this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2023
2334 points (97.5% liked)
Work Reform
10144 readers
776 users here now
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.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
When you think about it, at that point at least the rich are spending their money again in order to buy another yacht, actually putting money into the economy.
It's like trickle down economics, but we gotta shoot some holes in the water tower to make it trickle down.
This is actually an example in The Wealth of Nations; Adam Smith considers whether a hooligan smashing a window is a benefit to society because it creates work for the glazier.
Smith concluded that no, it isn't a net benefit because the glazier could have made a new window instead.
However, given that megayachts are net negative to society, I'm not sure how he'd view this case.
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/villains/images/4/4a/Zorg.jpg
The argument is sloppy.
The working class makes gains when our work helps us as a class, not when we are forced to serve.
If the wealthy are able to support the creation of wasteful luxuries for their own vanity, then they must be able to support activities that help the working class.
The difference is that the latter may require some encouragement.
My comment was satire. Stop arguing with the wind.
Many comments being posted are intended as satirical, but the actual apologia resembles satire so much that I think the intentional satire is rather creating confusion above all else.
Creating confusion for you maybe. Nobody else took my comment that seriously.
I said "shooting holes in a water tower to make trickle-down economics work" as a reply to someone making an obvious quip. IDK if you've just never been around leftist discussions, but joking about how fucked trickle-down economics is isn't an endorsement of building megayachts that wreck the environment and provide no good to society.
Stop being intentionally obtuse, or just don't blame others for your inability to read between the lines.
EDIT to add: I also explicitly stated it was satire in response to the only other comment that replied to mine taking it seriously. But even their comment just seemed more like a clarification for anyone else reading, not someone actually taking my comment seriously.
The general view is one I have reached after reading hundreds of threads or more.
So then why reply to my comment with a hostile argument when there was already a thread in reply to mine which cleared up any possible confusion?
You can't read satire, got confused and replied without spending the time to even read the other reply saying the same shit you said.
And you wanna blame satire for creating confusion.
If u smell shit everywhere you go, check ur own shoe bud.
You are applying overly broad extrapolations, distorting the sense of my comments, and also imposing an inaccurate view that I expressed hostility.
So leading with "the argument is sloppy" is a nice friendly way of opening a conversation?
Please tell me exactly what I'm broadly extrapolating or distorting here, because your comment makes broad accusations without actually talking specifics, while mine does exactly the opposite. If anything, ur the one extrapolating bs.
You're the one that chose to make a useless comment in the first place, don't bitch when you get called out for it.
You just literally don't know how to accept/respond to satire, and when you realized you took satire seriously, instead of saying "oh okay" u got defensive and offended.
Grow tf up dude. Let satire exist. Read other replies before adding to meaningless drivel like you did.
I am rejecting your characterization that I have been hostile, which is also not supported by the text you quoted.
Your tone consistently has escalated toward one that is petty and oppositional.
Starting a reply with "the argument is sloppy" is unfriendly, yes. Deny it all you want.
Your first comment was 100% unnecessary if you'd spent 30 seconds to read further into the thread instead of taking those 30 seconds to tell me I'm wrong.
That's antagonistic.
Now go look up the definition of hostile.
Yeah bc ur comments from the first one have been utterly pointless, added nothing to the discussion, and shown that you have an inability to just admit when you're wrong.
The other person who took my comment seriously just up voted my reply saying my comment was satire and left it at that. U just got something up ur ass and can't handle ppl correcting u.
Bye lil bro, have fun arguing with the ether. Hope you can grow tf up someday.
People who think the rich just have vaults full of money are so fucking ridiculous.
Poor people sit on cash. Poor people hide cash in their house. Almost the entirety of any rich person's wealth is invested, because rich people generally pay smart people to handle their money.
You are willfully ignorant.
You're an idiot if you thinks fucking safe holds any real amount of money, or that one South African semi-rich person counts as any sort of evidence.
Cash depreciates over time. No rich person keeps a ton of cash, because it means they get less rich every day.
Poor people live paycheck to paycheck, 1 disaster away from bankruptcy and absolute poverty. What the actual fuck are you taking about??
Yes, and a big part of that is that rather than get bank accounts, savings accounts, and any sort of money discipline, they fly blind and end up turning to terrible shit like payday loans.
See, one of us has actually worked to help change the spending habits of low-income people and the other person gets their information from memes.
Source- trust me bro!
