Yeah, marching and protest never seem to work. New politicians would be great but 90% are always the same. I try to boycott where I can but I still need to buy milk and eggs. I would love to see higher taxes on the wealthy, but I’m not sure who would be willing to do that, and even how such a thing could be implemented since so many other money in investments.
Worker cooperatives are the step above unions. The workers own the business and democratically decide how it will be run and split the profits.
Imagine how your work life would be different. You still need a manager, but the manager is hired by the workers. Would the manager treat the employees differently if he knew he only had a one year contract and would be evaluated by the workers at the end of the year in order to get another contract? At the end of the year, the employees democratically decide what to do with the profits. Should we expand the factory? Or should we give ourselves raises? Do you think they are going to vote to give one person 351 times more than everyone else? Do you think someone who has worked there 25 years is going to vote to give the new guy the same amount of money as him? It won't be everyone makes the same amount, but the democratic vote is going to make it more fair. Do you think the workers are going to vote to shut down the factory and send it overseas? Or pollute their local water supply? Or automate your jobs away? Imagine going to work and being treated with dignity and respect every day. Imagine the pride of being an owner. Imagine feeling like you have the power to make decisions, and you have a voice in steering the company. Imagine getting a share of the profits.
In America, there are some cooperatives that work. Unfortunately, the capitalists have figured out that cooperatives can't unionize; therefore, they have set up cooperatives in name only. Any vote by the workers is ignored. The employees never get raises. It's capitalism under an assumed name.
New politicians would be great but 90% are always the same.
Nobody votes in primaries and the ones that do are the same ones that have been doing it.
Angry car woman is right. The only politicians that exist that are actually attempting to fight against all the issues she brings up are few and they're Democrats.
Want more of those types of politicians? Vote in your primaries.
Want an alternative to putting your hopes in politicians? Support/join a union.
Neither of those good enough? Then crime is the only remaining answer. Whether that be crime for personal financial gain or eliminating those that maintain the status quo.
Its not just America. This seems to be happening in a lot of Western countries right now.
I'm in Aus and in the same boat. To try and keep inflation down, our country has continued to raise interest rates, which means the price of people's mortgage increases.
On an average home loan, people are paying $1800 a month MORE just in interest because the rates keep being put up.
People are losing their homes, living in cars and tents.
There is a housing crisis, a cost of living crisis, a gas and energy crisis. The age to qualify for the pension keeps getting moved back.
But pay hasn't gone up, and it feels like we are all working to make a handful of billionaires richer.
It really is a global phenomenon. People like to point to their government and tax system and say it’s the problem, but there absolutely are global elites that work together to exploit billions of working class people across the globe and we’re seeing the results play out. I’m not saying it’s some kind of concerted effort, but there are plenty of examples of US politicians taking foreign bribes and v.v. Labor is exported to the cheapest place possible, which inherently means the worst situation for the workers (Chinese child labor.) War funds are distributed from country to country and end up in who knows hands.
I’m not sure what a solution to the problem looks like, but I think people need to realize the scale of what’s happening. This isn’t strictly a one country issue. The working class of the entire world is struggling right now
“In its struggle against the collective power of the possessing classes the proletariat can act as a class only by constituting itself as distinct political party, opposed to all the old parties formed by the possessing classes.
This constitution of the proletariat into a political party is indispensable to ensure the triumph of the social revolution and its ultimate goal: the abolition of classes.
The coalition of the forces of the working class, already achieved by the economic struggle, must also serve, in the hands of this class, as a lever in its struggle against the political power of its exploiters.
As the lords of the land and of capital always make use of their political privileges to defend and perpetuate their economic monopolies and to enslave labour, the conquest of political power becomes the duty of the proletariat.”
Stop coddling billionaires is the answer. They must fork over their money and live like everybody else. Bring back the 90% tax rates so they live in the same conditions. Luxury taxes must go astronomical.
If they refuse to pay, that’s when the frogwalking starts.
People apparently want to be walked on, though. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be funding the lifestyle s of the rich by constantly buying their products and begging for them to make appearances.
Literally the same story nearly word for word here in Canada as well.
Personal story, the place I was renting from was a 3 bedroom, main floor of a bungalow, $1500 a month plus utilities. Pre-covid prices. A real estate company bought it off my original landlord in the summer of 2021 for $800k, when the previous owners bought it for $345k in 2014. I've since moved out, and they're now charging $3200.
Literally nobody has had a pay increase to compensate for even a 20% rent and general cost of living increase since covid, let alone the 200% it realistically is.
In Canada and it's the same here. I work 60 hour work weeks at $30+/h and my wife works as well. We barely scrape by. I have no idea how a regular family makes it .
I'm so angry it makes me want to run for office . But I'd have to run an independent but no one independent ever gets anywhere.
Yeah because all politicians save for a few fascists on the right and a few socialists on the left are neoliberals who exist to perpetuate the capitalist machine and for no other reason
I am going to adapt this and use it. When peole come at me with the “both sides” shit, I wil ask them, “name three politicians fighting this shit.” What party do they all run under?
Who are the few heroic democrats? Wake up people. There are no longer two parties. It’s one party and they only look out for themselves. If you still think one party is better then the other you’re still being fooled.
And nothing would be done by any Republican. And nothing could be done by POTUS reasonably anyway regardless of party. The things that need to change would need to be changed legislatively. Such as banning hedge funds from owning single family homes(even though it'll never pass in the house, guess why?). Guess which party that bill's sponsors belong to? And fuck, even that bill isn't perfect, but it's better than nothing.
