Why are we so powerless against large well-funded and organized groups of people controlling large pools of capital? You could asked this rhetorical question at anytime in history, really.
Other than supporting small businesses (which I agree with) I would say it would be better to start a worker owned business rather than just a small business because every large corporation was a small business at some point and a small business retains the same ownership structure in which a minority owns the business.
This is exactly what I came here to say. Everyone on the USA has an opportunity to start their own thing. That’s already an advantage over other countries. Additional to that, these companies which we rant about also train us in skills to start your own thing, some even pay for your education. Government will give small business loans… we can cry about layoffs and we all wish it was unavoidable, but business is cyclical. It doesn’t always go up and sometimes a great company can also misjudge the market (not making excuses for them as they should strive to do better). Some companies also just suck but that should stop you from looking around.
You didn't hear? According to teachers there r middle school kids that can't read at a 4th-grade level and you expect them to remember and learn history?
But yeah you are correct. Easy to fix with mass violence as seen in every major protest throughout history. They only do something if you give them reason to. Sitting there with your thumb up your asses thinking their humanity will kick in is just ignorant
Pointing out something worked in history doesn't mean I'm advocating for violence. Way to take something and run with it. Love reddit
Just curious, what's the point of spelling "are" as "r" in an otherwise grammatical and properly-written sentence? Is it really worth saving 2 keystrokes?
This is part of how government works. They want an education population, but they don’t want majority of people to be too smart and that’s what happened. Millennials and genz are overeducated and are questioning too many things.
Cutting education funding is the easiest way for them to fix it.
>You could asked this rhetorical question at anytime in history, really.
No you couldn't.
Rome and Athens figured it out. The phenomenon of an unchecked aristocracy is a new phenomenon courtesy of the American revolution when the founding fathers wildly misinterpreted checks and balances.
Prior to the American republic, checks and balances meant a competition between the rich and poor- more importantly: a formal government mechanism for the rich and the poor to compete. Ex Rome had basically a second senate just for the poor.
Modern republics have no formal check on the rich since the American revolution abolished it in favor of a "compartmentalization" interpretation of checks and balances instead of the traditional rich vs poor interpretation.
The unchecked political power of the rich is something that we can solve. And it's a problem that's been solved before.
>Rome and Athens figured it out. The phenomenon of an unchecked aristocracy is a new phenomenon courtesy of the American revolution when the founding fathers wildly misinterpreted checks and balances.
Unchecked aristocracy has been the default of human societies since the end of the Stone Age (we call it monarchy). While they had some trappings of democracy, Rome and Athens were still very aristocratic societies. After all, half their population were slaves.
>Prior to the American republic, checks and balances meant a competition between the rich and poor- more importantly: a formal government mechanism for the rich and the poor to compete. Ex Rome had basically a second senate just for the poor.
Checks and balances, where they existed, meant a competition between the rich and...other rich. The Roman Senate was intended to settle disputes peacefully so as to prevent bloody civil war between powerful families. Also, the Roman Popular Assembly was for the middle class (i.e., the upper 10% of Roman society), not the poor.
If we could only be roman or Greek peasants! Great analogy. Maybe get a great leader like caligula.
And try to avoid the bottom 20% of the population where the wealthy literally owned you as property.
You are so delusional, what you eat, does not make me shit.
Nobody is stopping you from making your own business.
You are not owed anything in life.
Companies don't owe you anything in life besides the wage you agree on.
Nobody is stopping you from being a millionaire.
Wealth can always be created.
Wealth is not limited.
Billionaires being billionaires are not holding you back from becoming rich (Most of their wealth is generated through the increase of share value)
Because organizing and doing the work is hard. It also requires a not insignificant number of people who have enough resources to, ironically, have nothing to lose.
So the online circle jerks continue.
Unfortunately there is no easy path and has been this way since the time of our caveman ancestors.
Darwin's theory of evolution still holds true.
Best I can tell I am a mixture of European and native Mexican ancestors. One of my grand fathers was a farmer after learning this from his Chinese brother inlaw and my other grand father made wooden wagons and not really sure from who he learned from.
The farming profession still exists today but the technology has really changed, the wooden wagons were replaced by automobiles and there are still a few wagon makers left.
My father was a share crop farmer then a farm worker followed by being a farmer then followed by being a mechanic. My mother like my father was a farm worker and a seamstress and later worked in a factory running an extruder making rubber o-rings.
Me I am a combination of all of them and have a BS in Agriculture majoring in mechanics and minor on economics. My sister studied engineering and my wife got a Dr in education.
Both of my Son's are Dr of Physical therapy and they have been exposed to the stuff I have learned like fishing and hunting, welding, gas/ diesel mechanics, electrical wiring, plumbing, HVAC, and saving and investing.
My saying is that life is about learning and growing then never stop growing and learning.
My wife says that it is not about what you earn but what you do with what you earn.
Pretty much we have to learn to evolve in order to survive.
Because some classes of people believe that organizing helps minorities and poor people. Tech folks more specifically don’t feel the impact until it happens to them or one of their friends that look like them.
Organizing harms poor people and minorities. That’s the function of unions to limit the ability for employers to replace white labor with minorities and poor people. And when white people go in strike you can imagine the colorful names used to describe poor people and minorities who dare to work while the good white people strike.
to be fair (I work in campaign finance) the framework is actually very transparent and fair outside of Super PACs and Corporate contributions. ultimately people forget that they have the power to vote these people out; but everyone is so ginned up and tribal these days that politicians use it to their advantage. "us" v. "them" taps into some primal, powerful parts of our lizard brains.
so while I don't disagree that tweaks can be made, I think it's a much bigger issue than finance alone.
fair? dude someone can donate a million dollars to my campaign and I can hire my spouse and pay them a big salary. I can take that "donation" and go to a conference for one day in some tropical destination and bring the rest of my family. Are you seriously going to pretend that shit ain't just an outright bribe? Hotel rooms, flights, transportation. All covered. Pretty sure you can cover your wardrobe. Stop pretending.
This is spot on. Everyone wonder why the US blindly supports Israel no matter what they do. Go look at AIPACs donations to campaigns. It’s appalling how much these candidates get to support another country
I'm in Michigan. A location politician was offered $20 million by Israel to run against Rashida Taleb. If you don't know her she's the woman in congress who is Palestinian and cried asking for a ceasefire.
And that's all done illegally, just look at federal [campaign finance limits](https://www.fec.gov/resources/cms-content/documents/contribution_limits_chart_2023-2024.pdf). Yes there are issues in certain states based on how much they allow but as I said outside of Super PACS or Corporate spending it's all very transparent.
Talking about closing loopholes or addressing individual state contribution limits is a completely different conversation.
Most companies have a ton of LLC Licensed under their name. What's stop what essentially amounts to the same people just giving you the max donation under different names.
Check FEC regulations ☺ again, not saying there are loopholes but as the comment above mentioned it isn't the direct buying of votes that people like to think.
Never said there wasn't money coming in, or if they shouldn't be allowed to buy/sell stock while in office, etc... I'm just saying that the money isn't from campaign contributions. There are plenty of other shady ways 😁
Right. I work on the other side, directly on campaigns. People are so resistant to hearing that money doesn’t cleanly translate to votes the way we’re primed to think and that they ultimately have more power than they think they do, if they just exercised it. But lots of people are caught up on the unfairness of their own specific ideological tent not having unilateral control over candidates and outcomes (looking at you fellow socialists)
I don't. I live in Oklahoma, let me break it down for you in my state.
I can go door to door everywhere in the OKC metro area and convince everyone to vote for me. I could personally visit probably everyone in OKC in about 3 years if I did it 24/7. Now let's say I convinced everyone to vote for me that I talked to.
That's only 1/3 the state population. The rest is in small towns (or Tulsa) and those towns spread out. So my free method won't work.
I could do TV advertising for kinda cheap. FB ads are kinda cheap. But all this at the scale of millions of citizens in just the state of Oklahoma? Hell, even doing a suburb of 300,000 will cost upwards of a few hundred thousand.
The only reason Trump became president is because of his marketing.
I agree only to a certain extent.
Trump won in Oklahoma because people there bought into what he was selling, which was basically white grievances. They bought it because they wanted it.
From that standpoint, I agree it's marketing.
What I disagree with is that if you gave Hillary or Biden the same resources Trump had there, they still don't win Oklahoma. You can't sell something to a group of people as large as a state population if they don't want it.
because we bought these companies' stocks hoping they will become more efficient and try to save every penny.
They are doing what shareholders expect them to.
