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this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2024
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Work Reform
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A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.
Our Philosophies:
- All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
- Income inequality is the main cause of lower living standards.
- Workers must join together and fight back for what is rightfully theirs.
- We must not be divided and conquered. Workers gain the most when they focus on unifying issues.
Our Goals
- Higher wages for underpaid workers.
- Better worker representation, including but not limited to unions.
- Better and fewer working hours.
- Stimulating a massive wave of worker organizing in the United States and beyond.
- Organizing and supporting political causes and campaigns that put workers first.
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I can't feel too bad for people who made $150 an hour to knowingly exploit the entire world just because they got fucked over.
And that's how the owners control us in perpetuity.
Blue collar vs white collar.
The homed vs the homeless for lowering their property values.
Red vs blue and the race wars too.
Etc.
There are only 3,000 billionaires on Earth. Extrapolate that down to people with triple digit millions in net worth, about 28,000 people on Earth worth more than 100 million, and you've found humanity's common enemies manipulating us into beating one another down when not making them more money.
Our common enemies are tiny in number, a few tens of thousands lording over billions, but they manipulate us into fighting each other.
https://www.investopedia.com/new-class-of-global-elite-have-emerged-8357556#:~:text=%22Centi%2Dmillionaires%22%20are%20individuals,a%20wealth%20advisory%20firm%20said.
Irish immigrants and African free men were dangerously close to joining forces against the "captains of industry" in New England. Solution? They made the Irishmen into cops.
There are very few people on this earth who make $150 an hour in an ethical way. The employees of google are not that people.
The leopard ate their face.
I don't disagree, but they are a symptom, not the root issue.
But hey, nevermind. I think they stole a few of our cookies. Some guy in a suit sitting on a mountain of cookies yelled down to warn me about them. Great guy, think his name was Warren.
$150 an hour isn't as much as you think. When I did tech consulting I charged $100 an hour and felt like I was exploiting myself.
I think if you realized how out of touch it is for somebody in the top 2% of income earners in the world to state that they are exploiting themselves sounds to other people, you probably wouldn't have said it.
Haha 1) I don't care, 2) I'm not even close to the top 2%. I'm a broke college student who would be skipping meals if it weren't for the SAVE plan. I ended that business because $100/hr didn't leave enough for me to live on after covering my business expenses, so it wasn't worth my time (which it shared with classes and an internship). For a consulting fee in a Western country, $150/hr is pretty much par and hardly excessive.
A person who makes $300,000 per year (which is roughly $150 an hour) is in the top 2% of world income.
A small side business owner who bills clients $100 an hour is a completely separate conversation that I have to wonder why you would even bring it up unless obfuscation of my original point was the intent.
You're fixated on the hourly cost and not taking into account expenses. Also, in the US freelancers have to buy their own health insurance and equipment which is insanely expensive.
Freelancers also don't get full billing because they are not working all the time, so that 150/hour has tom over all the down time when work is not available. Freelancers also pay their own taxes and pension plans.
You're just out of touch with operating costs for freelancers so maybe stop before you do some homework.
... This discussion is about former google employees not the contract work a commentor here used to do.
You are the second person attempting to make it about being a freelancer. I'm not interested. I would however be interested if you are going to discuss what I said in the context of the discussion.
Yeah I see what you mean. My bad. I did get fixated on the guy's freelance thing. That being said, you should take COL into consideration when talking pay. I haven't lived in the US in quite a while so I'm not sure what 300k gets you in some places like the west coast.
I think poverty wages extend above 100k in a few Bay Area cities, such as San Francisco.
Yeah, I was talking about $150/hr, not $300k per year. For a consultant to take home that much, they would have to charge a lot more than $150/hr.
Those people are the best argument for increasing wages and conditions across the board.
Say whatever about big tech, it's undeniable that they have been immensely successful - financially, in innovation and cultural significance. We can then go, "see if you treat your employees well and pay them well they give a shit about your company and perform well". That's how we leverage the good conditions of one group to fight for all groups. Divided, we fall.
There isn't enough energy on the planet for everybody to make that much per hour.