So many times when I had shitty dead end jobs that they would fuck you over and say “business needs” etc.
So as it took me until late 30’s to become an adult I had no issue in getting fired for my principles so I did some crazy stuff.
1: I would just not turn up if I didn’t feel like it and say it was “my needs”. I did this so much at McD that I had like 6 final warnings but cause I was amazing when I was there (pride in work and all that) that I just said listen pal, this is how I am and if I’m here I’ll graft and if not here at start time I’m likely not coming so arrange cover. You can fire me now or stop giving me warning. They let me stay.
2: Worked a call centre and was just sick of it after 18 months. Figured out you could go into after call (where no calls come whilst you write notes). If you went in and out it would put you to the back of the queue to get a call, so if no queue you could do nothing. I did this for two weeks before they discovered it and suspended me fo another two weeks with full pay. When they called me in to ask why I did it I said I couldn’t be bothered lol and got fired.
3: Call centre wanted you to arrive 15 mins early to log into all systems but you would not be paid for this. After several days of refusing and then insisting I came in early but the logged out 15 mins early “to prepare to go home”. Again they didn’t like this but when I said I’ll get legal advice about forcing me to work unpaid the gave up. Although everybody else still did it.
4: Worked a warehouse where you would walk around for 10 hours picking items. At the start of the shift there was a queue for the ticket machine where you would have your trolly ready. I was leaning against mine where some jobsworth tried to tell me I couldn’t lean whilst in a queue. Got mouthy with me and when I threatened to kick his ass I was promptly fired.
I have so many stories like this, the way I saw it was just like I’m replaceable, so is the dead end job and I ain’t taking shit from anybody for minimum wage. Also got some cool stories about theft and fraud from some jobs if anybody is interested. Worked at one store and must have taken £50k plus over 3 years.
DM me lol. I love this shit, also my 30s have been a wash due to things beyond my control, so it’s nice to hear it gets better. :)
Done.
One thing I will say is that although it did get better for me as I’m now a software developer. I was incredibly lucky and I know that that won’t be the case for everybody.
Fun little fact; in the realm of Economics , non-fiscal measures of value used to be well considered by policy makers and executives.
So for example man-hours, throughput, turnaround, even reinvestment and costs would be considered for project choice as demonstrations of patriotism, workforce commitment, and firm health in everything from recruitment to advertising.
But of course dedication to shareholder value and executive compensation are the best policies.
Right?
Boss makes a million, I make a buck. That’s why I jerk it in the company truck
Well, yeah? Capitalism is an economic system, i.e., it’s concerned with making money. The social good should come from the government taxing that money. Problem being, the rich have now bought the government and our social/communication systems.
Taxing incomes only put the burden back on the working people. Rich will always find loopholes to avoid tax. Whether through subsidies or off shore companies.
If we have to stay within the system, we should be implementing wealth tax instead of incomen tax. But it still leaves the option of foreign citizenship and they just owning stuff in a country without wealth tax
it’s concerned with making money
Nope, the question an economic system attempts to answer is “who should control the wealth created by the working class’s surplus labor;” it’s concerned not with making money, but with allocating it where it should be allocated. Capitalism’s answer to that question is “rich private citizens,” so it ends up concerned primarily with making money, but that’s an emergent property of capitalism rather than the fundamental nature of an economic system.
How is it going in the mental model of the 1950s?
The decade of unprecedented prosperity in America? When capitalism was going full blast, with the workers in unions to keep the owners in check? When the rich were heavily taxed? Sounds just fucking great to me.
Yeah… and hou sustainable did it turn out to be?
We dropped the unions and taxation of the rich. No reason that could not have continued. No reason we can’t do it again.
That only works for so long, because the system isn’t stable that way. Capitalism requires some sort of exploitation. If that exploitation is hindered for too long, capitalism will become in crisis.
This chapter explains why that deal didn’t continue in Europe
Also: if you tax the rich too much, they will conduct a capital strike, where they stdpinvesting in the country, or move their business somewhere else. That bit isn’t just a bogeyman from conservatives. It has some merit. Social democracy just isn’t a stable system.
You’ve basically described social media, where you can find a Disney ad next to a picture of a bunch of folksy white people doing the seig heil. Engagement = money which is more important than social good.
I mean the hope is that social good drives capital. It doesn’t, but still.
Social good is difficult to measure. Controversially: what good does high quality care really provide to society.
Uh… what?
Great care without perspective future productivity is considered a social good(I.e. of elderly and disabled folks without reintegration perspective, think physicsgirl who has long COVID, for example). It may still be a good thing, but the degree to which it furthers society is difficult to quantise.
Not saying we shouldn’t by the way. It’s just very hard to put an actual value on these kinds of things.
And that is exactly why society doesn’t matter. People do.
Are you devil’s advocating? If we just look at health care, we can see the dollars added to the ledger from kids not dying in polio.
A healthy adult likes being productive, but we are not really healthy as a whole nowadays.
Yes thought the controversially was making this clear.
but the degree to which it furthers society is difficult to quantise.
That’s because “furthering of society” doesn’t have a well defined metric.
… so why quantise it at all?