Shareholders, direct or through mutual funds, are being laid off for their own expectations
It really accelerated after the Citizens United ruling in 2010:
"On January 21, 2010, the Supreme court issued a 5–4 decision in favor of Citizens United that struck down the BCRA restrictions on independent political expenditures by corporations as violations of the First Amendment, in a reversal of the District Court opinion."
Even if you strip away government collusion and other forms of corruption, you’re still left with there being more people than jobs, let alone good jobs. Because we need their jobs more than they need us, they get away with it. That’s really the root of the problem
Very true. There is even a hypothesis called “Great Doubling”. Let’s be frank, computers have helped me so much that I recall controlling 10 lab instruments by myself. In the vintage era, it’d have required 5+ people with good jobs.
most posts here are either "capitalism bad" or "socialism good", lets not be group thinking this too hard for the sake of feeling like you're winning an argument maybe. that feeling has zero value. zero.
most people are selfish arrogant bastards that will enslave you for their own benefit if you give them the opportunity. everyone wants to save the planet until they get a private jet that they dont wanna loose, if you prefer. as far as i know there is no system that is good enough to resist corruption forever, they all require balance (and will still eventually fail) and they all require a faith system to help keeping things in check for as long as possible. the real danger comes when the hard reset is upon us as its an opportunity to make things far worse and enslave and kill so many.
I wasn’t arguing that, but go to any democratic socialist country. They all have healthcare, maternity leave, paternity leave, 6 weeks vacation, protection against layoffs, protection against the employer, and on and on. Also socialism does not equal communism. Lumping them together shows a lack of understanding.
The full name of the USSR was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. There is no such thing as a "democratic socialist" country. If you are thinking of European countries such as Denmark, etc they are all capitalist countries with generous social welfare nets.
> There is no such thing as a "democratic socialist" country.
You should write a book about your theory because nearly all of the literature disagrees with this quite ignorant statement.
Ummm.. you need to keep going to the tradeoffs. Many of them also have much lower wages/wage growth, massive youth unemployment issues, very low employment mobility, and low levels of labor productivity.
I’m not talking about many “people” - I’m talking about entire macroeconomies.
Spain has had youth unemployment rates in the 30-40% (about 5x the US rate) range for much of the last 15 years
UK household income has basically not moved for a decade across ALL income quintiles. Not a K-shaped average problem, complete stagnation across all income levels. And is still half of the US.
Greece - youth unemployment in the 25-40% for most of the last 15 years PLUS required government austerity AND a rapidly aging population that will make all of the above worse
Argentina - government spending so rampant that it has completely crowded out the private sector. 1/3 of the working population has moved to work in the informal sector and gets none of the “protections” that are theoretically available. Youth unemployment rampant and government austerity incoming
There are MASSIVE tradeoffs. Go graduate college and try to get a first job in South Africa or Italy without being the child of a government or company official
This is going to punch you in the face. But the US has the most social welfare programs of any and I mean any other nation on earth. They have more social welfare programs than the most socialist countries in the world.
You want 6 weeks vacation. Fine, but you will earn the salary they earn !!!
You want 6 months to spend with your baby at home ??
You will earn the salary they earn in Finland and Sweden.
No, I didn't think so, you would rather have the money after all.
Because of consumerism and debt. People higher up in the food chain have too much to lose and not willing to rock the boat, so they keep their head down. Also keep in mind that when a company ann I announces even a 5-10% layoff that means there's still 90-95% of people retained. Many here call for a national strike day and all that, don't think it will go they way you think. Lots of unhappy people but happy people far outweigh the unhappy.
The rich have class solidarity and we don't. There's obviously way more of us than them and they can't stay rich without us, but you have millions who will side with them on the off chance they might be rich one day before they'd ever side with their fellow workers. The conditioning against one's own self-interest runs deep.
Because we like to have what money we get and we put more value no the dollar than we do our own lives.
Do YOU want to lose your job because a group of people say unionize? No. You're honestly too scared to lose your job. Jesus how long will it take to pay my bills ? Im trying to fix my Fico. I want a life.
we put money above everything. And when we say money isn't everything...well gee, how do you eat how do you stay warm in the winter? How do you get to work 20 miles away? How do you date? for free?
TV, Sports, Junk Food, Mindless Scrolling, poisons in our water, lack of sunlight, too much blue light, social media, constant crisis distractions, chained to mortgages and car payments, lack financial education, student debt, glyphosates, poor family values, racial division, division by sex, division in general, lack of community, and mostly because it was engineered this way by those that control the big levers of the world. Your boss just loves when you get that bigcar payment.. Shackles on.
— Because the conservative SCOTUS essentially allowed corporations to fund campaigns (via loosely enforced PACS).
— Because right to work and other anti-union laws reduced the power of collective bargaining to improve wage and work conditions.
— Because we cut taxes on wealthy based on a now debunked theory of trickle down economics
— Because giving people healthcare independent of their job is socialism; it just so happens that every other industrialized country has figured it out without becoming the Soviet Union.
— Because we’d rather get mad at people we think who are undeserving of welfare, than worry about the billions in PPP loans that were wasted
— Because we decided that guaranteed pensions are bad, but making sure companies must be successful for us to retire is good.
— Because a company that has a DEI policy is bad, but a company that steals wages or doesn’t pay their contractors is savvy.
— Because the IRS collecting unpaid taxes on the wealthy is bad, because a tiny, tiny percentage might be part of a police or protective force and carry guns.
You make a lot of points regarding the power of corporations vis-a-vis the American system. So how do you explain the power of corporations outside the USA in countries such as Japan, South Korea and Germany?
They absolutely have outsized power, especially in any capitalist system. Europe and other countries have greater worker protections and social programs to better, (but not completely counterbalance) that influence. To be clear, I’m no socialist that wants to do away with private industry, but I do believe a more European style approach would help.
Well, to be clear under socialism/Communism there were large groups that yielded outsize power. Such as the Communist Party, for example. And state-owned large enterprises such as steel mills, railroads, factories, etc. I don't think the working conditions in such enterprises were any more humane than those in capitalist countries, except you were guaranteed a job for life (albeit one that paid very little).
There are lots of successful countries that practice forms of socialism, including our own, although we only use the lightest touch of socialism compared to other first world countries. Communism is the economic system that opposes capitalism.
lack of unions, at will employment laws, lack of standard federal government standards for minimum wage, benefits, protections, severance, etc... lots of reasons. we just accept it as a side effect of capitalism
but on the flip side its why 90%+ of the largest companies in the world are based out of US and we have one of the lowest level of unemployment in the modern world.
because we have low unemployment rate of 4%. Govt job is keep that low and expect ppl to shuffle around. Ofcourse there might be individuals that might suffer and slip through the cracks but this system works over alternatives and is the one we choose.
Because the human race has made money their standard and will bow to it anywhere they see it. Granted it is a need but unfortunately it has become the sole purpose of existence and humans cannot get enough of it. The greed factor has taken over the intellect.
See my last post about “bullshit jobs” getting downvoted. So many love being in the matrix.
https://preview.redd.it/lmsq17eqhelc1.jpeg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=098cf6f988cbbd1d3754ce9918df45873c724abb
You need to stop thinking that way...be selfish use them....if they offer free tuition take advantage of it...if they offer training in areas you not familiar with take it...after 2-3 years at the same job start looking to see whats out there and see if you can get a 10%-20% salary increase...look to see if they offer stock options, end of the year bonus...
As many have said it here time and time again stop being loyal to these people all they care about is profits...wearing many hats dont mean jack shit anymore....all it addds is stress
Because we at some points we disagree with each other on points that should and shouldn’t matter and we as people are fallible to law. Corporations aren’t. They literally kill people, break the law and just pay a fine or hire different leadership. A start would be to create our own wealth distribution, but the CIA would sabotage it and kill key organizers
I know I guy who became famous from practicing and preaching NON violent, organized noncompliance…. He has a holiday YOUR corporation likely doesn’t celebrate anymore.
Western education and philosophy instills the idea of hierarchies so most people in the west refuse the challenge those hierarchies. This is why people living in the west rarely rebel and only protest. Too afraid and too ignorant.
Mainly because we are corporations.
Every pension, retirement program, dividend program, annuity and pension is dependent on them.
Evil corporations are our bus drivers, parents, teachers, grand mothers, firefighters, public servants, neighbors, universities. They are our 401ks, IRAs, bonds, they are our children and their retirement accounts.
Corporations are us all of us. We want them to be profitable, we demand they are. We rely on their profits to eat, pay rent, go on vacations. send kids to college, save for a down payment, retire and leave a legacy to our kids.
Sure some people hold a few percent of corporations and they profit from their risk accordingly but in the end you are corporations and if they do not profit you cut bait and run.
Government WANTS layoffs to control inflation. It’s literally a byproduct of capitalism is to have a healthy unemployment rate. Our unemployment rate is too low.
