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this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2024
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A Boring Dystopia
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Agreed. Unfortunately, it's just not going to happen in America. This entire country is founded on the principle of extracting as much value from labor as possible without compensating them fairly.
The best place to live I have ever been aware of in history was the US during the post-labor-movement environment of the 1940s through 1970s (for the white people). We just gotta have a second one of those that’s capable to demand that again, and extend it to all races.
Nothing’s inherently wrong with the US governmental system; the economic system just tends to get out of whack (and also distort the government along with everything else) if there isn’t a strong labor movement keeping it the fuck in check.
It's not possible to extend racist privilege to everybody because racist privilege depends on racism.
Uh, there might have been something else going on during that time period besides the labor movement - like a war and the consequent near-destruction of the rest of the industrialized world.
Agreed.
Maybe the best thing about how awful the last two presidents have been for working people is that unions had to become stronger and more aggressive by necessity, and they did.
Kinda had a feeling that’s where you were going with that
Speaking as someone who actually supports unions and working class wages and things that help them, please back up what you’re saying
Like this or this
I realize Biden said a few things and has performatively supported unions.
I give Democrats credit for their actions, not broken promises and pretending that they are powerless. (Particularly so in a time when they have control of two branches of government.)
I'm sorry if that offends your sensibilities, but I live in a country where my 80 year-old parents have to work for DoorDash (using my car) or starve. I'm disinclined to be affected by mere words anymore.
That’s after adjusting for absolutely punishing Covid inflation during 2021 and 2022. If it was the same NLRB and IRA actions against a normal level of inflation instead of having inherited an absolute apocalypse economically, that lowest bracket of real wages would have gone up 25%.
13% of a low wage
Okay, let's say you get paid $11 an hour. That comes out to $1.43 an hour. That gets you an extra $240-ish a month, before taxes.
A great thing to be sure, but definitely not enough to make much of a difference in a country where half can't afford their rent and groceries are likewise becoming unaffordable. And that's saying nothing about cost-prohibitive health care and education or child care and rent.
I can't pretend this is progress. Biden, with the presidency and Congress, should have done more. His record demonstrates that he's legislating more for the billionaire class than the poor. His lack of action makes me think it's unlikely that Harris will deviate from that track as well.
If you got paid $11 an hour in 2019, that means on the average you now make $14.52 an hour -- which means even accounting for inflation you're coming out ahead.
You're like the third person in the last 24 hours who has persistently failed to understand the entire concept of inflation-adjusted wages -- the idea that someone's wages could rise by so much that even with rent and groceries more expensive now, they could still wind up ahead. You understand that that's what happened, right? Or not yet?
What record is that?
What's your assessment of the meaning of Amazon's quarterly tax rate over time, and its connection to Biden's 15% minimum corporate tax?