That's a pretty cool story you've got going on in your head there lol. You're a fucking 🤡
Thanks for driving my point home about your memes-based-worldview.
But if you want a source, because you can't Google basic facts, then sure
https://www.gao.gov/blog/more-7-million-u.-s.-households-have-no-bank-account.-why
7 million out of 39 million living in poverty don't have bank accounts. Lol, that's your proof for your argument. And that's not including the working poor. Wow, I don't know what's scarier- the fact that you think this is proof that the PoOr aRe CoNdItiOned tO noT uSe bAnKs- If OnlY thEy'D oPen Savinzgs AcCoUnts, or that you think that you "got me" with that stat. Fucking 🤡
What I think is scary is that people born into immense privilege, like you, think you understand how the "working man" feels, but I console myself with the knowledge that you're not very important.
Lol, go console yourself you fucking retard
I guess if you push a useless mouth too far they have nothing left to do but punch down.
Yes. What a great victory for you. Go console yourself some more 😅
Your parents failed you.
Lol 9d old post. Trying to get the last word. You're a joke.
I was busy, and responded when I saw the notification.
Stop being such a nerd.
Underbanking is a problem, and so is underinvesting. Both are caused by profit motives because investors rather put in pay day loan services instead of grocery stores in historical redlined districts🤷
But sure, blame the habits of poor people.
Yeah, all those poor folks literally sleeping on cash under their mattresses because they don't have to spend it immediately on things like, you know... staying alive.
Tell me you don't actually know any poor people without telling me you don't actually know any poor people.
Lol. Sure sure. Apparently I've been living poor incorrectly by immediately spending my money on things like food, shelter and childcare instead of hoarding it like some kind of Scrooge McDuck wannabe.
You think poor people have money they don't need to spend, so they just keep it stashed away in a shoebox or something? How out of touch are you?
This is an endemic problem with poor people, actually, because poor people are often conditioned not to "trust" banks.
You'd know that, if you knew them.
You must be right. I've never lived in and among poverty. Thank you for explaining my life to me. Is there anything else I didn't actually experience?
Tact and schooling, apparently.
Good to know you're keeping those gates safe. Keep up the good work!
You'll eventually matter if you stay in school and work hard
No foolin'!? Gee, thanks mister!
Eh I was being nice. Probably not.
Yeah, cause poor people and low income people are so much more rare to encounter during a day, then a millionaire/billionaire or people in top 5%..... /S
Damn, maybe poor people should just hire a full-time broker and give them the $20 they can spare this month and let that smart person invest it so they're not poor anymore 🤓
Being poor in the US is a literal trap. It is intentional. It is exploitation. The lack of financial education isn't the fault of poor people who grew up going to schools that could barely afford to run, and/or went to school hungry.
And once you're poor, it can be extremely difficult to escape, bc the system is designed to punish poor ppl. Poor ppl sit on cash bc if it's in a bank the money they need for food might get taken away bc of some bullshit overdraft fee or similar. I know bc I've been poor and know poor ppl.
Poor people aren't poor because they don't invest wisely enough. They're poor bc the system is designed in so many ways to keep it that way.
Also rICh pEoPle dOnT Sit ON tHeiR MoNey ThEY iNvEsT it
Yeah, putting billions of dollars into stocks and letting it sit there is still hoarding wealth. Call it "investing 🤓" or whatever. It's still hoarding, it's still immoral and detestable.
You sound like you're 17 and just started listening to Fox Business for financial advice.
This has no factual basis.
You seem like you think I'm attacking poor people for not having money to invest rather than making fun of people who believe the quoted statement.
Yes it does.
See I used as much logic in that response as u used in ur comment, so my answer is just as valid as yours. But since I used more logic in the comment you're replying to, my original point still stands. Try again, lil bro.
I do not give a flying fuck whether you were making fun of someone or trying to get a billionaire to see ur comment so they'd let u suck their dick, bootlicker. You're wrong.
Also billionaires can literally just use their stock value as cash, genius.
Why you simp for billionaires bruh. U ain't gonna become one.
Imagine caring about the opinions of someone who calls you a "bootlicker" for simply understanding how reality works
And again no reasoning given. Yup, certified brain rot.
You're kidding right?
The yachts are probably insured
Just because they don't literally have millions sitting in a checking account doesn't mean they can't liquidate some of their investments and get it in short order.
This person veliev s rich people have millions sitting in checking. This belief is widespread, and is not just misleading, it changes the entire discussion from wealth to money.