I was thinking more like volunteering to work an extra shift, or being ready to cover for other employees who don't come in, or asking to learn the new system, or trying to become a supervisor. Small steps, not completing a PhD. But, as far as education goes, here's the sad reality: opportunities in this world, while not fixed in number, are not unlimited either. And most all the ones that will pay for the house with a white picket fence, 2.2 kids, a decent car, and a Caribbean cruise every 10 years require effort, commitment, and investment. That stuff, while common and mundane, does not come to the vast majority of people just for showing up. If you want the better life, what are you prepared to do to get it? Education can be expensive, and must--like all things--be subjected to a costs vs benefits analysis. You may like Italian poetry, but borrowing $100,000 to read Dante for four years could be ill-advised. Maybe taking the two year IT program at your local community college would be a better idea. If you talk yourself out of education--all education--what do you expect to attain? You know what you learned in high school (probably not all that much) and what you've gleaned from the Discovery Channel. Well, everyone has that. What makes you worthy of an opportunity over the guy who took a couple of semesters at the community college or the gal who did an unpaid internship? If you wait around for the world to provide for you--or expect politicians to get it done--you've got a long wait coming. I know that I'm giving a dad talk here--"You've got to work hard if you want to be something in this life, son"--but it's the truth. It really is. And if your mindset is pessimistic, if you're not looking for opportunities, you probably won't be something, especially if you're not starting with much to begin with.
Next time around? Has a single one of the adherents to Trickle Down/Faith Based Economics even acknowledged the discrepancy between reality and their prophecies THIS time around? Or is it just like one of those end of the world cults where once the hyped date passes all the members are like ‘what date?’?
Here's the thing. You don't actually pull yourself up. You provide reasons for others to give you opportunities. "I know something, give me the job." "I've shown commitment, give me the promotion." "I've worked hard, give me the raise." It doesn't always work, but it doesn't have to. Every time it does, you're better off and better situated to repeat the process. I dunno, if a few classes at a community college or an internship or trying to get a supervisor position is asking too much, your chances are not good. Better to vote yourself a higher wage, I guess.
"Why should I have to work? Bernie promised me Free Shit!" Despite what the minimum wage hike fans are saying, raising the cost of labor reduces opportunities. It's one of the drivers of automation (why spend $50/hour for thirty years on that unionized assembly-line worker when you can buy a robot for 1/10th of that cost?) and has second-order effects like business that might have started up in your area going somewhere else. Labor is not the one magical aspect of the economy that is not subject to supply and demand. Employers want to pay as little as they can get away with, and employees want to be paid as much as they can get. Negotiations start there. When a third party (government) comes in and declares by fiat that the floor is X, that removes reality from the equation. A business will look at that and say "well, if the minimum is X, then everyone gets the minimum." Labor now has less leverage. But none of this really matters. Automation is going to turn this whole calculation on its head anyway.
As far as I can tell, @Tuttle actually employs people and probably pays a fair share of taxes that in turn support his community You live with your parents and write movie blogs Who the fuck are you to be laughing? What are you contributing?
I contribute plenty, but it doesn't cause industrial pollution, and human rights violations in other countries, so you won't ever respect it if I explained it to you. So, why bother? I'd have better luck selling atheism to Dayton.
There is no point. The guys who yell FREE SHIT really believe it, or believe enough of it so they don't have to think about what capitalism has done to the planet, and to other people. They've either been shamed into believing that if you're not working your life away making money that you're a failure, or that they've bought the lie that they pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and are clever entrepreneurs rather than more cogs in the machine. They'll be rich some day.
Or "they" realize that There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch and that politicians who promise free shit are just pandering for votes. Government can't give Fred something without taking it from Brian first.
No one's asking for a free lunch, they're asking for a lunchbox without a human turd and a picture of a middle finger in it. If your reaction to that basic request is "ssss...I dunno...that's a big ask...", you're part of the problem.
This. Nothing is free because it requires labor and resources. The point is to balance the need for labor, and the utilization of resources so that everyone benefits without one group being given a hierarchical advantage over another person.
J, you've already established several times over that you don't have an accurate grasp on what is happening in the world today You take the worst, most extreme examples and apply them to society overall So forgive me if I find it incredibly difficult to take you seriously at this point
You're completely oblivious to the suffering of people you profit from every day. Their blood is your money.
Hierarchal advantage is all they stand for. They preach hard work, but "illegals", are willing to work to death, and they're hated for it. They preach success, but look how they treat Anc and garamet. And how they shit blood over George Soros. Nope, you need to be successful, and white, and male, and conservative, and have a bullshit bootstrap origin story. Or, pretend to be those things on the internet.
True. It's all about personal gain. It doesn't matter who they hurt, what they destroy, as long as they stand to gain from it. The moment someone tries to right that massive inequality, there is resistance, because you're messing up their supposed "sure thing." They mock people for "free shit" but the corporations they worship get free shit all of the time, on the taxpayer's dime, but it's okay because it turns the profit and they believe it gets them closer to their surety of riches, just around the next corner. They go against human nature because they've been taught by those who lack empathy that the only path to true success and human advancement is through the dollar.
"Automation will happen anyway." As the costs of technology go down and the cost of workers go up over time, this is a true statement. But inevitable does not mean immediate. If inevitability is an excuse for not trying, why bother with anything since, sooner or later, you're dead?
The "suffering"? We have a happy, positive work environment and we pay our lowest salaried people well above the minimum wage along with bonuses tied to the company's performance twice a year with an excellent package of benefits You're the fucking oblivious one here and it ain't even close. "Their blood". Do you have any idea how ridiculous you sound? Give your head a shake
Not a corner office, but a nice view nonetheless. Off to Europe for 18 working days in October, just got back from Thailand, thanks for asking
You're so privileged you don't even know how you make your money. You can bleat all day about how I'm oblivious, but since I'm the one who gets exploited by people in business suits, I also don't have to be the one who rationalizes his income as just business.
Fringe Leftist: You abuse your workers! Rational Person: Well no, we actually pay them quite fairly and are happy to do so. Why don't we have a real conversation about it? Fringe Leftist: Yeah well you're privileged and have no idea how your own business works! Yep, that's what just transpired here. Amazing
He's already told us he's a communist - a for real, no shit communist - so that he has no concept of how economies actually work is not surprising.
I'm the oblivious one? You don't even understand what I said. It's almost like I find your system unbalanced and inequitable, as if it only matters how much money you make and not what you contribute to human society as a whole. I can't wait for the next Emoji movie.
