JenniferplusplusFeb 5, 2023

We have layoffs for exactly the same reason we have homelessness. Both are expensive, harmful, and unnecessary. Both are sustained anyway because capitalism requires that work is compulsory. Both exist to be used as a threat to compel work and deference from workers.

So, I don't know. Keep writing papers and articles about the real effects of layoffs, I guess. But please understand that you'll never convince boards and CEOs to stop doing them, because the harm of layoffs is the desired outcome. So make your audience the people who've been taken in by their lies, and the people who should be protecting us from them.

Show threadJenniferplusplusFeb 5, 2023

To be extra clear, homelessness is what makes layoffs effective as a threat and punishment. And in the USA, withholding health care also plays a large part. These are all escalating levels of violence to the same end of making work compulsory so that they can dictate what work you do, when, where, and to whose benefit.

That power to compel and dictate work is what capital is. Money is only a loose proxy for capital, and they will sacrifice enormous amounts of money to retain and expand their power.

Show threadbassplayerFeb 6, 2023

@jenniferplusplus
The economy: There is low unemployment
Jerome Powell: Inflation is too high, lets crash the job market
Everyone Else: =/

Monetary policy has a high degree of impact on the economy. Not the the current administration, the Fed and they only have one or two knobs to adjust.

Layoffs are the private sector anticipating what the fed is signaling.

To be fair no one wants hyper inflation

Show threadLucifer ☄️Jul 11, 2023

@bassplayer @jenniferplusplus If fair is really what you're looking for, it's probably time to stop treating the current greedflation like it's a monetary issue and not an antitrust issue.

Ratcheting inflation and letting corporations preemptively cut wages while also jacking prices on top of record profit margins is not a preventive of hyperinflation, it is a tactic of class warfare

Show threadbassplayerJul 15, 2023
@lucifermorningstar Your response assumes that there is a single entity controlling all of what you mention but I doubt there is. The fed has a mandate to keep inflation at 2% and unemployment below 5%?. Companies shitty or not are going to react. Remember the government caused this by printing $ to coverver pandemic and bank failures. Thereby destroying the purchasing power of the $. If only there was another form or currency that is resistant to government manipulation...
Show threadLucifer ☄️Jul 15, 2023
@bassplayer Yes, the Fed has one tool in its box- interest rates- and it's not always the right tool for the task.
But no, the cause of this wasn't just the fed printing money for disaster relief- remember, big corps have been issuing debt of their own and using that to buy their own stock and juice dividends. It was after rates went up that banks started struggling; a lot of them hold that shitty debt and they know it's risky as rates go up
Show threadLucifer ☄️Jul 15, 2023

@bassplayer Fundamentally though, the Feds' decision to use interest rates to cap price inflation (which, let's be honest, is not happening because there's too many dollars out there chasing not enough goods- it's because sellers don't have to compete on price and they're reporting record profit margins) is a decision to pull down prices by creating unemployment and thus less consumer demand.

A windfall profits tax and antitrust action would do the same but without all the layoffs and poverty

Show threadbassplayer
@lucifermorningstar I agree with this except for the last. Sure you would recap some revenue but you would effectively offshore a lot of companies and then you would lose any revenue gains.
Jul 15, 2023 at 6:25amWeb