Most people who work for corporations are not unionized. The job market stinks. Mass layoffs have been rampant. VC-subsidized AI is making bosses drunk with power in the short term. Asking employees to put their jobs on the line in today’s uncertain market seems almost cruel.

The sad fact is most USians are utterly dependent on the capitalist class for our day-to-day living. Because we have allowed the cost of living to far outpace our income, and because we have steadfastly refused to create a public healthcare, housing, and food security program, our survival comes drip-drip-dripping from our corporate lords two weeks at a time. USians can’t afford to bite the hand that literally keeps us alive.

@drahardja "The median emergency fund balance has dropped by half from last year's survey."

Holy shit it's getting worse fast

@jkb It’s been getting worse since Nixon. Wages have not risen while everything else has become more expensive. Workers are yielding more and more of their productive value to the capitalist class. People are being gradually pushed into poverty, and Republicans keep voting for more of the same.

US voters chose this policy for ourselves.

https://www.epi.org/chart/wage-summit-2014-figure-2-disconnect-between-productivity-and-typical-workers-compensation-1948-2013/

@drahardja Yes I have some awareness of the whole process and timeline, but I still can't help being surprised by the extent of the damage.

I am not immune to propaganda, years of "America is the greatest country/the richest country" and "LOL shut up you Europoors" have skewed my perception and expectations. And then the figures come in, and lo and behold my middle-class single-income household is filthy rich compared to the US median despite a significantly lower salary and famously high tax rates (cheers from Belgium).

So yeah the purpose of a system is what is does, and all evidence point to the USA being a giant machine made to funnel money into billionaire's pockets, and it's very effective. I hope some form of liberation comes for our comrades in the USA, but I have no idea what it would take.

@jkb @drahardja

> "LOL shut up you Europoors"

Haha. That is (was) a pretty bold statement from a country that doesn't have a public health system and insurance. Because the Europoors are pretty proud of that and the value can actually be measured in money. It's what USians pay more in medical drugs and what they have to pay when they call an ambulance ...

@glitzersachen @drahardja From what I gather the idea of "europoors" comes from three facts:

• the GDP per capita in the USA is higher than in the EU
• salaries in the USA are higher than in the EU
• in general people in Europe are more restrained and don't display wealth in the same way people in the USA do: we drive smaller cars and live in smaller homes

But yeah people who call us "europoors" are strangely silent when you point out the lack of personal bankrupcies and the often higher median wealth on this side of the ocean... we earn less and pay more taxes, how comes we end up with more wealth? Truly a mystery...

@jkb @drahardja

"The greatest trick capitalism ever pulled, was to convince people they could be capitalists"

Nobody (well, a lot of people) don't want to be critical of capitalism, because "if you had 100 million, you wouldn't want to pay half of it in taxes".

I always say then, that I'll never have 100 million, because I am paid for my work, and that I am not defrauding people with imaginary value.

<wind, tumbleweed, crickets>

@chiraag @glitzersachen @drahardja Also: you pay taxes on income, not on wealth. This means your wealth increases by the amount that's left after taxes (we're talking millions here, living costs are a rounding error at such scale).

Any functioning adult would understand that. Basement dwellers LARPing as financial gurus on /r/wallstreetbets don't.