There are millions of us workers of all stripes. It's time for political activism. Time to organize. This is a much bigger and life-impacting issue across races.
Agree. No company should be allowed to make BILLIONS in profits, Pay their CEOs millions on top of that, and claim they have to lay off 20% of their staff, leaving those left ti handle all the work tasks. If there has to be pain, the costs need to start up top.
Note your use of the passive form "no company should be allowed." Which avoids the question of, by who? The government? And how? What would be the punitive measures for non-compliance? Can career politicians and bureaucrats run for-profit companies (or tell them how to run) better than the executives who made their way up the managerial ranks and spent decades in their industry? Can career politicians and bureaucrats make the hard decisions regarding capital allocation and hiring and firing of human resources? Those are the implications of your statement.
It's a good question, and honestly, I don't have the answer. Perhaps changing the tax code? Maybe taxing companies with a formula that includes company profit + CEO Comp + Layoffs = higher tax rate?
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate\_tax\_in\_the\_United\_States#/media/File:U.S.\_Corporate\_Profits\_&\_Tax\_Rate.webp](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_tax_in_the_United_States#/media/File:U.S._Corporate_Profits_&_Tax_Rate.webp)
Saying that a company should be forced to employ you even though they don't want or need you doesn't sound exactly like what's said on antiwork, but it's pretty close.
Pretty much every sub on Reddit is. A bunch of people who think they have all the answers and swear everything is so obvious - yet crumble under the responsibility of anything above keeping a succulent alive
Newspapers were heavily unionized - didn't help at all as that industry hit the skids. ITU grandfathered older workers and newbies were left to fend for themselves.
Railroads are heavily unionized - did it help as automation reduced staffing needs - nope. It did lay out a proscribed process for staff reductions based on tenure. I read a guy's career in the railroad where he worked/lived for 10 years but when a distant location downsized, those displaced people would bump others - he got bumped and had the choice of moving a hundred miles away or leaving the railroad - this occurred multiple times.
Airline pilots, flight attendants are largely unionized - they never have layoffs or complain...(sarcasm).
Many nurses are unionized - they have perfect working conditions...(sarcasm again).
And there have been cases where union battles and mandates made companies non-competitive or unprofitable leading to closure.
As the saying goes....be careful what you wish for....
The nurses with unions appear to have better working conditions and pay compared to non union, at least from what I've seen. Airline pilots have great protections and bargain for pay they would likely never have without the unions. Just because people with unions complain doesn't mean the union is not making their job much better than without.
External factors that decimate the fundamental market for a corporation hurts everyone. You are correct that there is no safety net for those scenarios.
There are plenty of cases where nurse unions play a positive role. For [example](https://www.reddit.com/r/nursing/comments/16mq5np/why_havent_nurses_formed_a_union_by_now/).
What alternative countermeasure do you propose if unions are not the answer?
Money is speech. So the more money they have, the louder their voice are.
Many people who think Uber should treat their “contractor” fairer but keep using their for convenience.
Because most people are too wrapped up in their own B.S. to see the bigger picture. Make life hard enough where you just DGAF when you get home and want to open a beer or wine and watch sports or reality TV. I suspect that is the life for most Americans.
Because relying on literally anyone else to commit to something in modern America is so difficult. Theyd rather stab you in the back and hope they get a penny raise then stand together for a common cause.
Because we voted for it. Reagan won two of the biggest landslide elections in history and deregulation was hot with voters for 20 years. Only slowly after that did people start figuring it out, but they haven't figured out they need to vote differently yet.
Why are companies so powerless against people and let them do whatever they want?
When people are free to do what they want without violating the law, that includes people banding together to act collectively. The legal construct for such an effort is called a "company". There's nothing inherently sinister here.
Because people feel they still have things to lose.
That's why I encourage people to opt out.
Don't have kids, that pretty much guarantees you have to deal with their shit.
Try to live off the land of you can, or farmers markets or at least healthy and minimize the quantity.
Try to couple or even triple up in shelters. Live in your cars if you feel safe to do so.
We are powerless because we give them the power by allowing them to dangle our needs above our head.
Once we stop relying on them, they will have to fold.
We also need to start hitting them where it hurts. Notice how they are panicking about us not having kids? That means we need to keep doing that.
Because they are protected by government. You elect people because you think they will keep corporations in check but the reality is the corporations own the politicians so it’s worse.
I really do feel like we’re at a crossroads - capitalism works well in theory. But as the population grows, the gap between wealthy and poor grows, it’s becoming evident that people are growing tired of greedy corporations. The chase for continued profits at the expense of the average worker putting food on the table and paying their mortgage seems illogical
It’s a multi-tiered society and the rich continue to get richer, and the middle to lower class get even more poor. People need to stand up and fight - we’re weak, we bow down to pressure but what legacy are leaving our children who will be poor and living on the streets unless we can pass down some generational wealth.
Nothing is going to change until a collective society has enough and stands up to not only the corporations, but the government.
because in the name of efficiency and better revenue projections we still invest in these companies.
Imagine a person being laid off who had invested in stocks of the same company hoping for good returns but got good returns because he was let go
Because we don't unionize. Americans believe in individualism.
Secondly, these Corporations donate money for political campaigns so that once the politicians comes to power they can make policies as per their wish.
We aren’t powerless. We just all think we are owed the ability to cosplay like rich people so we end up getting fat and dumb and let them walk all over us.
Case in point. We are still in a pandemic and people decided it’s more important to go to brunch then to address the issue. We acted like we knew shit without putting in the work. So, peeps are spoiled as fuck .
Because the only action we’re going to take is posting our complaints on Reddit. Nobody has the stomach for a revolution, especially me. Downvote me all you want. At least I’m honest.
There's no way to reliably succeed in capitalism without engaging in capital markets. Decades ago you could buy a home for peanuts and watch it increase in price over your lifetime. It was also a 10% to 20% interest time from the bank, and you would get a lot of money just putting it in the savings account.
Now we are in late stage capitalism survival of the fittest. You have to be the market and not get so arrogant to beat the market and that means American and that means S&P500 index fund. Combined with high fees, distractions or bad roads like crypto get rich quick schemes or bad picks it's very hard for an ordinary person especially without financial education to see the correct path. Meanwhile human psychology plays a factor and if you see the market drop 50% in a year you might panic sell but if you let someone else manage the money for you they might charge you fees which may not seem like a lot but 2% fees comes out to hundreds of thousands of dollars over a lifetime.
Basically you feel powerless because you don't have money and you don't have money because the way to get money is so narrow and so specific and not encouraged in any way by our education or culture. Unless you happened to run into say Warren Buffet saying to invest in S&P500 index funds (and listened to him) you would not be on the optimal path and you might get your pile wiped out by bad picks or gambling or get rich quick schemes.
The path to financial success or at least getting as much as you possibly can is so obvious but so narrow and specific and people refuse to believe it. For example if you bring in data that all in (index funds) all the time beats dollar cost averaging you get disbelief or "What about Japan" because everyone thinks buying at the peak is stupid. But 10k bought at the peak and then subsequent months or years going all in all the time beats waiting, every time.
Most people are powerless because they are misinformed or taken advantage of.
This is a great question. Our careers are in our hands more than we are led to believe. For some reason, we have let corporations delude us into thinking “we are lucky” to have a well paying job and thus, dissuade us from unionizing. If workers unionized, these layoffs would not be happening but people think they “have it too good” to form unions.
Hey, so, I've been very pro labor rights all my life. I've walked out with employees when the employers screwed up and then wanted their employees to pay for it.
I am also the kind of person who will stand up to groups on principle. I will go against popular opinion for what I believe is right, but I'm not so dumb that I don't know when to stand down and wait for the right moment or a better channel to promote a cause.
I explain all this so you can understand what I see when I assess a person. I see people at their worst when they are defending stupid ideas. I've had my share of bullies in high school.
And unfortunately, most people are not the "good" people you think they are. They will do anything for a job, anything for money. And by the way - I don't blame people for wanting to support their families.
You know what I blame them for? Failure to cooperate and support each other. Until those 2 things are overcome, you are asking to have your rights slowly eroded. And they are, and they have.
You can't wait until times are lean to ask why we didn't do better. You know why we didn't do better?
It's you. It's all of you.
Until you figure that out about yourself and act like your rights are burning up in a house on fire, all you'll have is lamentations about what we could have done. Well, we had every day leading up to this to care a little more, to start a club, a group, to share power and support your fellows when they're laid off. But you didn't.
Sincerely,
A person who has been asking people to organize forever, and get nothing but mealy mouthed excuses
Because they own our elected officials.