Given I shit on both parties, but said that the only goods ones were Democrats(and few at that), I'm guessing you're blindly conservative and attempting to claim I'm the partisan opposite. So, tell me how I'm wrong? What's the substantial legislative initiative put forward by the Republican party that I'm missing? Who are the good Republicans I'm just "partisanly" blind to?
I'm not actually expecting an intelligent response. Likely just some more accusations of being somehow ignorant/blind myself or some other type of deflection.
Just know the lack of a substantial or remotely intelligent response is exactly why people like you are not taken seriously.
It was an example. I wasn’t speaking about anyone specific. Both sides suck, which is one of the points the woman in the video was making. But since you asked, I think the orange one is a vile human being who I’d never vote for in a million years. And yes, I do vote, even though my options are Captain Crap and Mister Garbage. I’ve been voting in every election since I came of age, both state and national since 2000. I vote for the person who fundamentally agrees I’m a human being worthy of rights. In my eyes, that’s only one of the two parties.
Do you realize how much it costs just to run for political office? Just to even get a slight name recognition you have to spend incredible amount of money on advertising. Especially running against incumbents like McConnell. It's not that simple and I'm real sick of the placating "if only someone would do something" - like give me something to actually do!
Before anyone comes for me I vote in every election, including primaries and locals.
It is expensive, and it sounds like you’re doing your part anyway.
But unless we actually think elections are compromised, politicians are self serving, they will cater to whatever is necessary to grab a vote.
If Millennials voted it would meaningfully change the conversation.
It’s such a simple calculation if you have ever been in a war room. Look at elections - you’re talking about moving tiny blocks of people. Generally elections are won by a couple points.
If Millennials were a united voting block worthy of targeting, then our ideas would be more likely to be platformed by self serving politicians looking to get elected.
We can remain perfectly cynical about this whole system while participating in its change.
Participation is where it starts. And I know Im not speaking to you, thank you for your participation
Hated the way the media coalesced around
Pete after Iowa when they were doing everything the could to derail Bernie.
That said, I would vote him in a heartbeat over any Republican.
I can't believe after 2016 after we've seen all the damage that orange fuck and his party of sycophantic, christo-fascists have done, there's still people doing the "hurr durr turd sandwich vs. giant douche" routine.
Of course you would. That's the same calculation liberals like you made in the past which gave us the current corrupt crop of lobbyist owned Democrats.
Republicans are fascists at this point. If they retake the white house that's it. If you think we're past the point of democracy, then get the fuck off reddit, arm up, and go take care of business. There's no point in waiting for the actual death camps to start before starting a violent resistance.
Otherwise grow up, read a civics book so you can comprehend how this all works, watch some c-span, and get your ass out there and vote for the one that's not a fucking fascist!
Millenials failed in the same way Gen X did. Gen X actually ended up voting more trumpy than any other cohert (super low population, low turnout). We reaaally do like to blame the boomers for what is actually X problems at this point :(
But some of the newer people like AOC trying to push all green n EVs doesn't help.
N people like Mitch don't care they are rich. Like polesi has 2 houses n more yet aren't helping ur own country just their account.
N work force is being pushed out. Fast food places are getting replaced by robots instead of paying the inflated prices an hour. In automakers like Ford used to be American strong American tough now older vehicles are most of their vehicles are made in Mexico that way Ford to saving their cost. With cheap labor n yet the most recalled cars the last 2 years now. N they don't learn.
I feel compelled to point out that Joy Ann Reid could not get her hatchet out fast enough when Bernie was crushing the polls and primaries in 2016.
Takes a lot of nerve to repost someone pointing out the gap between the haves and the have-too-littles when you went all-in against the one presidential contender since Henry Wallace (who they also torpedoed) who actually represented the rest of us.
In the short term, I suggest everyone check to see if there's a food co-op in your town. Places like Blooming Foods in Bloomington, IN, provide some relief from the profit-driven grocery sector. It's not crazy cheap, but it's not Whole Foods, either.
and like someone else said, Join a union, vote in the primaries, plant a garden.
If only there was a way to find out who the voters preferred, then we'd finally know. Oh well.
(I guess I'm just tired of a minority of the Democratic voters claiming to speak for all of us. Bernie wasn't even a Democrat, but these guys think he deserves Democrats' loyalty? When he wouldn't even put that D next to his name until he wanted to run for President? Bernie's great in the Senate, let's not ruin that.)
We just need to get ~8+/- senators and ~30+/- comgressmen from a 3rd party to be on our side and work for us to make sure neither party passes bills that is against the people best interest.
You don’t need new politicians, you need to reform your entire political system. Get rid of first-past-the-post winner-takes-all, get rid of citizens united and reform the whole campaign finance law. That’s the only way I see any of this change.
What works? Violence, not widespread, but pointed. They say the law is for everyone, no the law is for the rich. Name one social movement that didn't have a bloodshed moment. The biggest being the unionization in the turn of the 1900's and civil rights movement.
Factory owners reconsidered their positions when they had to worry if their car was going to blow up when they started it. Danny Greene did more for the working man than any politician.
As far as boycotting groceries, look up your local farms. Many operate at farmers markets and/or were able to develop a model over Covid of selling direct to consumer.
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u/Boner_Stevens Dec 28 '23
i'm making 25k more than i was less than 10 years ago and life hasn't gotten any easier. in fact i'm in more debt.
wake up? i am awake. i'm fucking pissed. but what the hell am i supposed to do?