this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2023
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Work Reform
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A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.
Our Philosophies:
- All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
- Income inequality is the main cause of lower living standards.
- Workers must join together and fight back for what is rightfully theirs.
- We must not be divided and conquered. Workers gain the most when they focus on unifying issues.
Our Goals
- Higher wages for underpaid workers.
- Better worker representation, including but not limited to unions.
- Better and fewer working hours.
- Stimulating a massive wave of worker organizing in the United States and beyond.
- Organizing and supporting political causes and campaigns that put workers first.
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You can to an extent, but that's a losing venture. If pubic opinion goes against this tech hard enough, it'll keep some people from working in those industries. BUT if those products are profitable enough, they will simply pay more and that'll be moot.
Attacking the people who are earning a living isn't the answer. Most people take the job with the best combo of pay and work/life balance they can find in their area, or if they can afford to move. Not that many have the luxury to pick and choose based on their morality. And if compensation is high enough, it's a lot less likely.
It's far easier to try to prevent this tech from being used at all. I know political action is hard as hell but it's a lot easier than trying to ostracize an entire industry's worth of workers. It may feel easier to denigrate faceless individuals but that won't accomplish anything. Plenty of people work for weapons manufacturers and such.
And those are bad people. If you work to build technology used to maintain power when you have an option not to, what else can that be called? These people are not desperate for a job.
I'm an engineer, I quit \ (after the startup I worked for was acquired) because Intel powers much of the MI complex. I quit \ when it became clear I was directly assisting with state level genetic experiments. As an engineer I could easily get a job elsewhere where I was not directly contributing to the downfall of my fellow humans.
Take McDonald's for example. There's a difference between someone who needs a job working in a restaurant and an Engineer working for McDonald's figuring out how to more efficiently slaughter animals paid only to be concerned about their employer's profit -- that engineer could go work to more efficiently bake cookies.
You're painting with a firehose. Some people are.
You are what we call, privileged. Maybe you should...check it?
Yeah, I was a field service tech at a machine tool distributor for 15 years. One day about 7 years ago I realized that more of our customers than not were involved in some kind of arms manufacturing. Everything from components to military armaments to places making parts for AR-15s. Didn't start that way but the business drifted into that market over time.
I decided to move on and it took me all of 5 years to find a position that; a) I was qualified for, b) paid enough that I wouldn't lose my house and, c) was relatively safe from drifting into the customer base as the last company.
I don't even have kids and this whole process was absolutely terrifying. I can easily see how someone with a family to support or less stability in their life wouldn't feel like leaving was a possibility.