Breaking news: in one of the most productive countries / economies in the entire history of humanity, the majority of people creating that productivity do not get to enjoy the rewards of that productivity.

same as it ever was.

  • Vej@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    You know what would fix this? More military spending.

    • potoo22@programming.dev
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      11 months ago

      I give 1% to my union. My pay is ~10% better than it would be if we didn’t have it, and management gets in huge trouble if they mistreat workers. And by trouble, I mean they fired a manager when they scheduled a worker over their lunch break.

    • lightnegative@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      So you still live paycheck to paycheck, except now you have to trust someone else to negotiate on your behalf instead of negotiating yourself

      • Nudding@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        negotiating yourself

        Collective action is the only way to get even remotely close to a fair wage.

      • Mongostein@lemmy.ca
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        11 months ago

        If one person quits they shrug and hire some other shmuck. If everyone quits, they have a problem. Good luck negotiating that way.

        • lightnegative@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          I guess it depends on the industry. Replaceable production line workers following processes that haven’t been automated yet are different from say engineers designing the production line

          • njm1314@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Plenty of engineers get abused by their employers too it’s super naive to think otherwise. And it’s going to get worse and worse and worse as time goes on that’s the undebatable history of capitalism.

          • Cowbee@lemm.ee
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            11 months ago

            Engineers designing production lines absolutely get fucked over with horrible working conditions. Unions benefit every single position workers fill.

            I guarantee you’ve never known an Engineer in manufacturing.

          • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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            11 months ago

            LoL what a shit take of thinking you are special because you are currently being treated nice.

          • SCB@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            If an engineer is living paycheck to paycheck it’s their fault, and very weird, since they’re generally decent at math.

      • Cowbee@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        Negotiating collectively is the only way to negotiate with a Capitalist. Individually, you are a replaceable cog, collectively you’re the machine.

      • SCB@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        If you’re living paycheck to paycheck it stands to reason that your negotiating position isn’t very good.

      • triclops6@lemmy.ca
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        11 months ago

        The wealthy view this as progress: “we milked more of the production and still have a docile subservient society”

      • SCB@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        The French revolution saw a shitload more innocent civilians killed than what exists in modern day America.

        • djsoren19@yiffit.net
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          11 months ago

          This is so incredibly stupid it boggles the mind. There were not even 300 million civilians in France, especially considering that today there are only 60 million people living there.

          • SCB@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            The point is to draw attention to the idea that the French Revolution was bad in every possible way

            • wanton murder

            • gave rise to an Emperor

            • was mob rule led by a small group, not democracy

            • did not materially change the lives of the majority of the French moving forward

            • was literally called the Reign of Terror

            • drhugsymcfur@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              Your opinion is tainted by British and reactionary voices writing the history of the French Revolution.

              Overthrowing the Ancien régime left the average French person with much more political voice in the 1870’s than the average member of the 3rd estate could have hoped for at any point in the 18th century.

              -Wanton Murder

              Yeah there was violence political and non-political due to the anarchy that came from the revolution. This is unavoidable when the political elites do not respect the voices of the majority of their citizens.

              -Gave rise to an emperor

              Yeah because the entirety of Europe declared war on France several times in order to save their cousin king Louis, to save the estates of their rich noble exile buddies, then to avenge King Louis, and finally to protect British and exile monetary interests.

              -was mob rule led by a small group, not democracy

              It was eventually figured out, and it was always better than the pre 1789 status quo. **

              -did not materially change the lives of the majority of the French moving forward

              Lol, except for the entire political upheaval of the French Society.

              -was literally called the Reign of Terror

              It was called the Reign of Terror by British papers, the average Parisan had nothing to fear from the revolution other than reactionary mobs. Which was much safer than offending the wrong noble, or walking in front of the horse of some member of the gentry.

              I am basing the French Revolution from the Estates General of 1789 to the start of the 2nd French Republic.

              • SCB@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                I’m not interested in your revisionist history, thanks.

