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Capitalism is starting to feel like a massive piss-take. You've got corps laughing all the way to the bank with billions in profits feeding their employees with fucking potatoes.
Surely something has to give?
Tbh I am kind of surprised no one has literally eaten some of the rich by now for nourishment.
I expect nothing will happen right through the crops failing, famines, mass migrations, wet bulb heat waves, ecological collapse... Nothing good anyway... Most likely fascist police state; probably sooner than later.
It'll happen gradually enough that people won't connect the dots.
The divide will keep growing until people start to get hungry.
We've already proven time and time again that the worst they're going to get out of us for anything they do is harsh words and disapproval. And since they know the worst we can do is complain they're going to keep doing it.
There won't be any legislation or policy charges to help us.
When we can't eat and can't feed our children we'll finally have to motivation to make the changes ourselves.
Yup, they know the population is placated by social media, but their mistake is thinking that makes them immune from the guillotine.
It has multiple times, housing bubble, dot com bubble, soon the used car bubble, then it'll be another housing bubble with apartments etc... Capitalism has such a stranglehold on the world that it's going to take a very long time for it to change enough to be called something else that actually works
Here is a little something from the IRS pub 525 about bonuses.
Bonuses and awards. Bonuses or awards you receive for outstanding work are included in your income and should be shown on your Form W-2. These include prizes such as vacation trips for meeting sales goals. If the prize or award you receive is goods or services, you must include the FMV of the goods or services in your income. However, if your employer merely promises to pay you a bonus or award at some future time, it isn’t taxable until you receive it or it’s made available to you.
So do they really believe the fair market value of a potato is $12? The IRS doesn't go by retail price.
The FMV for a pound of russet potatoes is $2.50 soo yeah no they are doing too much and should be reported.
Meals and lodging
You don't include in your income the value of meals and lodging provided to you and your family by your employer at no charge if the following conditions are met.
The meals are: Furnished on the business premises of your employer, and Furnished for the convenience of your employer.
It's one potato, Michael, what could it cost? Ten dollars?
(there's always money in the potato bar)
The cost of food is not the only factor that determines it's value. It's a service being provided, not an object.
It's still a bullshit bonus and everyone who thought it was a good idea should kill themselves, but they didn't just get a raw potato.
I see your point, but labor cost for a single baked potato that was probably cooked at the same time as the rest of them would still be minimal.
It's a "potato bar" not just a potatoes to presumably that price is intended to include all the bacon, cheese, etc.
Really though it's probably just whatever the hotel cafeteria charges for potato because that's a lot easier than coming up with a new price and then justifying it in case of an audit.
At one point does it become acceptable to return "gifts" like these at high velocities?
I like your thinking.
With a potato cannon?
I would definately be asking for the underlying numbers for that 15 dollar. If you're charging me for it you better open the books on the cost you claim.
I love it.
"Please provide a itemized expense report. Thank you."
I remember the week after I saved a client forty five large in taxes, my boss gave me a ten dollar gift card to Walmart. I don't have many kind things to say about that boss.
I saved a multi-million $ project from going down the toilet and jeopardizing a whole bunch of client contracts. I was rewarded with a demotion when the company was acquired months later.
I think American will now start tipping hospital staffs.
You didn't tip hospital staff? You monster.
Perhaps a sign that the hospital admin needs a potato canon to the face, in their next group Minecraft session.
The most surprising thing about this is this wasnt in the US. It seems like such an american capitalist douchebag thing to do.
Where did it happen? The money is in dollars so I assumed it was the USA, but in the USA employees generally don't have to pay taxes on the value of the meals employers provide.
It was in the US, not sure why they claim it wasn't.
I think it was in Texas from what I heard from the rumor mill. The article is in the guardian which is UK based so they put the exchange rate in for the $15 in £ so the UK folks had a frame of reference
this "story" is spam, actually.
the dearth of people in this thread who can identify it as such is sad evidence of a lack of media literacy.
edit: i can't reply to @[email protected] because i deleted this post from lemmy.ml, but, i see they replied:
It’s the Independent, not spam. Indy100 is part of the Independent.
so, ok, I looked, and yeah, I see this "indy100" site is indeed part of a business called "The Independent" which carries the name of a former newspaper.
But this story, like most of the content on indy100, appears to have no basis in reality. It is not "news", it is dishonest garbage pretending to be factual for the purpose of selling the audience's attention to advertisers. aka spam.
No it's a potato, not spam. Spam looks very different.
Very much a theme this year. My company normally gives equity (that cashes out over 3 years ofc) every end of year for the past 4-5 years. This year however, no equity allotments announced, instead we get a floor pizza party with ice cream. People are less than enthused.
And I thought my $160 Christmas bonus was disappointing.....
Better than my Christmas severance.
The best part is that you don't dare question what you do get, or you receive the "well, at least it's something". Yeah, I guess so, but if the intent is to make the employee feel valued it's not working very well. I do have to say that a baked potato is still better than some things I've seen posted before.
Imo a bad reward like this is worse than nothing at all. Like they think I'm a moron or peasant who is dumb enough to appreciate it, insulting my intelligence
If it's being taxed at a value of $15 then they're forced to overpay for a potato which actually is worse than nothing.
Did that article have blank templates to fill in tweets? It seemed like there was a quota of tweets the author had to fill in the spaces for and missed one.
Who the fuck runs that hospital? Ebineezer Scrooge pre-ghost-visitation?
My previous employer's Christmas 'bonuses' included a single plastic kids bike pedal, a spray-painted (nice shade of orange) spanner, and fake money. I'd take the potato any day.
There is a Russia joke in there somewhere.