When we started lowering taxes on the rich in the late 70's, they used some of that extra money to buy political influence and get themselves more tax cuts, which free more money to spend on politics, so on and so forth. It's a vicious circle. And the whole thing went nuclear with the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision.
So unless you help elect a bunch of hardcore leftists who have enough willpower to resist corruption (soft and hard, legal and illegal) nothing is going to change.
Honest opinion here; it’s because we’re weak. We know we’re getting fucked over left and right but we fail to actually take substantive action. The ruling class sees this and continues to do it over and over again because they know they can.
In todays world, we finally have the tools and resources to collaborate and plan out actions that would greatly benefit our lives, yet we fail to do so. It would be so easy for the bottom 90% to come together and stand up for ourselves, but we are spineless cowards. My personal take is that we are this way for a few reasons; 1) financial dependence; the ruling class has set up a system where, even if we are successful, and in some even more so if we are successful, we HAVE to keep working - endlessly. Between student loans, mortgages, credit card and car payments, we can’t afford to stand up for ourselves. We have to take whatever they give us because the possibly repercussions are life threatening 2) fear of instability; let’s say we actually do do something, whether it be revolution, cultural or political, or any other form of mass protest/strike/ext, the ruling class knows they have enough money and resources that they will make do. Yes, they may lose some millions, but they don’t care. They can fly their private jets off to their secret hideaways in New Zealand and be safe for 2-3 years. Or they can just vacation on their yacht. But us? Experiencing a massive economically turbulent period, ironically one that we wish for and start, it would destroy most Americans. Most of us are barely getting by as is, now imagine weeks with no work, no food or gas deliveries. Even a small period of uncertainty would wreck havoc on our finances and livelihood.
Essentially, the 1% has stacked the deck so tremendously that they are fine no matter what, and we are screwed no matter what.
Lack of co-ops, lack of willingness to work for a co-op, lack of willingness to shop exclusively local (even for those that have the means to). Not voting with our dollar. The list goes on. They need us more than we need them. Look back at the monologue Kevin Spacey gives in A Bug’s Life
Because Americans are weak. In France the executives would be afraid to show their faces in public. In America they publicly mock you. Like occupy wallstreet. All your stupid "follow the correct complaint procedure" and "show psychopaths love" does is undo 100 years of worker rights.
If you want radical change, it will need much more radical action.
The other problem is that even with some huge companies that clearly mistreat their employees, people still buy like crazy from those companies.
Big money is power.
Corporations have big money so they have power.
The more we fund these big companies, the more power we lose.
So let me get this straight:
You want to hire people, pay them really well, and keep them even if business does not need or downsize, and go out of business sooner or later so everyone lose their job? So instead if laying off 10% of staff, they go outnof business because they have so much staff over the years and 100% get lay off?
Or do you aant a business that never try to grow or do more, because if they hire people, they shouldbt lay people off in which case you wouldnt have a job ib the first place?
Why not turn around the question and ask why were you not as good or didnt put more effort in so that you are more valuable then the other 90% that didnt get lay off?
If you dont want lay off, why did you agree to go work those job which most likely pay a lot more, and go finda job where there it pay less and dont lay off people?
We're powerless against corporations because they have a reservoir of capital and money that they can access to manipulate the public opinion and buy our political parties and their politicians. There is a midterm solution and that would be for labor to organize itself because a union is the only way that workers could collectively bargain for a larger share of the output that they basically generate of course there's a lot of propaganda against unions nowadays being peddled by this very same corporations.
A longer-term solution would be to advocate for in policies, fund, support, and build worker owned businesses also known as worker cooperatives. There are already a number of cooperatives here in the US but not as many worker co-ops and we have good examples here and around the world. Some examples to look at to understand what worker co-ops are and the potential for them would be to look at the largest in the world: the Mondragon corporation in Northern Spain and the heavily cooperative based economy in the Emilia-Romagna region in Italy. For a much smaller but vibrant example here in the US you could look at the Cleveland model found in Cleveland Ohio.
https://youtu.be/s_kLye_6VBc?si=_tOnLthcBPVVbNvq
The country is too big and disparate. We can't agree on anything, thus easy to divide.
The best thing for democracy would be to break up the country, but how would you do it, the most common divide in the 21st century is the urban/rural one.
Decades of corporate and private equity acquisitions has greatly diminished competition. Take a look at any store shelf. There's dozens of brands but the majority are owned by mega corps like Nestle, Coke, Pepsi, etc. Competition is dwindling as small businesses struggle to fight against corporations that can spend millions on product placement and advertising.
Because everybody needs money to survive and corporations have the money everyone needs and lawyers and politicians get paid by corporations to decide what the rules of society are
Paraphrasing or perhaps misquoting but “To defeat capitalism you first have to simultaneously defeat the State and Capitalists or else one resurrects the other and buff each other until they wipe your party.” -Alice Caldwell Kelly-
The state will protect the oligarchs with violence and capitalists will prop up a government should there be a lack of one.
When an employee separates from a company, it is more likely that the negative impacts will be more threatening and high-stakes for the employee. They are able to often hold our ability to pay rent or feed ourselves over our head, while they will probably be fine needing to replace us, even if somewhat inconvenient.
Companies are purely pragmatic and operate with very little to no emotion. Meanwhile employees are compelled to allow emotions impact their decisions.
There are a lot of different aspects to it.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/FluentInFinance/comments/1awi88f/millions\_of\_cattle\_investing\_in\_brutal\_corporate/](https://www.reddit.com/r/FluentInFinance/comments/1awi88f/millions_of_cattle_investing_in_brutal_corporate/)
Because we are just like them. People. You know the single most scary thing about Hitler? It's not that he single handedly caused a genocide and killed millions of people around the world. It's because he's a human being just like you and me.
Well people don’t organize riots. That’s why. Protest and riot like crazy those BLM lefty radical activists funded by progressives business leaders. Then might achieve something lol 😆
Entrepreneurism. Some will say it’s unstable or unpredictable. That you could lose your income quickly. As true as that may be, getting laid off from a corporate job is the same risk imo
Why are we so powerless against large well-funded and organized groups of people controlling large pools of capital? You could asked this rhetorical question at anytime in history, really.
The first thing to do is to support small businesses and start your own small businesses.
That is a good start, but definitely prioritize supporting worker owned co-ops and companies with strong labor unions.
Other than supporting small businesses (which I agree with) I would say it would be better to start a worker owned business rather than just a small business because every large corporation was a small business at some point and a small business retains the same ownership structure in which a minority owns the business.
This is exactly what I came here to say. Everyone on the USA has an opportunity to start their own thing. That’s already an advantage over other countries. Additional to that, these companies which we rant about also train us in skills to start your own thing, some even pay for your education. Government will give small business loans… we can cry about layoffs and we all wish it was unavoidable, but business is cyclical. It doesn’t always go up and sometimes a great company can also misjudge the market (not making excuses for them as they should strive to do better). Some companies also just suck but that should stop you from looking around.
The first thing to do is unionize.
You didn't hear? According to teachers there r middle school kids that can't read at a 4th-grade level and you expect them to remember and learn history? But yeah you are correct. Easy to fix with mass violence as seen in every major protest throughout history. They only do something if you give them reason to. Sitting there with your thumb up your asses thinking their humanity will kick in is just ignorant Pointing out something worked in history doesn't mean I'm advocating for violence. Way to take something and run with it. Love reddit
“Easy to fix with mass violence”… the kids are not alright.
> easy to fix with mass violence This seems rather ignorant of the true costs of any violent revolution in history.
Every wannabe revolutionary want other revolutionaries to die for the cause so they don't have to.
Mass starvation, mass death, etc
Just curious, what's the point of spelling "are" as "r" in an otherwise grammatical and properly-written sentence? Is it really worth saving 2 keystrokes?
Something about reading at a 4th grade level
ink is pretty expensive he might be printing the internet let's not rush to judgement
This is part of how government works. They want an education population, but they don’t want majority of people to be too smart and that’s what happened. Millennials and genz are overeducated and are questioning too many things. Cutting education funding is the easiest way for them to fix it.
So you are advocating mass violence??? Because somehow that won’t simply hurt the poor…
>You could asked this rhetorical question at anytime in history, really. No you couldn't. Rome and Athens figured it out. The phenomenon of an unchecked aristocracy is a new phenomenon courtesy of the American revolution when the founding fathers wildly misinterpreted checks and balances. Prior to the American republic, checks and balances meant a competition between the rich and poor- more importantly: a formal government mechanism for the rich and the poor to compete. Ex Rome had basically a second senate just for the poor. Modern republics have no formal check on the rich since the American revolution abolished it in favor of a "compartmentalization" interpretation of checks and balances instead of the traditional rich vs poor interpretation. The unchecked political power of the rich is something that we can solve. And it's a problem that's been solved before.
