clemdarkstarzero
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Jul 9, 2026 7:40 AM
clemdarkstarzero
23110
964
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Telemapus
In Australia, a barista is a Level 2 (Food and Beverage Attendant) and their minimum wage is AUD$27.08. (USD$18.77)
psmith00
Nbiakro
I mean, look who pays those that say that
Andersen81
And owns the news that push the narrative.
Howlingowl
Have this conversation with the conservative nearest you:
Does capitalism function better when more people buy goods or less people buy goods? Which group is larger? The American upper class or the American lower class? Doesn’t it track then: if the American lower class has more buying power it benefits capitalism more than if the American upper class?
opportunitywaster
Fuck elon musk
Ostegonation
My parents have been like this their whole lives... Now they live in a fucking trailer. They still vote against their own interests and I stopped talking to them.
Kc0125
Every boomer I know, and sadly it's too many, think this way. All of them have been broke since 18 years of age and still vote against their best interest. Stupidity or brainwashed 🤔
discorage
That's one of my least favourite parts.
ThatGuyFromJustSouthOfTheMiddleOfNowhere
Thorketil
cjorl
Well, yeah, because "the economy" is the stability of the capitalist class's wealth and power. It has nothing to do with the rest of us.
dashers
I'm not American, so perhaps massively naive in how bad things genuinely are over there; but has anybody credible actually say that paying barista's a living wage it'll instantly cripple the economy? Outside of the US there are plenty of high performing economies that do pay a living wage as evidence that's bollocks.
PVilefort
You don't understand the present tax system. Taxes are based on personal income. Billionaires do not pay personal income taxes because their personal taxes are so low. If you are a business, the money you spend is the business money and that is not personal income. That is why all the rich politicians are all for taxing the rich because they will not be paying any additional tax. Need to change the definition of what is taxable.
thedarkcanuck
If that's all it takes to cripple an economy, then that economy deserves it
Thewhatifs
I'm for paying only what you use. No more free money for others when one cannot fund themselves. Working 5 months or more just to pay taxes is slavery through cooked up means. Life, liberty and the pursuit of Happiness is not negotiable! When government agencies tell others by force of losing your life, liberty and your ability to fund your life (pursuit of Happiness) is against their contract that they vowed to uphold and not do. Just follow the contract that limits them & leave people alone!!
Thewhatifs
The Child tax credit should be just a long term loan from the child and parents to pay back later (by being functional adults and creating worth by what kind of work is needed by the time they enter the work force.). Child care should be on a rotational schedule for individuals needing work or wanting extra income; receiving a small retirement funded by those they took care of. I.e. Social Securit. As well as getting a better loan for home mortgage. Education should be more functional...
Thewhatifs
Eliminate the stress inducing testing that gets graded within a fraction of the time that doesn't induce mastery. Make it so the person actually absorbs the knowledge and wisdom from passionate people, who are masters in their field of interest. The educational fees (property tax) are waived until the individual works and can afford to live fruitfully. Paying the teachers by reducing their living costs and loans. I.e. Teacher credit; so they can pay for the daily needs. Retirement is paid by...
Thewhatifs
the students, up to a certain percentage and additionally elderly care is given by either funding it or providing service to them. The teachers can sell their tokens of time they accumulate for faster usage (vacation time, new products, education advancements, etc). Education for the students receive travel expenses paid for by future repayment, so they can be by the best instructors that fits their learning abilities.
Frostedjakes
What the chicken fried fuck is all this? A bunch of stop gap measures that still puts the onus on the working class to avoid taxing the rich a fair amount?
No thanks.
Thewhatifs
You do know that we are already paying for it via taxes... might as well let the older folks that already put enough into the system to enjoy not having their home taken from them via property tax, because the school needs more money for wasteful spending. It's logical to have the kids pay it back but not be charged the crazy high interest rates like it is today. This way we can reduce the taxes in the end and just pay what we use.
MasterBountakun
I'm not really interested in this kind of toxic individualist society where people just isolate themselves and decide they have no responsibility to each other.
