this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2024
454 points (100.0% liked)

World News

39067 readers
2316 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News [email protected]

Politics [email protected]

World Politics [email protected]


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Summary

A 24-hour general strike in Greece on Wednesday shut down transport, schools, and government offices as workers protested high living costs.

Unions are demanding a 10% pay raise and the return of holiday bonuses cut during Greece’s financial crisis.

They accuse Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of not doing enough to tackle inflation, despite recent minimum wage increases.

Hospitals operated on emergency staff, while protests and marches were planned.

Many say wages have not kept up with the rising costs of energy, food, and rent.

all 37 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 55 points 15 hours ago (3 children)

The one tool Americans refuse to use.

Apparently we haven't been fucked enough yet. I'm honestly curious how low we will go. I suspect there is no bottom and Americans are just flesh bags trained to seek out meat grinders.

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

The first problem is the polarisation. If people that are perceived to be Democrats call out a general strike, 50 percent won’t participate. Vice versa if perceived GOP does this. The polarisation and politicisation of every topic is what stops you from organising effectively.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

Refuse? This was called by unions. In the US, that kind of union activity is illegal. What system do you think we can use in the US to call for a general strike that enough people would 1) be aware of the strike 2) agree with the need for a strike and 3) be able to participate without harming their livelihoods? Cause in Greece, the answer for all three was unions. Here in the states... I don't know if anything is setup for that. Even reaching enough people to begin with would be tough.

Like, be rightly angry at the laws in the US that make this nigh impossible, maybe raise awareness, but don't blame the damn victims.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)

Do you think the strikes that got us workers rights in the first place were legal at their time?

They were attacked by the oligarchy, sometimes with dozens of people killed.

You dont get anything done against an oligarchy if you play by their rules.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

People forget that strikes are a civil option to the alternative.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

We don't refuse I think it's just too hard to coordinate.

I'll take any day off work. I'm looking for excuses!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 hours ago

It’s not like people need to even get into the streets. Everyone just coordinate to call in sick one day. Just one day to show yourselves the power you have, then go from there.

[–] [email protected] 132 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

That's so much smarter than voting for far right shitstains to 'protest'. Would love to see this all over Europe instead of the rise of fascism.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Unfortunately a one-day strike is not a problem for the system which is why they usually don't lead to anything. Do an indefinite one and then see.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

A one-day is a warning that the people are organized. It's a shot across the bow.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

I've seen way too many one-days in Greece to get excited...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 16 hours ago

Can confirm, they are not even taken seriously. Few are those that do strike.

Public transport pretty much operates as expected for the most part. Liners just push their schedule at 2300, literally just pushing the schedule 2-3 hours ahead. The maritime industry's union is run by general managers and hypocrites... If you do strike, you are pretty much flagged as you stand out so much. :)

This country is literally a joke.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (2 children)

Cost of housing seem to be the primary issue plaguing the world. Even in china the real estate market is fucked.. but they have too much in locations people are not.

It's almost as if a lot of societal rules (that are mostly needed) create an unfree Market causing shortages.. and governments refusing to acknowledge that they should be organising it and not leaving it to "the market" are the cause of the issue.

Organizing means organizing, not building all houses themselves.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

Europe is facing population decline. Houses should get cheaper, not more expensive, and the fact that prices keep rising means that they are artificially inflated.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

the second anyone was allowed to use houses as an "investment" to gain wealth we basically guaranteed this. obviously anyone with a lot of money tied up in housees is going to try and make their value go up. once we got multinational billion dollar conglomerates involved it became child's play for them to make that number go up through infinite methods of varrying complexity carried out by thousands of people working together with billions of dollars behind them.

this problem is inherent to a housing market that people are allowed to speculate on. we just need to make that stop entirely. limit house ownership. no one needs 100 houses. especially not companies. if that results in less rental houses than desired, we need to build more apartments. apartments are different beast, but if the cost of houses are lower then it will be harder to inflate rent if they can afford a house instead. this may result in some people who want to rent a house, but not an apartment, unable to find that. that's not a big problem. they might just need to rent an apartment instead. certainly it's much less of a problem then the current state of no one being able to afford housing.

the rich don't need this vector for growing their wealth. they have enough others and are doing quite alright at it. the world will function just fine without mult billion dollar corporations investing in buying properties for the sole reason that they think they can extract wealth without contributing anything. houses should be for living in, not for extracting wealth.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 17 hours ago

Hear hear.

We need tax on every home owned beyond the first, getting progressively higher with each one owned. For individuals and especially for corporations.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

"Facing" sounds like its a bad thing

"Europe is responsibly decreasing their population "

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

It is a bad thing, it's not like they planned it ahead of time and prepared for the consequences of population decline. The entire system is designed around a growing population and if that growth turns negative, so does the government's budget.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Oh no, the economy!

It doesn't matter. You have more of everything you need. That's all that matters.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)

The total wealth is not an issue, but the distribution of it.

My uncle in France had his retirement lowered to 90€/month. You can buy maybe two weeks of groceries for one person with that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 hours ago

Thats a social issue. There's plenty of food. Just need a government to not intentionally starve people.

Less population means even more food for everyone

[–] [email protected] 12 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

Government really should be building housing themselves though and working on the zoning laws to make building easier. Even in a free market the government should be a competitor driving prices down to fair levels.

Measures like rent control don't work because landlords are greedy. People end up staying in locations that don't fit them anymore for the rent control, landlords try to chase those tenants away and don't improve the property, new housing stops being developed and supply/demand get wrecked.

Measures like stimulus and tax rebates for first time buyers tends to increase the cost of real estate as well. It's called a demand subsidy and generally isn't a great way to tackle a supply problem. The individual home buyers will be helped at the expense of tax payer money and real estate cost - and the types of homes being bought aren't necessarily the best use of land either depending.

Restricting companies from bulk purchasing and holding real estate seems like a good idea but again when you remove that new housing, especially multi-tenant housing, stops being built. Supply goes down prices shoot up...unless of course the government is willing to personally finance and build out the supply and keep prices fair.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

It’s governments that are responsible for a lack of housing: local governments through zoning policy. The homeowners in a given city are politically engaged and they vote to protect their own investment in real estate. Call it NIMBYism if you like but homeowners are never going to voluntarily agree to have their house go down in price. Doing so could put their mortgage underwater and result in losing their home and becoming homeless.

Japan does not have this issue to nearly the same extent because they have structured their governments differently. Zoning laws are set by the national government, not the local one, so problems like this can (and have been) set at the national level.

For other countries to solve their housing problem Japan style would require the national government to take power away from the local governments (and in the case of the US, this would put the federal government in a fight with state governments). It would be an extremely messy fight and probably not work out.

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

Japan has a worse housing problem

Everyone is congregating in hubs

[–] [email protected] 1 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

I kinda agree. But I see the government has a role in the zoning and deciding where and what. Like building bridges and roads, define, assign, possible finance and have commercial parties execute in a well regulated environment

[–] [email protected] 9 points 17 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 13 minutes ago)

One reason could be that salaries are so low for the newer generations that even a few days of strike and you will not make the month.

Literally I do not know anyone that pays rent, does not live with their parents and has savings.

Somehow 50% ended up in the capital, which has skyrocketed renting prices. The minimum salary is literally arround 700 euros. You cannot find an actual house that is not a fucking shack under 500, that is not a joke, I am trying to survive in this shithole by myself and I do not see the point.

low salaries lead to people that cannot strike. To be fair, most, do not even consider it as an option due to "nothing will change"... fucking logic

[–] [email protected] 32 points 23 hours ago

Love to see it!