this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2023
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Antiwork
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We're trying to reduce the numbers of hours a person has to work.
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We talk about the end of paid work being mandatory for survival.
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It is unfortunate that this anti-work rhetoric often comes off as outrageous, when in reality it isn't. I don't know if the people doing it are intentionally trying to be controversial, or if they just are not good at communicating.
When we complain about work, this doesn't mean that we are asking for a world where we lounge all day at home, and expect that food, shelter and entertainment are magically delivered to us without any regard to how it happens. No, anti-work is not about a blind sense of entitlement. But that is how a lot of these posts come off as, even if their authors don't intend it.
Anti-work is a recognition that the working class works way too damn much; so much more than we need to to have a functioning society with everyone living happily and having their needs met. There's so much inefficiency in capitalism, with aims to drive more capital to the wealthy, and working around other stupidities of capitalism (check out the book "Bullshit jobs" for examples). The ruling class holds hostage the world's resources, and requires you to give them a large portion of your life to get even the minimum needed to sustain your living. Now that is outrageous.
I think a lot of people have trouble understanding the difference between "I don't want to contribute anything to society" and "I don't want to spend half my waking life laboring for peanuts so that my boss can get rich".
Obviously, we should contribute according to our means, but we need to be compensated for those contributions accordingly.
Getting paid better would be nice, but that will just bring the middle class closer to poverty. I've been a part of this community for a few years now and I have been fighting for better wages this whole time. But the biggest pain to me is inflation. Things keep costing more and more, but I keep making the same amount of money. Wouldn't price regulations be a better solution to all of this to all of this? Not trying to start a fight, but looking for a slight skew from the topic.
This is not how math work. If you add 10% to wage for everyone, then nothing will change(with few exceptions that will become more affordable, mostly some sorts of taxes). But if you add 100$ to wage for everyone, then rich become sloghtly less rich, poor will become relatively richer and middle class will be slightly richer.
The biggest problem is not inflation itself, but that capitalists when increase price of product will not increase wage of worker. If there is deflation, then capitalist will cut wages, but keep prices high
Regulations for everything would not allow the greedy pigs to make their own rules. What you're asking for is that they gain some sort of heart and start valuing something other than their products. That won't happen. I really think regulation is a better plan because it's creating laws that cap profits. Then we can hit em with their own medicine and up the minimum wage too. Maybe even put a maximum wage out there.
Maybe I've seen too much star trek and I'm believing that the socialist/communist utopia exists out there someday. Maybe I'm crazy. All I know for sure is I don't like the hand I was delt and it's way too hard to fold.
Reminds me Savateev's proposed education reform. Cap school directors' wage at something like 2x-3x of lowest of top-60%(below median) teachers' wages in conjunction with banning overtime more than 50%(hard cap work time at 150% of normal, currently over 200% is common practice which is really bad).
Why not? When monopoly sets price it is market price, but when monopsony-like actor does same it is not?
I recommend you to watch Rossmann's walks around NYC where he just shows places that can be rented, but nobody does for 10 years. It is not because there is not enough supply, there was oversupply even before pandemic, just a lot of companies prefer to let place rot, then rent at ~~fair~~ literally market price because it will bring down rent on other places. Well, for housing there is also ban of everything that is not single-family shed or humant colony.