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Something something far-left
Something something far-left
188 comments
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Sure but we must ask how much should you be able to afford in this position?
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I'm sick of talking about a "living wage". I want a thriving wage.
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What the woman who labors wants is the right to live, not simply exist – the right to life as the rich woman has the right to life, and the sun and music and art. You have nothing that the humblest worker has not a right to have also. The worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too. Help, you women of privilege, give her the ballot to fight with.
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Wow, such a powerful quote.
It touches on something I'm worried about in our time: How we've started to monetize hobbies as "hustles" and watch other people enjoy them in our place because we're too busy to do them ourselves.
It feels like enjoying "the sun and music and art" is now the job of an entertainer, who the audience lives vicariously through, between their shifts. Whether it's all these shows about celebrities who get to travel, or so simple as streamers getting to sit down and play games...
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As the screenshot said, enough to pay for rent, bills and groceries. That's is, enough to not be homeless, starving or unable to afford healthcare.
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I know a lot of people around here aren't a fan of cars, but minimum wage workers need to be able to afford one. And even used cars have gotten crazy expensive. Even if you can find a cheap used shit box it'll need expensive repairs quickly.
I know there are places where this isn't true, but where I live, if you don't have a car, you can't get to work, the grocery store, or anywhere really. If you try to ride a bike, you will die. If you try to ride an escooter you'll get ticketed for riding it in the driving lane, and even if it were legal it wouldn't be an option in the winter when they don't even clear the whole road of snow and ice. People go homeless before they give up having a car.
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I think that if a new style of government is created, free transport and fuel should be an universal right. The government just lends a basic small car for free to people. Once that person buys a fancier car, the rental is returned to the government to be loaned out to someone else in need. Bus passes and passenger rail is free.
This greases the wheel of economy, along with easing pressure on people.
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Okay. How close are we to that? How about giving a huge bump to minimum wage and tying increases to inflation, now? Even the Dems aren't running on this.
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Needing cars is caused by the same capitalist system that produces jobs below livable wage, so I totally get it. But if we were able to push for better salaries and working conditions, surely we'd also be able to push for better urban planning and public transport.
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It's already been built wrong, and redoing those places will take decades and will cost trillions. They have been adding little token projects here or there, but our zoning still doesn't even require sidewalks or bike lanes for new construction. So honestly we're generations from it at the pace we're moving. We could pay living wages now though.
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Renting what though? How many bedrooms?
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Uh. One? Then if two people had basic jobs...Maybe two?
Maybe someone is able to claw their way above minimum wage and the other can quit entirely, whatever.
Nobody's demanding McMansions for McDoubles. They just want the concept of a job to be more than an endless void that arbitrarily takes exponentially more than it gives.
Working two jobs and being one major illness or injury away from losing it all is a sick insult to humanity, for all it has achieved up to this point.
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Do you guys not have salary continuance and disability insurance by default through your retirement accounts? Over here by default if we hurt ourselves at work we get workers comp and outside of work we have salary continuance insurance (unless you've unsubscribed). If it's bad enough you get a lump sum from total disability insurance
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Hehe, that's how pathetic things are here.
Retirement accounts? Since we're talking minimum wage workers here, most of them have probably never even heard of those. I know I don't have one, because I've only held part time employment while self-studying a bunch of other skills. I have just a savings that gets cleaned out whenever the car makes an expensive noise I can't fix myself.
We pay into "Social Security" that you're supposed to be able to pull from when you retire, but that's been an iffy thing for years now and it's definitely not something that can be lived off of anymore.
Over here by default if we hurt ourselves at work we get workers comp and outside of work we have salary continuance insurance
Yeah I didn't even mean at work, just y'know, life happening can absolutely tank your finances with medical bills. Insurance is an absolute scam here, where the affordable ones can have a "deductible" in the thousands you need to pay before the company even pays out a dime.
At work? Yeah, "workers comp" is a thing, but to your job that's like declaring war on your employer, the way I understand it. Often you'll need a lawyer and they'll send private investigators to stalk you trying to catch you being "not disabled" so they can kick you to the gutter.
(Allegedly lots of people to try to scam the system, like anything else, but dystopian employer paranoia is comically ridiculous.)
This "salary continuance insurance" sounds interesting but I don't think we have anything like that here. You either use up your paid sick / vacation leave, or if it's dire you can use "FMLA" (Family Medical Leave Act) to take time away from work, except that doesn't support your pay, it only protects your job so they don't outright fire you for having a serious situation come up.
If you're curious about the situation here, there's a book called "On the Clock, what low wage labor did to me and how it drives america insane" or something like that. Super eye opening.
Screw amazon but this is the first link I found because I'm literally rushing out of the house lol.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42779084-on-the-clock
Hope this illuminates things a little. Pray for us plz. :)
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Oof that is not a great place to be for a worker. These reform groups make so much more sense now
I do see the temptation when tech salaries (for example) are like 5x ours but the drawbacks are wild if you get hurt or fall ill
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188 comments