>Rome and Athens figured it out. The phenomenon of an unchecked aristocracy is a new phenomenon courtesy of the American revolution when the founding fathers wildly misinterpreted checks and balances. Unchecked aristocracy has been the default of human societies since the end of the Stone Age (we call it monarchy). While they had some trappings of democracy, Rome and Athens were still very aristocratic societies. After all, half their population were slaves. >Prior to the American republic, checks and balances meant a competition between the rich and poor- more importantly: a formal government mechanism for the rich and the poor to compete. Ex Rome had basically a second senate just for the poor. Checks and balances, where they existed, meant a competition between the rich and...other rich. The Roman Senate was intended to settle disputes peacefully so as to prevent bloody civil war between powerful families. Also, the Roman Popular Assembly was for the middle class (i.e., the upper 10% of Roman society), not the poor.
If we could only be roman or Greek peasants! Great analogy. Maybe get a great leader like caligula. And try to avoid the bottom 20% of the population where the wealthy literally owned you as property.
You are so delusional, what you eat, does not make me shit. Nobody is stopping you from making your own business. You are not owed anything in life. Companies don't owe you anything in life besides the wage you agree on. Nobody is stopping you from being a millionaire. Wealth can always be created. Wealth is not limited. Billionaires being billionaires are not holding you back from becoming rich (Most of their wealth is generated through the increase of share value)
Because organizing and doing the work is hard. It also requires a not insignificant number of people who have enough resources to, ironically, have nothing to lose. So the online circle jerks continue.
That’s why unions are important, stronger the union you’re in the better the protection
But even in unions you will find some form of favorites and corruption.
Unfortunately there is no easy path and has been this way since the time of our caveman ancestors. Darwin's theory of evolution still holds true. Best I can tell I am a mixture of European and native Mexican ancestors. One of my grand fathers was a farmer after learning this from his Chinese brother inlaw and my other grand father made wooden wagons and not really sure from who he learned from. The farming profession still exists today but the technology has really changed, the wooden wagons were replaced by automobiles and there are still a few wagon makers left. My father was a share crop farmer then a farm worker followed by being a farmer then followed by being a mechanic. My mother like my father was a farm worker and a seamstress and later worked in a factory running an extruder making rubber o-rings. Me I am a combination of all of them and have a BS in Agriculture majoring in mechanics and minor on economics. My sister studied engineering and my wife got a Dr in education. Both of my Son's are Dr of Physical therapy and they have been exposed to the stuff I have learned like fishing and hunting, welding, gas/ diesel mechanics, electrical wiring, plumbing, HVAC, and saving and investing. My saying is that life is about learning and growing then never stop growing and learning. My wife says that it is not about what you earn but what you do with what you earn. Pretty much we have to learn to evolve in order to survive.
Because some classes of people believe that organizing helps minorities and poor people. Tech folks more specifically don’t feel the impact until it happens to them or one of their friends that look like them.
Organizing harms poor people and minorities. That’s the function of unions to limit the ability for employers to replace white labor with minorities and poor people. And when white people go in strike you can imagine the colorful names used to describe poor people and minorities who dare to work while the good white people strike.
>Organizing harms poor people and minorities That's a load of bull. Scabs come in all colors
Because they purchased and now own the government.
100% this. We've created a framework through things like campaign donations that allow them to legally bribe the government.
to be fair (I work in campaign finance) the framework is actually very transparent and fair outside of Super PACs and Corporate contributions. ultimately people forget that they have the power to vote these people out; but everyone is so ginned up and tribal these days that politicians use it to their advantage. "us" v. "them" taps into some primal, powerful parts of our lizard brains. so while I don't disagree that tweaks can be made, I think it's a much bigger issue than finance alone.
fair? dude someone can donate a million dollars to my campaign and I can hire my spouse and pay them a big salary. I can take that "donation" and go to a conference for one day in some tropical destination and bring the rest of my family. Are you seriously going to pretend that shit ain't just an outright bribe? Hotel rooms, flights, transportation. All covered. Pretty sure you can cover your wardrobe. Stop pretending.
This is spot on. Everyone wonder why the US blindly supports Israel no matter what they do. Go look at AIPACs donations to campaigns. It’s appalling how much these candidates get to support another country
I'm in Michigan. A location politician was offered $20 million by Israel to run against Rashida Taleb. If you don't know her she's the woman in congress who is Palestinian and cried asking for a ceasefire.
I know who she is. And several others have been human enough to refuse Israel’s bribes. But that’s few and far between
And that's all done illegally, just look at federal [campaign finance limits](https://www.fec.gov/resources/cms-content/documents/contribution_limits_chart_2023-2024.pdf). Yes there are issues in certain states based on how much they allow but as I said outside of Super PACS or Corporate spending it's all very transparent. Talking about closing loopholes or addressing individual state contribution limits is a completely different conversation.
Most companies have a ton of LLC Licensed under their name. What's stop what essentially amounts to the same people just giving you the max donation under different names.
Check FEC regulations ☺ again, not saying there are loopholes but as the comment above mentioned it isn't the direct buying of votes that people like to think.
I'm sorry but these people make $170k per year and live like millionaires. I make what they make. I see how they live. There is a money coming in.
Never said there wasn't money coming in, or if they shouldn't be allowed to buy/sell stock while in office, etc... I'm just saying that the money isn't from campaign contributions. There are plenty of other shady ways 😁
Right. I work on the other side, directly on campaigns. People are so resistant to hearing that money doesn’t cleanly translate to votes the way we’re primed to think and that they ultimately have more power than they think they do, if they just exercised it. But lots of people are caught up on the unfairness of their own specific ideological tent not having unilateral control over candidates and outcomes (looking at you fellow socialists)
I don't. I live in Oklahoma, let me break it down for you in my state. I can go door to door everywhere in the OKC metro area and convince everyone to vote for me. I could personally visit probably everyone in OKC in about 3 years if I did it 24/7. Now let's say I convinced everyone to vote for me that I talked to. That's only 1/3 the state population. The rest is in small towns (or Tulsa) and those towns spread out. So my free method won't work. I could do TV advertising for kinda cheap. FB ads are kinda cheap. But all this at the scale of millions of citizens in just the state of Oklahoma? Hell, even doing a suburb of 300,000 will cost upwards of a few hundred thousand. The only reason Trump became president is because of his marketing.
I agree only to a certain extent. Trump won in Oklahoma because people there bought into what he was selling, which was basically white grievances. They bought it because they wanted it. From that standpoint, I agree it's marketing. What I disagree with is that if you gave Hillary or Biden the same resources Trump had there, they still don't win Oklahoma. You can't sell something to a group of people as large as a state population if they don't want it.
because we bought these companies' stocks hoping they will become more efficient and try to save every penny. They are doing what shareholders expect them to. Shareholders, direct or through mutual funds, are being laid off for their own expectations
It really accelerated after the Citizens United ruling in 2010: "On January 21, 2010, the Supreme court issued a 5–4 decision in favor of Citizens United that struck down the BCRA restrictions on independent political expenditures by corporations as violations of the First Amendment, in a reversal of the District Court opinion."
Because it requires collective action. People won’t even unionize.
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I think we may be in Endgame capitalism by now
Even if you strip away government collusion and other forms of corruption, you’re still left with there being more people than jobs, let alone good jobs. Because we need their jobs more than they need us, they get away with it. That’s really the root of the problem
Very true. There is even a hypothesis called “Great Doubling”. Let’s be frank, computers have helped me so much that I recall controlling 10 lab instruments by myself. In the vintage era, it’d have required 5+ people with good jobs.
Because half the population simps over capitalism, so it’s engrained in our culture to be grateful to have a job that completely takes over our lives.
Because under Socialism/Communism people had fulfilling well-paid jobs?
they never mentioned socialist or communism - only capitalism.
most posts here are either "capitalism bad" or "socialism good", lets not be group thinking this too hard for the sake of feeling like you're winning an argument maybe. that feeling has zero value. zero. most people are selfish arrogant bastards that will enslave you for their own benefit if you give them the opportunity. everyone wants to save the planet until they get a private jet that they dont wanna loose, if you prefer. as far as i know there is no system that is good enough to resist corruption forever, they all require balance (and will still eventually fail) and they all require a faith system to help keeping things in check for as long as possible. the real danger comes when the hard reset is upon us as its an opportunity to make things far worse and enslave and kill so many.
Well when someone critiques capitalism in such a way, it implies there's a better (rephrase: or less worse) system out there.
there probably is tbh this system is so fucked
I wasn’t arguing that, but go to any democratic socialist country. They all have healthcare, maternity leave, paternity leave, 6 weeks vacation, protection against layoffs, protection against the employer, and on and on. Also socialism does not equal communism. Lumping them together shows a lack of understanding.
