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Why Are You Not Getting What BART Workers Want?

Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2013 4:03 am
by Andrew D
That is the question which we should be asking.

Instead of asking "Why do they make more than I do?" -- as if what they make were some lavish indulgence -- we should be asking:

Why Are My Wages Shit?

Why, in the richest country in the world, am I being paid shit for working hard?

Why is it that I work my butt off full time, and I still can't keep my reasonably-sized family of four in a decent standard of living?

Why is it that if I fuck up on my job, I get fired, but if a CEO drives his company into bankruptcy requiring a government bailout, he or she gets a golden parachute worth more than I could earn if I worked hard full time from my eighteenth birthday to my sixty-fifth?

Why are my earnings stagnating while corporate profits are skyrocketing and the "earnings" of those in the upper echelons are through the roof?

And why am I not demanding that this fucked-up mess be fixed?

Those are the questions we should be asking.

Re: Why Are You Not Getting What BART Workers Want?

Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2013 9:39 pm
by Sue U
Well, if you asked those questions and demanded real remedies then you'd have to conclude that our socio-economic system is totally out of whack and needs a complete restructuring, if not outright consignment to the dustbin of history. We very nearly approached almost starting to begin to talk about maybe having that conversation two years ago when Occupy Wall Street was a thing. But that bit of agitprop theater got lost in the election year circus and the usual oooohhhh shiny! of American culture. Besides, it takes no actual thinking or hard work of positive action if you just blame this month's scapegoats for your shitty life, rather than addressing the rigged system that keeps the rich rich[er] and the working classes fighting each other for their table scraps. But hey, we're not "workers," we're all just "temporarily embarrassed millionaires."

Re: Why Are You Not Getting What BART Workers Want?

Posted: Wed Aug 14, 2013 1:02 am
by rubato
A couple of thoughts; neither of them really satisfactory:

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2 ... aspx#page1

http://robertreich.org/post/58082787864


A lot of it comes back to the fact that the Republican right fucks Dales (and his kids) in the ass but Dales attacks democrats in response.


yrs,
rubato

Re: Why Are You Not Getting What BART Workers Want?

Posted: Wed Aug 14, 2013 2:10 am
by Rick
Hey I like shiny...

Re: Why Are You Not Getting What BART Workers Want?

Posted: Wed Aug 14, 2013 11:07 am
by Sue U
rubato wrote:A couple of thoughts; neither of them really satisfactory:

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2 ... aspx#page1

http://robertreich.org/post/58082787864
Hey, Robert Reich is stealing my material.

Re: Why Are You Not Getting What BART Workers Want?

Posted: Wed Aug 14, 2013 6:24 pm
by TPFKA@W
I watched a History Channel show about the Black Plague. By having a good 1/3 or so of the population die off it significantly improved the lot of surviving peasants who were suddenly in high demand when the gentry got fed up with tending their own fields.

So we just need a good airborne hemorrhagic virus. It will fix things right up.

Re: Why Are You Not Getting What BART Workers Want?

Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2013 12:41 am
by rubato
TPFKA@W wrote:I watched a History Channel show about the Black Plague. By having a good 1/3 or so of the population die off it significantly improved the lot of surviving peasants who were suddenly in high demand when the gentry got fed up with tending their own fields.

So we just need a good airborne hemorrhagic virus. It will fix things right up.
Well, no.


Read about Wat Tyler's rebellion:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peasants%27_Revolt


Those who have money and power will use both in the most brutal way to keep their positions. Hence the modern Republican party and their opinion of the "47%".


yrs,
rubato