You know this world is messed up when something like this does not surprise me, but it still horrifies me beyond words. Please spread this so we can raise awareness and look for ways to help!
people seem to have trouble understanding why iâm an anti-capitalist, so iâm going to try and put it into simple, real-life terms.
i work at a restaurant. i make $12 an hour, plus tips. minimum wage where i live is relatively high for my country - the national minimum wage is $7.25/hr, and has not been raised since 2009. before taxes, working full time, my yearly income is about $22,000 a year. ($25,000 if you count tips)
at my job, we sell various dishes, with an average price of about $10-$15. we get printouts every week detailing how much money we made that week; in one week, our restaurant makes about $30,000. (one of our other locations actually makes this much on a daily basis!)
iâm not going to go into details, but after the costs of production (payroll for employees, rent for the building, maintenance, and wholesale food purchasing) are accounted for, the restaurant makes an estimated profit of $20,000 per week.
this profit goes directly to the owner, who does not work at this location. the owner of my restaurant has actually been on vacation for a few months, but still profits from the restaurant, because they own it. i have met the owner exactly twice in my year of working here.
to put this into perspective, the owner of this restaurant earns in 2 days what they pay me in one year. and thatâs just from this single location - the owner has several other restaurants, all of which make more money than the one i work at. this ends up resulting in the owner having an estimated net worth of tens of millions of dollars, even after accounting for the payroll for every single worker in their employ.
now, i have to ask you: does the owner of my restaurant deserve this income? did they earn it? did their labor result in this value being created?
the naive answer would be âyesâ; the owner purchased the location and arranged for the raw ingredients to be delivered, did they not?
the actual answer is ânoâ. the owner may have used their initial capital to start the location, but the profit is a result of my labor, and the labor of my co-workers.
the owner purchases rice at a very low bulk price of about 25 cents a pound. i cook the rice, and within a few minutes, that pound of rice is suddenly worth about $30. the owner did not create this value, i did. the owner simply provided the initial capital investment required to start the process.
what needs to be understood here is that capitalists do not create value. they use the labor of their employees to create value, and then take the excess profit and keep it.
what needs to be understood is that capitalists accrue income by already HAVING money. the owner of my restaurant was only able to get this far because they started off, from the very beginning, with enough money to purchase a building, purchase food in bulk, and hire hundreds of employees.
that is to say: the rich get richer, and they do so by exploiting the labor of the poor.
the owner of my restaurant could afford to triple the income of every single person in their employee if they felt like it, but this would mean that they were generating less profit for themselves, so they do not.
the owner of my restaurant pays me the current minimum wage of my area, because to them, i am not a person. i am an investment. i am an asset. i am a means to create more money.Â
when you are paid minimum wage, the message your boss is sending you is this:Â âlegally, if i could pay you less, i would.â
every capitalist on the planet exploits their workers for their own gain. every capitalist, even the small business owners, forces people to stay in poverty so that the capitalist can profit.
So I was taught a lesson in how to get rid of a migraine in 30 seconds and omfg listen my migraines donât go away ever but I was shown what part of my body to touch and like???????????????
Itâs witchcraft????????? Like I would be burned at the stake if I lived in ye olde days knowing that information?????
Since once in a blue moon I actually discover a decent rule for adulting, and since I know I have followers a few years younger than me who are just entering the workforce, I want to tell you about a very important phrase.Â
âI wonât be available.â
Imagine youâre at work and your boss asks you to come in on Saturday. Saturday is usually your day offâcoming in Saturdays is not an obligation to keep your job. Maybe you were going to watch a movie with a friend, or maybe you were just going to lie in bed and eat ice cream for eight hours, but either way you really, really donât want to give up your day off.
If you consider yourself a millennial youâve probably been raised to believe you need to justify not being constantly at work. And if youâre a gen-Z kid youâre likely getting the same toxic messages that we did. So in a situation like that, you might be inclined to do one of three things:
Tell your boss youâd rather not give up your day off. Cave when they pressure you to come in anyway, since youâre not doing anything important.
Tell your boss youâd rather not give up your day off. Over-apologize and worry that you looked bad/unprofessional.
Lie and say youâve got a doctorâs appointment or some other activity that feels like an adequate justification for not working.
The fact is, it doesnât matter to your boss whether youâre having open heart surgery or watching anime in your underwear on Saturday. The only thing that affects them is the fact that you wonât be at work. So telling them why you wonât be at work only gives them reason to try and pressure you to come in anyway.
If you say âI wonât be available,â giving no further information, youâd be surprised how often thatâs enough. Be polite and sympathetic in your tone, maybe even say âsorry, but I wonât be available.â But donât make an excuse. If your boss is a professional individual, theyâll accept that as a ânoâ and try to find someone else.Â
But bosses arenât always professional. Sometimes theyâre whiny little tyrants. So, what if they pressure you further? The answer isâpolitely and sympathetically give them no further information.
âAre you sure youâre not available?â âSorry, but yes.â
âWhy wonât you be available?â âI have a prior commitment.â (Which you do, even if itâs only to yourself.)
âWhatâs your prior commitment?â âSorry, but thatâs kind of personal.â
âCan you reschedule it?â âIâm afraid not. Maybe someone else can come in?â
If you donât give them anything to work with, they canât pressure you into going beyond your obligations as an employee. And when they realize that, theyâll also realize they have to find someone else to come in and move on.
as much as the concept of Jesus being a fairly normal lad has its charms, im personally very intrigued by the idea of him being just⊠extremely weird. not even in a mystical sense, justâŠâŠ.staggeringly BIZZARRE.Â
you go to the well to get some water, and hereâs Miriamâs boy, staring at the sky, completely still. his expression is unreadable. you hazard a hello and ask how heâs doing, and he slowly, unblinkingly, lowers his gaze on you (heâs 8 and is missing his frontal teeth, not that this is making you any less uncomfortable) and says âI cannot speak of the state of my being, Nathan son of Saul, my brother, but rejoice for the water you shall take today will be as pure as the soul of the children of Heavenâ
I had a whole idea for this where Dazai would irritate Chuuya before they started lookin at each other like that, then went fuck that shit Iâm too tired. So now yâall get this. Just. Soft. Completely unrealistic! Soukoku!