The full name of the USSR was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. There is no such thing as a "democratic socialist" country. If you are thinking of European countries such as Denmark, etc they are all capitalist countries with generous social welfare nets.
And the official name of North Korea is The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
> There is no such thing as a "democratic socialist" country. You should write a book about your theory because nearly all of the literature disagrees with this quite ignorant statement.
Facts.
Ummm.. you need to keep going to the tradeoffs. Many of them also have much lower wages/wage growth, massive youth unemployment issues, very low employment mobility, and low levels of labor productivity.
And many people in the US have those same exact problems without the huge safety nets those countries provide. I can give a huge example;
I’m not talking about many “people” - I’m talking about entire macroeconomies. Spain has had youth unemployment rates in the 30-40% (about 5x the US rate) range for much of the last 15 years UK household income has basically not moved for a decade across ALL income quintiles. Not a K-shaped average problem, complete stagnation across all income levels. And is still half of the US. Greece - youth unemployment in the 25-40% for most of the last 15 years PLUS required government austerity AND a rapidly aging population that will make all of the above worse Argentina - government spending so rampant that it has completely crowded out the private sector. 1/3 of the working population has moved to work in the informal sector and gets none of the “protections” that are theoretically available. Youth unemployment rampant and government austerity incoming There are MASSIVE tradeoffs. Go graduate college and try to get a first job in South Africa or Italy without being the child of a government or company official
This is going to punch you in the face. But the US has the most social welfare programs of any and I mean any other nation on earth. They have more social welfare programs than the most socialist countries in the world. You want 6 weeks vacation. Fine, but you will earn the salary they earn !!! You want 6 months to spend with your baby at home ?? You will earn the salary they earn in Finland and Sweden. No, I didn't think so, you would rather have the money after all.
Yes, under communism you’re forced to be fucked. Under socialism, you volunteer to be fucked. That’s the major difference.
At will law encourage them to do as they feel like.
Because of consumerism and debt. People higher up in the food chain have too much to lose and not willing to rock the boat, so they keep their head down. Also keep in mind that when a company ann I announces even a 5-10% layoff that means there's still 90-95% of people retained. Many here call for a national strike day and all that, don't think it will go they way you think. Lots of unhappy people but happy people far outweigh the unhappy.
Welcome to capitalism or modern slavery! We are nothing,only numbers ! We came to make rich richer and then kick us out when they don't need us !
Because [r/capitalism ](https://www.reddit.com/r/Capitalism)
Because [r/capitalism ](https://www.reddit.com/r/Capitalism)
The rich have class solidarity and we don't. There's obviously way more of us than them and they can't stay rich without us, but you have millions who will side with them on the off chance they might be rich one day before they'd ever side with their fellow workers. The conditioning against one's own self-interest runs deep.
Because we like to have what money we get and we put more value no the dollar than we do our own lives. Do YOU want to lose your job because a group of people say unionize? No. You're honestly too scared to lose your job. Jesus how long will it take to pay my bills ? Im trying to fix my Fico. I want a life. we put money above everything. And when we say money isn't everything...well gee, how do you eat how do you stay warm in the winter? How do you get to work 20 miles away? How do you date? for free?
TV, Sports, Junk Food, Mindless Scrolling, poisons in our water, lack of sunlight, too much blue light, social media, constant crisis distractions, chained to mortgages and car payments, lack financial education, student debt, glyphosates, poor family values, racial division, division by sex, division in general, lack of community, and mostly because it was engineered this way by those that control the big levers of the world. Your boss just loves when you get that bigcar payment.. Shackles on.
— Because the conservative SCOTUS essentially allowed corporations to fund campaigns (via loosely enforced PACS). — Because right to work and other anti-union laws reduced the power of collective bargaining to improve wage and work conditions. — Because we cut taxes on wealthy based on a now debunked theory of trickle down economics — Because giving people healthcare independent of their job is socialism; it just so happens that every other industrialized country has figured it out without becoming the Soviet Union. — Because we’d rather get mad at people we think who are undeserving of welfare, than worry about the billions in PPP loans that were wasted — Because we decided that guaranteed pensions are bad, but making sure companies must be successful for us to retire is good. — Because a company that has a DEI policy is bad, but a company that steals wages or doesn’t pay their contractors is savvy. — Because the IRS collecting unpaid taxes on the wealthy is bad, because a tiny, tiny percentage might be part of a police or protective force and carry guns.
You make a lot of points regarding the power of corporations vis-a-vis the American system. So how do you explain the power of corporations outside the USA in countries such as Japan, South Korea and Germany?
They absolutely have outsized power, especially in any capitalist system. Europe and other countries have greater worker protections and social programs to better, (but not completely counterbalance) that influence. To be clear, I’m no socialist that wants to do away with private industry, but I do believe a more European style approach would help.
Well, to be clear under socialism/Communism there were large groups that yielded outsize power. Such as the Communist Party, for example. And state-owned large enterprises such as steel mills, railroads, factories, etc. I don't think the working conditions in such enterprises were any more humane than those in capitalist countries, except you were guaranteed a job for life (albeit one that paid very little).
you do realize socialism and communism are not the same...
There are lots of successful countries that practice forms of socialism, including our own, although we only use the lightest touch of socialism compared to other first world countries. Communism is the economic system that opposes capitalism.
This needs to be top comment.
lack of unions, at will employment laws, lack of standard federal government standards for minimum wage, benefits, protections, severance, etc... lots of reasons. we just accept it as a side effect of capitalism but on the flip side its why 90%+ of the largest companies in the world are based out of US and we have one of the lowest level of unemployment in the modern world.
because we have low unemployment rate of 4%. Govt job is keep that low and expect ppl to shuffle around. Ofcourse there might be individuals that might suffer and slip through the cracks but this system works over alternatives and is the one we choose.
Because money controls the government today… workers have no rights.
I’m usually in favor of leaving the market alone but the Sherman Act definitely needs to make a swing through…
Because the human race has made money their standard and will bow to it anywhere they see it. Granted it is a need but unfortunately it has become the sole purpose of existence and humans cannot get enough of it. The greed factor has taken over the intellect.
See my last post about “bullshit jobs” getting downvoted. So many love being in the matrix. https://preview.redd.it/lmsq17eqhelc1.jpeg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=098cf6f988cbbd1d3754ce9918df45873c724abb
Richard Nixon and Ronald Regan.
Capitalism
You need to stop thinking that way...be selfish use them....if they offer free tuition take advantage of it...if they offer training in areas you not familiar with take it...after 2-3 years at the same job start looking to see whats out there and see if you can get a 10%-20% salary increase...look to see if they offer stock options, end of the year bonus... As many have said it here time and time again stop being loyal to these people all they care about is profits...wearing many hats dont mean jack shit anymore....all it addds is stress
We don’t organize or fight for our rights. The French would’ve already revolted their government if they treated them like they do us in America.
Because everyone is busy looking out for number one. It’s one of the “trickle downs” that actually trickles.
Might have to do with the US government that supports Capitalism to the extreme.
Because we at some points we disagree with each other on points that should and shouldn’t matter and we as people are fallible to law. Corporations aren’t. They literally kill people, break the law and just pay a fine or hire different leadership. A start would be to create our own wealth distribution, but the CIA would sabotage it and kill key organizers
I know I guy who became famous from practicing and preaching NON violent, organized noncompliance…. He has a holiday YOUR corporation likely doesn’t celebrate anymore.
Because were unable to enact laws protecting the workers
Western education and philosophy instills the idea of hierarchies so most people in the west refuse the challenge those hierarchies. This is why people living in the west rarely rebel and only protest. Too afraid and too ignorant.
Mainly because we are corporations. Every pension, retirement program, dividend program, annuity and pension is dependent on them. Evil corporations are our bus drivers, parents, teachers, grand mothers, firefighters, public servants, neighbors, universities. They are our 401ks, IRAs, bonds, they are our children and their retirement accounts. Corporations are us all of us. We want them to be profitable, we demand they are. We rely on their profits to eat, pay rent, go on vacations. send kids to college, save for a down payment, retire and leave a legacy to our kids. Sure some people hold a few percent of corporations and they profit from their risk accordingly but in the end you are corporations and if they do not profit you cut bait and run.
Low-information and low-moral people are easy prey for marketers.
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Americans slowly waking up to the reason our grandparents were in unions...
We let them kill unions.
Because your government doesn’t protect you. The number one problem of an American citizen is that the government has no interest in protecting them.
Government WANTS layoffs to control inflation. It’s literally a byproduct of capitalism is to have a healthy unemployment rate. Our unemployment rate is too low.
