Henry Ford may have been a prick, but even he had the common sense to realize paying your workers enough to buy your products was mutually beneficial. All this wealth hoarding going on serves nobody but the ultra rich that are simply addicted to watching numbers go up.
Which is why I’m hesitant to actually call those greedy fucks “capitalists”, because they’re the very antithesis of capitalism. They literally break the system for their own benefit, and thanks to US politicians to being corrupt enough to allow themselves to be bought out for a few bucks from said greedy fucks, nobody in power is incentivized to actually do something.
Capitalism works with money flowing constantly, and it needs that to work well. When you have some Warren Buffet and Elongated Muskrat kind of people just hoarding wealth… well, you get the shitshow that is the the US today. $300B circulating in the system would be awesome, and I would think that is a good indicator of a healthy economy; but when $300B is pretty much tied to one person, then congrats, we missed the point of capitalism.
That’s why we call it “late stage” capitalism.
The only goal of capitalism is to raise capital. Any method that raises capital is as valid as any other. The working class people are essentially just a bank to draw capital from, nothing more. Not to them anyway.
Anything else they told you about capitalism in school was bullshit. It does one thing. Increase capital through any means.
There is a logical end point where the working class can keep no capital for themselves, and produce it until they die. And what happens when there’s no more shareholder value to extract from the working class I wonder?
This comment is so good that I want to bottle it, take it home, and bathe in it
This gets repeated so much, but really makes no sense.
Why give someone money in the hope they give it back to you? At best you get your money back, minus the resources needed to make the product they buy. You’d be better off just keeping 100% of the money.
Ford’s success was the assembly line, which allowed him to pay workers more.
Wasn’t he the one that wanted to do full factory towns, not sure that money was ever going to leave him.
It doesn’t, actually. You pay all of your workers more so some of them might buy your product, maybe?
The increase in wages for everyone will help, but then capitalists have no choice to attract labor. See: the wages now adjusted vs. the inflation
This chart shows the median wage has gone up since the pandemic, even if using 2022 dollars. If you look at the releases, this is true YoY as well. Median wage increased last quarter vs. the same time in 2022
So the wages in the US are better than they have ever been, even inflation adjusted. You can go back as long as you want, they were not higher in the 50s, contrary to popular belief
Fuck employers, everything is TOO FUCKING EXPENSIVE
Wage increases are getting blown out of the water by inflation and cost of living. Everyone is really starting to feel that pinch. So naturally now is when the feds decide to unfreeze school loans. Really telling of how out of touch our government is
That’s not true, median wage up on an inflation-adjusted basis
And those of us who have it relatively easy, have to live with the guilt of telling all our family members no all the fucking time.
Me, looking at a $500 dentist bill for a crown because teeth are luxury bones: Yeah……fuck.
Me looking at my $500 monthly federal student loan payment.
Underpaid employees: Corporations are going to fix this problem they created by paying employees their share of record profits?
Corporations: No, not like that!
It’s also pretty hard when the corporations you work for aren’t interested in paying you what you’re worth. People need and deserve better wages
Corporations literally cannot pay you what you’re worth. The very nature of capitalism requires exploitation. For capitalism to function, there must be an inequity between a worker’s true value, i.e. their productive output, and their cost. The system is literally designed to fuck you over from the top down.
Ehhh, I’d argue the exact opposite. The people at the top hoarding so much wealth are arguably the worst capitalists. Capitalism demands cash flow, and the more the better. Few people hoarding and controlling so much of it is breaking it.
I always love to point to healthcare. Between my portion and my employer my health insurance is over $15000 for my family. Yet I have a $5000 deductible still. Imagine if all that money that my employer is paying me I was actually getting. Then apply that to every family. But instead, a few companies make all the money off that. The problem is healthcare shouldn’t be a business, but a public service just like police, firefighters, roads, etc. In an emergency I’m not going to shop hospitals, and in non emergency I don’t have a choice anyway, my insurance company decides that.
It’s the most broken system and everyone at the top is making too much money from it that it will never change until it gets so bad for the middle class it somehow starts bringing them down
It’s the same gall people had to call crypto a scam.
USD isn’t?
Your pay is only relevant to the cost of goods and services.
People used to be rich earning $1,000 a year. Your pay is irrelevant, the costs of things is what’s more important.
And taxes, fucking stop taking everyone’s money
Republicans in Congress: THOSE ARE ROOKIE NUMBERS!! I WANNA SEE 85-90% UP THERE LET’S GO!!
Of course I know this. It’s me
I’m very fortunate to finally be able to cover a major expense like that. Nothing like going to the hospital, but if I needed new tires I wouldn’t be completely broke.
It’s a strange feeling.
This strikes me as a “you will own nothing and be happy” solution. Instead of paying workers a fair wage so they can put something into savings for a rainy day, you will be at the mercy of your employer for support.
This seems to be the trend. In the future, you will have most of your needs at least met, but not through your own means, because you will have no means whatsoever. You will not be able to take care of yourself without your corporation parent. This is a very coercive situation.
narrator: They didn’t.