• hogunner@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Underpaid employees: Corporations are going to fix this problem they created by paying employees their share of record profits?

    Corporations: No, not like that!

      • Nonameuser678@aussie.zone
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        11 months ago

        I agree with this statement but thought I’d have a go at challenging it just for fun. The nature of profits and wages is relative to whether or not a business model requires workers to make profit. For example some companies make money off of owning the result of a worker’s labor (patents, software, creative work etc) rather than their ongoing labor. So while not all profits are necessarily unpaid wages, they are still dependent on the exchange of labor.

      • keeb420@kbin.social
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        11 months ago

        Profits can go to cover capitol expenditures on your business as well. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

    • theodewere@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      wait, you mean the Trump Tax Cuts haven’t trickled down to workers? well what in the Wide Wide World of Sports is a going on here?

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      My boss likes to show us how much money the company is making at our quarterly meetings. I think he thinks it’s morale-building, but I know, in at least the case of me and a co-worker, that all it does is make us think of how low our pay is.

  • gun@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    This strikes me as a “you will own nothing and be happy” solution. Instead of paying workers a fair wage so they can put something into savings for a rainy day, you will be at the mercy of your employer for support.

    This seems to be the trend. In the future, you will have most of your needs at least met, but not through your own means, because you will have no means whatsoever. You will not be able to take care of yourself without your corporation parent. This is a very coercive situation.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      I’m not doing well healthwise right now and my employers told me that they were concerned about my health and I could take as many unpaid sick days as I want.

    • Thorny_Thicket@sopuli.xyz
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      11 months ago

      While wages are obviously a significant factor here, I still wouldn’t be surprised if the primary cause for this is simply the fact that most people aren’t very skilled at managing their personal finances.

      I make a pretty decent living, but in discussions with my coworkers who earn as much as I do, and often even more, it becomes apparent that many of them are essentially living from hand to mouth. In contrast, I have a year’s worth of wages invested in stocks and enough cash to purchase two more cars like the one I already own. Finances and saving are subjects I enjoy discussing, but the vast majority of people have zero interest in them, and this has a real impact on their lives.

      • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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        11 months ago

        You’ve been downvoted, but I get what you’re saying. There’s just people who never really got out of the pocket money model of spending whatever you have all the time.

        It’s quite possible to do everything right and still end up with not enough, but I definitely work with people who could do better. One guy, between them and their partner earn more than I do, yet are in far worse financial shape, and it’s simply because they see money in their account, and see no reason not to spend it, meaning those little events (that don’t happen all the time, but do happen) like a car failing an MOT, or a boiler breaking in winter, or a roof leak means they have no way to cover it.

        I think there’s definitely a market for managed bank accounts, that handle your bills and outgoings, save up an emergency pot for you, put into investments when that fills up, and give you a spuff money pot for takeaways and other frivolous shit.

        City life can also be expensive, and too few people move away when it isn’t working for them.

    • affiliate@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      this would be very helpful during the times where the $500 emergency is the need for a pizza party

      • Drusas@kbin.social
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        11 months ago

        Worse: I had a root canal done years ago. Then I found out, after the tooth broke, that the root canal was done incorrectly and the tooth needed to be removed. I had to pay for the root canal and to fix the tooth and to have it removed. Fucking dentists, man.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          I just had to pay a $50 copay to get a gastroenterologist to tell me he wasn’t concerned about my problems, it was because of my ulcer, and to add Mylanta to my medications in the mornings. He literally could have told me that over the phone. American healthcare is a racket.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      My dad needed $20,000 worth of dental work. So they took a trip to Costa Rica for maybe $3k-5k and got the dental work done for free. Because Costa Rica gives free healthcare, including dental, to anyone in its borders. And they got a good vacation out of it.

      They could afford to do that though. Most people couldn’t.

  • kautau@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    The first change made it so employees may save up to $2,500 in after-tax money in a separate account alongside their retirement accounts. Workers would potentially be automatically enrolled in the programs, which would defer the money automatically through payroll deductions.

    Read: banks lobby to get money automatically deposited into their specific accounts so they can generate interest from it the employees will never see, and make it more difficult for employees to actually get their money

    • w00tabaga@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      Wage increases are getting blown out of the water by inflation and cost of living. Everyone is really starting to feel that pinch. So naturally now is when the feds decide to unfreeze school loans. Really telling of how out of touch our government is

  • AllonzeeLV@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Ah yes, the time proven effective strategy to get the poor back on board the against-their-own-interests train:

    "Unchecked Capitalism will save you from the problems that Unchecked Capitalism directly caused!" 🤣

    If that sounds reasonable, here’s a solution for climate change: lets double the amount of carbon shit we’re pumping into the air. Fuck it, double or nothing!

  • space@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    11 months ago

    63% of workers unable to pay a $500 emergency expense, survey finds. How employers may help change that

    They will make it 83%

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Or they may think that those workers being able to maybe pay < $500 in an emergency is a money-making opportunity…

  • Chetzemoka@kbin.social
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    11 months ago

    It’s also pretty hard when the corporations you work for aren’t interested in paying you what you’re worth. People need and deserve better wages

    • noride@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      Corporations literally cannot pay you what you’re worth. The very nature of capitalism requires exploitation. For capitalism to function, there must be an inequity between a worker’s true value, i.e. their productive output, and their cost. The system is literally designed to fuck you over from the top down.

      • w00tabaga@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        Ehhh, I’d argue the exact opposite. The people at the top hoarding so much wealth are arguably the worst capitalists. Capitalism demands cash flow, and the more the better. Few people hoarding and controlling so much of it is breaking it.

        I always love to point to healthcare. Between my portion and my employer my health insurance is over $15000 for my family. Yet I have a $5000 deductible still. Imagine if all that money that my employer is paying me I was actually getting. Then apply that to every family. But instead, a few companies make all the money off that. The problem is healthcare shouldn’t be a business, but a public service just like police, firefighters, roads, etc. In an emergency I’m not going to shop hospitals, and in non emergency I don’t have a choice anyway, my insurance company decides that.

        It’s the most broken system and everyone at the top is making too much money from it that it will never change until it gets so bad for the middle class it somehow starts bringing them down

        • CountZero@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          This is such a weird take. You say the people at the top are the worst capitalists, but they literally succeeded the most at capitalism. You say capitalism demands cash flow, but… does it? Who or what demands that cash flow? Certainly not the free market.

          You then give a perfect example of capitalism failing, medical care.

          Why defend capitalism?

          • w00tabaga@lemm.ee
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            11 months ago

            I’m not defending it? I mean, I pointed out it’s issues and how the elites it strives to eliminate it has created. They won, they beat that system.

        • SeducingCamel@lemm.ee
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          11 months ago

          The people at the top are literally the best/winners at capitalism. They won the game, the game that’s designed to funnel capital

    • Strangle@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Your pay is only relevant to the cost of goods and services.

      People used to be rich earning $1,000 a year. Your pay is irrelevant, the costs of things is what’s more important.

      And taxes, fucking stop taking everyone’s money

  • Verdant Banana@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    people will worry so much about this but will elect the same people over and over again to lead based on shirt color just because they change the shirt to red or blue same clothing factory

    maybe younger people from a new political party might be able to help or rioting in the streets or something

  • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
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    11 months ago

    I’m very fortunate to finally be able to cover a major expense like that. Nothing like going to the hospital, but if I needed new tires I wouldn’t be completely broke.

    It’s a strange feeling.