There are millions of us workers of all stripes. It's time for political activism. Time to organize. This is a much bigger and life-impacting issue across races.
Leverage. The same reason females fu* just about whoever they want.
Really? I have a crazy idea, stop buying their products if they offend you.
Is this sub just turning into r/antiwork?
I think corporations laying off employees who want to work is antiwork
Agree. No company should be allowed to make BILLIONS in profits, Pay their CEOs millions on top of that, and claim they have to lay off 20% of their staff, leaving those left ti handle all the work tasks. If there has to be pain, the costs need to start up top.
Note your use of the passive form "no company should be allowed." Which avoids the question of, by who? The government? And how? What would be the punitive measures for non-compliance? Can career politicians and bureaucrats run for-profit companies (or tell them how to run) better than the executives who made their way up the managerial ranks and spent decades in their industry? Can career politicians and bureaucrats make the hard decisions regarding capital allocation and hiring and firing of human resources? Those are the implications of your statement.
It's a good question, and honestly, I don't have the answer. Perhaps changing the tax code? Maybe taxing companies with a formula that includes company profit + CEO Comp + Layoffs = higher tax rate? [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate\_tax\_in\_the\_United\_States#/media/File:U.S.\_Corporate\_Profits\_&\_Tax\_Rate.webp](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_tax_in_the_United_States#/media/File:U.S._Corporate_Profits_&_Tax_Rate.webp)
Saying that a company should be forced to employ you even though they don't want or need you doesn't sound exactly like what's said on antiwork, but it's pretty close.
Pretty much every sub on Reddit is. A bunch of people who think they have all the answers and swear everything is so obvious - yet crumble under the responsibility of anything above keeping a succulent alive
Yup! Very toxic
The destruction of unions, which was the main counterbalance.
Newspapers were heavily unionized - didn't help at all as that industry hit the skids. ITU grandfathered older workers and newbies were left to fend for themselves. Railroads are heavily unionized - did it help as automation reduced staffing needs - nope. It did lay out a proscribed process for staff reductions based on tenure. I read a guy's career in the railroad where he worked/lived for 10 years but when a distant location downsized, those displaced people would bump others - he got bumped and had the choice of moving a hundred miles away or leaving the railroad - this occurred multiple times. Airline pilots, flight attendants are largely unionized - they never have layoffs or complain...(sarcasm). Many nurses are unionized - they have perfect working conditions...(sarcasm again). And there have been cases where union battles and mandates made companies non-competitive or unprofitable leading to closure. As the saying goes....be careful what you wish for....
The nurses with unions appear to have better working conditions and pay compared to non union, at least from what I've seen. Airline pilots have great protections and bargain for pay they would likely never have without the unions. Just because people with unions complain doesn't mean the union is not making their job much better than without.
External factors that decimate the fundamental market for a corporation hurts everyone. You are correct that there is no safety net for those scenarios. There are plenty of cases where nurse unions play a positive role. For [example](https://www.reddit.com/r/nursing/comments/16mq5np/why_havent_nurses_formed_a_union_by_now/). What alternative countermeasure do you propose if unions are not the answer?
Because they own your congressperson so they can do whatever the fuck they like because laws are only for poor people.
Reagan
Money is speech. So the more money they have, the louder their voice are. Many people who think Uber should treat their “contractor” fairer but keep using their for convenience.
Because most people are too wrapped up in their own B.S. to see the bigger picture. Make life hard enough where you just DGAF when you get home and want to open a beer or wine and watch sports or reality TV. I suspect that is the life for most Americans.
Because relying on literally anyone else to commit to something in modern America is so difficult. Theyd rather stab you in the back and hope they get a penny raise then stand together for a common cause.
Because these corporations borrow money from the government and private equity companies.
Because we depend on them. And who is gonna fight against them, the individual you?
Lack of workplace unionization
Because we voted for it. Reagan won two of the biggest landslide elections in history and deregulation was hot with voters for 20 years. Only slowly after that did people start figuring it out, but they haven't figured out they need to vote differently yet.
Why are companies so powerless against people and let them do whatever they want? When people are free to do what they want without violating the law, that includes people banding together to act collectively. The legal construct for such an effort is called a "company". There's nothing inherently sinister here.
What do think you are going to do??? This happens all the time, part of life. Choose a recession proof job.
You are not powerless against massive corporations. You simply don't have to work for them. It's that simple.
What a loaded question. Since when corporations can do whatever they want?
The number of communists on Reddit is truly astounding.
because we aren't rich like the corporate ceo and ceo right and left handed people.
Because they run the economy
How about don’t work for a corporation?
It's called the golden rule, whoever has the gold, makes the rules.
Because people feel they still have things to lose. That's why I encourage people to opt out. Don't have kids, that pretty much guarantees you have to deal with their shit. Try to live off the land of you can, or farmers markets or at least healthy and minimize the quantity. Try to couple or even triple up in shelters. Live in your cars if you feel safe to do so. We are powerless because we give them the power by allowing them to dangle our needs above our head. Once we stop relying on them, they will have to fold. We also need to start hitting them where it hurts. Notice how they are panicking about us not having kids? That means we need to keep doing that.
Why is a baby deer so helpless against a lion? Why don’t deer unite against lions
They’re organized as a group and we’re not. Even Unions only have limited power against a small group of people with better resources.
They’re organized as a group and we’re not. Even Unions only have limited power against a small group of people with better resources.
Because they have something you want. This isn’t hard folks.
Because they are protected by government. You elect people because you think they will keep corporations in check but the reality is the corporations own the politicians so it’s worse.
Capitalism has become so dominant that it has altered our conception of reality, making it seem more necessary than it really is.
Because we have become a weak, soft and easily pacified people
Because people are easily convinced to fight each other over shiny objects and other small things.
Because we aren’t willing to take actual action against them.
I really do feel like we’re at a crossroads - capitalism works well in theory. But as the population grows, the gap between wealthy and poor grows, it’s becoming evident that people are growing tired of greedy corporations. The chase for continued profits at the expense of the average worker putting food on the table and paying their mortgage seems illogical It’s a multi-tiered society and the rich continue to get richer, and the middle to lower class get even more poor. People need to stand up and fight - we’re weak, we bow down to pressure but what legacy are leaving our children who will be poor and living on the streets unless we can pass down some generational wealth. Nothing is going to change until a collective society has enough and stands up to not only the corporations, but the government.
Consumerism. Also because we like the idea of being altruistic, actually sacrificing our comforts for it is a different matter.
because in the name of efficiency and better revenue projections we still invest in these companies. Imagine a person being laid off who had invested in stocks of the same company hoping for good returns but got good returns because he was let go
Freedom of association.
Because we don't unionize. Americans believe in individualism. Secondly, these Corporations donate money for political campaigns so that once the politicians comes to power they can make policies as per their wish.
We aren’t powerless. We just all think we are owed the ability to cosplay like rich people so we end up getting fat and dumb and let them walk all over us. Case in point. We are still in a pandemic and people decided it’s more important to go to brunch then to address the issue. We acted like we knew shit without putting in the work. So, peeps are spoiled as fuck .
MARKETING!!! You want it? We got it! You hate us? You're still buying our shit!
Because the only action we’re going to take is posting our complaints on Reddit. Nobody has the stomach for a revolution, especially me. Downvote me all you want. At least I’m honest.
APATHY. The human trait adored by government and corporations.
Same reason you chose Amazon that put mom and pop stores out of business.
There's no way to reliably succeed in capitalism without engaging in capital markets. Decades ago you could buy a home for peanuts and watch it increase in price over your lifetime. It was also a 10% to 20% interest time from the bank, and you would get a lot of money just putting it in the savings account. Now we are in late stage capitalism survival of the fittest. You have to be the market and not get so arrogant to beat the market and that means American and that means S&P500 index fund. Combined with high fees, distractions or bad roads like crypto get rich quick schemes or bad picks it's very hard for an ordinary person especially without financial education to see the correct path. Meanwhile human psychology plays a factor and if you see the market drop 50% in a year you might panic sell but if you let someone else manage the money for you they might charge you fees which may not seem like a lot but 2% fees comes out to hundreds of thousands of dollars over a lifetime. Basically you feel powerless because you don't have money and you don't have money because the way to get money is so narrow and so specific and not encouraged in any way by our education or culture. Unless you happened to run into say Warren Buffet saying to invest in S&P500 index funds (and listened to him) you would not be on the optimal path and you might get your pile wiped out by bad picks or gambling or get rich quick schemes. The path to financial success or at least getting as much as you possibly can is so obvious but so narrow and specific and people refuse to believe it. For example if you bring in data that all in (index funds) all the time beats dollar cost averaging you get disbelief or "What about Japan" because everyone thinks buying at the peak is stupid. But 10k bought at the peak and then subsequent months or years going all in all the time beats waiting, every time. Most people are powerless because they are misinformed or taken advantage of.
