this post was submitted on 20 Feb 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.
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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And it’s not the owning class, it’s the Parasite Class.
A lot of people own capital without becoming parasitical, and therefore, obscenely wealthy. But becoming obscenely wealthy requires parasitism.
It's basically three classes:
Working Class: the vast majority of humanity. Everyone whose basic necessities for survival and physical as well as mental health is controlled by others. Despite the name, this class DOES include those who are unable to work.
Lesser Owning Class: Anyone who controls said necessities but at least employs or otherwise benefits people of the working class. These aren't necessarily bastards but there should be as few of them as possible.
Parasite Class: The ones whose main or sole source of income is gaining wealth by having wealth already. Examples include landlords, billionaires borrowing against their stock portfolio and others whose enrichment removes money from the general economy while adding only to their own dragon hoard and/or mostly closed systems like stock markets. That these exist at all is one of the greatest atrocities allowed by mankind.
Also known as the proletariat, petite bourgeoisie, and bourgeoisie, respectively
True, but over a century of anti-communist and anti-socialist propaganda has kinda soured most of the west on anything with even a whiff of either, so I figured I would spell it out without the "scary commie words" 😉
Petite bourgeoisie is what the proletariat are expected to aspire towards. And the way you break into that class is by showing obsequiousness towards the bourgeoisie while enjoying the privilege of unchecked abuse towards the proles.
The crabs in a bucket get a prize if they can climb to the top for long enough.
Owwww my bones! These commie snowflakes are hurting me with their scary words 😰
I think it's nicer if there are more in the lesser owning class, so that anyone can reach there if they work hard, which is not the case today.
It'd be even nicer if there were no owners at all. No exploitation that way.
I mean, if you view them as owners, yes, and that's also the reality. But I want to argue there need to be good leaders.
What does good leadership have to do with the owning class?
Are you suggesting that by virtue of owning things they are good leaders?
No.
There are overlaps, but I'm tired of explaining nuances in this thread. I didn't even write the owning class is good leaders. I instead mean that I wish what OP labeled as the owning class gets replaced with good leaders.
I don't even think you need leaders at all, either. Decisions can be made by a collective, without necessitating a representative.
But, either way, how do you incentive "good" Capitalists? To become a Capitalist is to become an exploiter.
I'm out. Good luck with your view.
Edit: out because I don't see a sign you're ready to accept reality.
The rewards tend not to be for hard work, but for clever exploitation and excess cruelty.
If you can successfully commit/facilitate a bunch of crimes (particularly, but not exclusively, white collar crimes) then you can break into the petite bourgeoisie. Florida's Rick Scott, a guy who made a fortune scamming Medicare is a great example. The WWE's Vince McMahon, a guy who encouraged his rooster of steroid abusing thugs by offering them the opportunity to rape his female staff members, is another.
If you can stomach the grisly work of denying dying children their insurance claims or evicting elderly residents illegally foreclosed on during the 2008 housing crash or overseeing the butchery in Iraq/Afghanistan during the Bush Era or the torture prison in Guantanamo Bay (another Florida favorite, Ron DeSantis, broke out as a conservative darling after his tenure writing legal briefs that justified waterboarding and sexual abuse of terrorism suspects), then you can get a leg up.
Plenty of these professions are functionally quite easy and the quality of the work is incidental to the reliability with which you adhere to the company/party line. The real pay out is in cultivating friends higher up the ladder and proving yourself a loyal little footsoldier, not in proving you can march the farthest or carry the heaviest loads.
If anything, jobs that consist of shitty drudge-work tend to be the worst paying and are the least reliable for promotion. The pimp makes far more than the prostitute and has to do none of the dirty work.
The parasite class includes the welfare class and the corporate welfare class. Not all of the poor people are working class and not all of the parasites are ultra rich.
That's what people who work for the parasite class keep saying to get us to fight each other in stead of them. Don't fall for their tricks.
The real wealth is the comrades we made along the way
The correct term is ruling class.