subversivecynic: theultimatea: subversivecynic: jujubiest: unaffiliatedpangolin:throw-away-opinion
subversivecynic: theultimatea: subversivecynic: jujubiest: unaffiliatedpangolin: throw-away-opinions: friendly-neighborhood-patriarch: soulwind42: friendly-neighborhood-patriarch: On the other hand, I am significantly closer to becoming a billionaire here than elsewhere. the idea of class solidarity is repellent to me Either they don’t know what it is and it’s a trendy buzzword for them to throw around to feel all smart and rebel-y.. or they do know what it means, and they actually expect you to rush to their side and help them fight for their retarded commie agenda. Class solidarity always means that because of your level of income you owe it to them to aid and abet their dumbass political goals. What are they doing to help you though? Do…you all not understand that because you are significantly closer to homelessness than being a billionaire (or even a millionaire), those “dumbass political goals” would almost always directly benefit you? People who use words like “commie agenda” seem to think that progressive/leftist economic goals require the government confiscating your entire middle-class paycheck and giving it to someone else, leaving you with nothing. When what progressive/leftist economics really aim for is to a) put safeguards against worker exploitation in place, since corporations refuse to behave ethically if they’re not made to, and b) take excess money from people who already have an obscene amount, more than they could ever use, and put that money toward better healthcare, education, infrastructure, and other services for everyone that those billionaires exploited to get that filthy rich in the first place. Make no mistake, the richest people in the U.S. did not make that money. That money was made for them by the hundreds or thousands of people they overworked and undercompensated. Those profits were then even further inflated by exploiting our legal system, lobbying for lower taxes on billionaires and their businesses…money that went directly into their pockets, not into providing better pay to the workers making them that money. Take Amazon as a perfect example. Amazon uses the public, government-funded road system to get their products delivered. Amazon uses–overuses, in many communities–public health services to take care of their employees when they literally keel over mid-shift from overwork. Amazon warehouses put a strain on local resources almost everywhere they are opened. So why on earth shouldn’t the company–and companies like it–be made to contribute something to the society and communities they’re bleeding dry for profit? Why shouldn’t the company pay extra back to the people and the public good, given how much profit it makes off those resources? Why shouldn’t communities enjoy a better standard of living on billionaires’ dimes, given that billionaires enjoy so much less labor than they actually pay their employees for? And more importantly, why don’t you want them to? What vested interest do you, personally have in Jeff Bezos and his ilk continuing to exploit people just like you with impunity? What do you stand to lose by living in a society with reasonable work safety restrictions, reasonable work hours, better pay, better work benefits, less unemployment, less workplace exploitation, less homelessness, less food insecurity, less stress-related chronic illness, better education and healthcare and infrastructure? What is it about the notion of people being treated as more important than profits that worries you so much? What do you think you’re going to miss out on by living in a country full of well-informed, knowledgeable, healthy people? Hell, what do you think the point of increasingly complex human societies even is, if not to eliminate deprivation and make human life less fraught and more pleasant for as many people as possible? If all we wanted was a tortured existence of barely clinging to survival by our fingernails and being lorded over by whoever has the biggest cudgel, we could do that without having a society at all. The idea that class solidarity, progressive economic policies, and the so-called “commie agenda” means robbing you to take care of someone else is a lie, my friends. It’s propaganda spread by billionaires who want you to believe the very policies that could help you most are attacking you so you’ll side with them. Stop falling for it. Even if “the commie agenda” means “robbing me to take care of some one else”…. I am okay with that. I am just fine with losing a little bit so that some one else can live a functional life. WHY AREN’T YOU? If you don’t want to make sure someone who is hungry gets food that is a personal failing. I’m fine with giving my money to help those less fortunate, but when I give it of my own free will (which I regularly do), not when it’s taken by force. We live in a society, and so if people don’t want to contribute that’s too bad that you’re a monster. … wtf? -- source link