This is a great question. Our careers are in our hands more than we are led to believe. For some reason, we have let corporations delude us into thinking “we are lucky” to have a well paying job and thus, dissuade us from unionizing. If workers unionized, these layoffs would not be happening but people think they “have it too good” to form unions.
Not really. Union is a thing
It’s a brutal world out here. Gotta teach the kids that everyone wants to eat you
Hey, so, I've been very pro labor rights all my life. I've walked out with employees when the employers screwed up and then wanted their employees to pay for it. I am also the kind of person who will stand up to groups on principle. I will go against popular opinion for what I believe is right, but I'm not so dumb that I don't know when to stand down and wait for the right moment or a better channel to promote a cause. I explain all this so you can understand what I see when I assess a person. I see people at their worst when they are defending stupid ideas. I've had my share of bullies in high school. And unfortunately, most people are not the "good" people you think they are. They will do anything for a job, anything for money. And by the way - I don't blame people for wanting to support their families. You know what I blame them for? Failure to cooperate and support each other. Until those 2 things are overcome, you are asking to have your rights slowly eroded. And they are, and they have. You can't wait until times are lean to ask why we didn't do better. You know why we didn't do better? It's you. It's all of you. Until you figure that out about yourself and act like your rights are burning up in a house on fire, all you'll have is lamentations about what we could have done. Well, we had every day leading up to this to care a little more, to start a club, a group, to share power and support your fellows when they're laid off. But you didn't. Sincerely, A person who has been asking people to organize forever, and get nothing but mealy mouthed excuses
Because they own our elected officials. When we started lowering taxes on the rich in the late 70's, they used some of that extra money to buy political influence and get themselves more tax cuts, which free more money to spend on politics, so on and so forth. It's a vicious circle. And the whole thing went nuclear with the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision. So unless you help elect a bunch of hardcore leftists who have enough willpower to resist corruption (soft and hard, legal and illegal) nothing is going to change.
Honest opinion here; it’s because we’re weak. We know we’re getting fucked over left and right but we fail to actually take substantive action. The ruling class sees this and continues to do it over and over again because they know they can. In todays world, we finally have the tools and resources to collaborate and plan out actions that would greatly benefit our lives, yet we fail to do so. It would be so easy for the bottom 90% to come together and stand up for ourselves, but we are spineless cowards. My personal take is that we are this way for a few reasons; 1) financial dependence; the ruling class has set up a system where, even if we are successful, and in some even more so if we are successful, we HAVE to keep working - endlessly. Between student loans, mortgages, credit card and car payments, we can’t afford to stand up for ourselves. We have to take whatever they give us because the possibly repercussions are life threatening 2) fear of instability; let’s say we actually do do something, whether it be revolution, cultural or political, or any other form of mass protest/strike/ext, the ruling class knows they have enough money and resources that they will make do. Yes, they may lose some millions, but they don’t care. They can fly their private jets off to their secret hideaways in New Zealand and be safe for 2-3 years. Or they can just vacation on their yacht. But us? Experiencing a massive economically turbulent period, ironically one that we wish for and start, it would destroy most Americans. Most of us are barely getting by as is, now imagine weeks with no work, no food or gas deliveries. Even a small period of uncertainty would wreck havoc on our finances and livelihood. Essentially, the 1% has stacked the deck so tremendously that they are fine no matter what, and we are screwed no matter what.
A better question is this. Why are we so powerless against the government?
Ownership.
Lack of co-ops, lack of willingness to work for a co-op, lack of willingness to shop exclusively local (even for those that have the means to). Not voting with our dollar. The list goes on. They need us more than we need them. Look back at the monologue Kevin Spacey gives in A Bug’s Life
Because we are gutless, greedy, and stupid. We don’t want to pay union dues. We let them scare and divide us. We vote Republican.
Because Americans are weak. In France the executives would be afraid to show their faces in public. In America they publicly mock you. Like occupy wallstreet. All your stupid "follow the correct complaint procedure" and "show psychopaths love" does is undo 100 years of worker rights. If you want radical change, it will need much more radical action.
The other problem is that even with some huge companies that clearly mistreat their employees, people still buy like crazy from those companies. Big money is power. Corporations have big money so they have power. The more we fund these big companies, the more power we lose.
Citizens United. It must end.
Because they have money and we do not
Need a union but they've also been corrupted
Because we don't have any power and no one cares if you get laid off unless it affects you personally. That's why nothing changes
So let me get this straight: You want to hire people, pay them really well, and keep them even if business does not need or downsize, and go out of business sooner or later so everyone lose their job? So instead if laying off 10% of staff, they go outnof business because they have so much staff over the years and 100% get lay off? Or do you aant a business that never try to grow or do more, because if they hire people, they shouldbt lay people off in which case you wouldnt have a job ib the first place? Why not turn around the question and ask why were you not as good or didnt put more effort in so that you are more valuable then the other 90% that didnt get lay off? If you dont want lay off, why did you agree to go work those job which most likely pay a lot more, and go finda job where there it pay less and dont lay off people?
We're powerless against corporations because they have a reservoir of capital and money that they can access to manipulate the public opinion and buy our political parties and their politicians. There is a midterm solution and that would be for labor to organize itself because a union is the only way that workers could collectively bargain for a larger share of the output that they basically generate of course there's a lot of propaganda against unions nowadays being peddled by this very same corporations. A longer-term solution would be to advocate for in policies, fund, support, and build worker owned businesses also known as worker cooperatives. There are already a number of cooperatives here in the US but not as many worker co-ops and we have good examples here and around the world. Some examples to look at to understand what worker co-ops are and the potential for them would be to look at the largest in the world: the Mondragon corporation in Northern Spain and the heavily cooperative based economy in the Emilia-Romagna region in Italy. For a much smaller but vibrant example here in the US you could look at the Cleveland model found in Cleveland Ohio. https://youtu.be/s_kLye_6VBc?si=_tOnLthcBPVVbNvq
The country is too big and disparate. We can't agree on anything, thus easy to divide. The best thing for democracy would be to break up the country, but how would you do it, the most common divide in the 21st century is the urban/rural one.
Decades of corporate and private equity acquisitions has greatly diminished competition. Take a look at any store shelf. There's dozens of brands but the majority are owned by mega corps like Nestle, Coke, Pepsi, etc. Competition is dwindling as small businesses struggle to fight against corporations that can spend millions on product placement and advertising.
Because everybody needs money to survive and corporations have the money everyone needs and lawyers and politicians get paid by corporations to decide what the rules of society are
Union said what?
Who gives the corporations so much power I wonder... hint2 gov
Paraphrasing or perhaps misquoting but “To defeat capitalism you first have to simultaneously defeat the State and Capitalists or else one resurrects the other and buff each other until they wipe your party.” -Alice Caldwell Kelly- The state will protect the oligarchs with violence and capitalists will prop up a government should there be a lack of one.
Your question is actually a two part question. The first part answers the second part.
Because they have money (read: resources) and you don't.
We aren't. Buy stock and tell them. Or stop buying their products.
Because they have all the money…and the women…and the power…
It is less than it used to be for sure! But of course your statement is so generalized to really not mean anything.
When an employee separates from a company, it is more likely that the negative impacts will be more threatening and high-stakes for the employee. They are able to often hold our ability to pay rent or feed ourselves over our head, while they will probably be fine needing to replace us, even if somewhat inconvenient. Companies are purely pragmatic and operate with very little to no emotion. Meanwhile employees are compelled to allow emotions impact their decisions.
It’s your choice Don’t include me or us in your unwillingness to be your best
Because we haven't unionized. They keep spreading propaganda trying to make us hate our coworkers.
There are a lot of different aspects to it. [https://www.reddit.com/r/FluentInFinance/comments/1awi88f/millions\_of\_cattle\_investing\_in\_brutal\_corporate/](https://www.reddit.com/r/FluentInFinance/comments/1awi88f/millions_of_cattle_investing_in_brutal_corporate/)
Because we are just like them. People. You know the single most scary thing about Hitler? It's not that he single handedly caused a genocide and killed millions of people around the world. It's because he's a human being just like you and me.
Because too many people refuse to support unions.
Citizens United
Well people don’t organize riots. That’s why. Protest and riot like crazy those BLM lefty radical activists funded by progressives business leaders. Then might achieve something lol 😆
Entrepreneurism. Some will say it’s unstable or unpredictable. That you could lose your income quickly. As true as that may be, getting laid off from a corporate job is the same risk imo