                It’s weird for you to put this much effort into a post encouraging violence in the US. Violence you most assuredly would not benefit from.

    • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Lol some clown is removing my comments as “uncivil” in posts

      Violence is the only way that rights and freedoms have ever been secured. It has NEVER happened by voting

      Can’t disagree with this more.

      Advocating for violence is wrong, and that’s probably why you keep getting your comments removed.

      In fact I’ll go so far as to say that if we rely on violence every time to resolve issues then there’ll be nothing left but cockroaches and dolphins looking around the scorched Earth wondering “What the fuck happened here?!”

      • zbyte64@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        11 months ago

        Well to be fair, he didn’t say which side would be committing the violence. One analysis of the civil rights movement is that is was successful because it provoked violence by the oppressors while cameras were present.

        • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Well to be fair, he didn’t say which side would be committing the violence.

          I speak towards violence of any kind, from either side. Self-defense notwithstanding.

        • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Everything good you have-especially as a US citizen- is the result of violence and nothing else.

          If you’re talking about overthrowing tyrants to become a free nation, then yeah /agree violence is most likely needed.

          But the whole point of America and its political system is to resolve conflict in non-violet ways, so definately think your’e wrong there. Violence begets violence and destroys your land/homes.

        • SCB@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          You’re wrong, and your advocation of violence is abhorrent. Democracy does indeed work and your calls for the destruction of society over your power fantasy are awful and misplaced.

          • AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            How is he “advocating” for violence? Where is his call to action?? Stop being so allergic to uncomfortable conversations. He is right. Look at all the big triumphs over tyranny that have happened throughout history, they were achieved through violence. Do you think America voted their way out of British rule? Do you think Ukraine can vote Russia out of their country?

            • SCB@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              Look at all the big triumphs over tyranny that have happened throughout history

              In context, this argument makes no sense, because he is advocating violence against random wealthy people in the US.

  • OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    If only we were back in the good Ole days of 2019 with the economy roaring and 78% of people reporting living paycheck to paycheck according to CareerBuilder.

    It’s PROBABLY a measurement problem, not an actual number with insight on how people are living. People self report incorrectly to a lot of things, and paycheck-to-paycheck can mean a lot of things. We think of it as someone who might be homeless without their paycheck but someone who would have to sell some stocks or stop retirement contributions might also think of themselves as “paycheck to paycheck.”

    If you are working, your paycheck is probably a big part of your budget. That makes this survey question a bit meaningless.

    • BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      You’re spot on here. Plenty of people count maxing out their 401k and IRA as “living paycheck to paycheck”, because their budgets would go upside if they missed a paycheck and did literally nothing to cover it.

      Combine that with the general bias all people have to view themselves as generally normal and you get a pretty meaningless metric.

    • SuiXi3D@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      but someone who would have to sell some stocks or stop retirement contributions might also think of themselves as “paycheck to paycheck.”

      Oh, like I had to do when I moved to another apartment? I had to wipe out my (tiny) Roth IRA just to pay the deposit. My wife had to wipe hers out just to pay the movers and all the other BS fees. We now have no retirement savings and haven’t since we moved six months ago. We both had to stop contributing to our IRAs in order to continue paying the bills. We’re not even paycheck to paycheck at this point, we’re at month to month.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        We just had to refinance our mortgage because our credit card debt was out of control and the payments were too high.

        But it did nothing to help with student loans or medical debts.

      • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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        11 months ago

        Yeah, I had to empty my 401k to be able to just keep renting and I’ve decided that it’s probably not worth paying towards anymore since by the time I would retire they likely would tell me I need at least 8 times whatever I could afford to put in so I’ll just plan for death as my retirement like Boeing would want.

        • SuiXi3D@kbin.social
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          11 months ago

          Pretty much. I’m very much resigned to the fact that I’ll be working well after the standard retirement age and will likely die at work, with nothing but debt to pass on to… nobody because I can’t afford to have children.

          • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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            11 months ago

            Boeing actually found the longer you work the shorter you live so good news you won’t work past retirement you will work until you die and then retirement age won’t exist. It will be a myth from the past.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      but someone who would have to sell some stocks or stop retirement contributions might also think of themselves as “paycheck to paycheck.”

      And some people think the Earth is flat…

      But neither population is statistically significant

      • metaStatic@kbin.social
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        11 months ago

        Selling my stocks to pay rent would be like selling my car to pay for a bus ticket.

        if you need to sell your stocks to receive value from them then you’re gambling not investing and I would actually consider that the same shitty situation.

      • OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        The median savings is $5,300. So at the bare minimum, 12% of America has over $5,300 in savings but considers themselves “paycheck-to-paycheck.”

  • dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    11 months ago

    Still? That number will only grow. Trickle down economics doesn’t exist and Americans don’t understand what class consciousness is.

  • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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    11 months ago

    Ugh, poor people and their disgusting lifestyle choice of having no money.

    Can’t they just dip into their trustfunds if they’re short?

    • zbyte64@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      11 months ago

      Trustfunds? You think every success is a Rockefeller or something? Just ask as family member for a million dollar loan to start a business, that’s how all the modern greats have done it. (/s plz don’t hurt me)

  • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Remember this the next time someone says “what the market will bear.”

    Unchecked capitalism is about aggressively exploiting resources. We, our time, and whatever we posses of value, are all such resources.

  • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Really need to bring back the ‘New Deal’ era laws and regulations.

    Waiting for raw Capitalism to ‘lift all boats’ just won’t happen, as only the strongest ‘boats’ survive the storms.

    Capitalisms default mode is ‘let them eat cake’.

  • Melkath@kbin.social
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    11 months ago

    Hey, but everyone, the 1% are doin’ great and Biden needs his re-election, so the economy is super stronk!

    • njm1314@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      How ignorant can a comment even be? I mean just the idea that the current economy and state of wealth inequality is Joe Biden’s fault is astounding. The previous administration gave biggest handout to the 1% of any government in the history of mankind.

      But that’s just the history of America for the last 40 years I guess. Republicans administrations gutting things, giving massive handouts to the rich, destroying social safety nets, allowing corruption and fraud to go rampant, etc… then when a democratic administration tries to clean it up just a little bit, to stabilize things, all the mouth breathers suddenly forget everything happened beforehand.

      • hpca01@programming.dev
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        11 months ago

        Don’t get me wrong I hate the prior guy. But isn’t it always funny how the Democratic party in their times of super majority don’t tend to fix the shit entirely that the last guy rammed through. Take the tax cuts and removing alot of deductions for the working class. Wouldn’t it make sense to undo those tax cuts and tax increases?

        Both sides aren’t the same but this ain’t a left vs right issue, it’s a class war.

      • Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Good thing that Biden isn’t fixing that but is instead spending all his time trying to throw more bombs on babies.

          • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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            11 months ago

            Honestly I think people are just tired of being stuck between a rock and a hard place of literal authoritarianism and apathetic stagnation. Even if one is clearly better people are desperate for change and the best leader that we have to look up to is a stuttering old man who complained he wasn’t paid enough while being extremely upperclass and having a stay at home nanny for his kids.

            People crave representation and I can see why they complain about the extreme lack of it. And lashing out at the downtrodden do not get them to feel better. You can’t whip a smile onto someone’s face.

              • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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                11 months ago

                Fair on the stutter part but not sure what to call it when he struggles with words but especially in the case of Trump who literally can’t remember and stumbles his way through sentences. Cause it is not perfectly fine coherent speech that I expect from people over 80

      • Melkath@kbin.social
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        11 months ago

        Lots of words by a dolt who just doesn’t get it.

        I get it. You voted Hilary. Like a dolt.

  • SCB@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    I am unable to find (and would love a link) any data on population distribution through the quintiles of income.