberalism

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Are you actually referring to 1971?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

Kill them, obvious answer.