I do believe you should be free to live somewhere by yourself so no one can bother you, but if you have no interest in contributing to others then don't use the resources a community pools.
I want to build a society where we share our burdens and uplift each other.
AdmiralJohn
Let me guess, you also didn't wear a mask during Covid because "your safety is not my responsibility", right?
LiarLiarPantsUntier
If you earn $5 an hour and give away $1 a day, you donate proportionally more of your income than most billionaires.
Telemapus
This is not a defence of Billionaires: You gotta watch that word "income" there. Most of the billionaire "score" (ie their total net worth) is the value of their shares. These don't increase the billionaire's spending power, they increase their power to influence/control the company that made them rich. "billionaires have too much money" is an abstraction. What billionaires have is too much financial power. If I had literally a billion dollars in a vault, I have very little power over the /1
Arcadian1
Billionaires also aren't earners. Anyone who says top earners pay the majority of taxes is talking about doctors and lawyers, not the billionaires borrowing against held assets.
Telemapus
Ah but then they come back at you saying "Jeff Bezos paid $2.7 billion in personal tax last year because he sold $13.6 billion in Amazon shares." This makes him, by dollar amount, one of if not the highest contributing individual in the country. But this misses the point. $2.7bn is just 19% of $13.6bn. That's the same level of tax as someone earning $45,000-$60,000. Many would say it should have flipped - he keeps the $2.7bn, the rest is taxed. Even at 81%, he still gets nearly THREE BILLION.
Telemapus
government, or the economy. What can I do? Buy a shitload of something? Even a billion dollars of actual cash going back into the system wouldn't be as disruptive as what they assholes can do with their access to government, their ability to stop their companies doing this or that, or making them do the other.
Telemapus
Think about it: people say "calling Elon's money not real is just bootlicking". No, it's acknowledging he can do way MORE damage. Imagine if he just started selling all his Tesla and SpaceX stock tomorrow? The entire stock market would implode with fear. Me with a billion cash? Nobody cares. What can I do? Bribe a politician? For what? Etc.
LiarLiarPantsUntier
You are right that their wealth is primarily hoarded as systemic power and corporate control rather than just cash in a vault. But that makes it even worse. Not only do they use those leveraged assets to control the economy, but they still sacrifice a drastically smaller percentage of their actual resources to help others than someone making five bucks an hour does.
Pretty sure we both agree on this.
NChomsky
blackkult
https://media4.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1d28yanNsMzIxN3h6amZyY2M1ZGp1d2VsN250OXkwNmsxdGh5eW5tayZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/UWa6BrICHTtvlmKiRl/200w.webp
PTKrieg
The man is extremely photogenic.
McMasterx
It might be intentional by the Feds, they want him to look hearty, hale, sane of mind; not frail and weak like older criminals do when they get caught and want the jury to pity them.
tenkindsofawesome
People still vote against their best interests, my gran lived in social housing her entire life but would vote conservative because 'migrants'.
SomebodythatIusedtonope
Step 1: keep people ignorants. Step 2 :create a fake enemy/problem for stupid people so they will be ok if their lives sucks “ cause the fake enemy / problem ”. Steep 3 : vote for the problem/enemy creator that promise to eliminate it. Steep 4: repeat.
CommentBot3000
They made her afraid of something specific yet illusive, preying on existing fears so she would give everything else up.
spittleteets
Internalized oppression. Once the beliefs of the oppressors are internalized the system begins to sustain itself as the subconscious of the oppressed gatekeep others in their community and against their own direct best interests.
HandoB4Javert
NChomsky
Give 5000 with one hand, take 250,000 with the other. That's how wealth & power operates. Rotten capitalists are known for spending far more on marketing that they donated money to some charity than the literal amount they gave to the charity. Memory's hazy, but Coca-cola comes to mind, having pledged/raised 10 million for some wildlife charity over 5 years, but spent like a billion marketing that they raised 10 million over that same period.
FiftyShadesOfTiramisu
Except they'd donate 4 cents
BifPib
While screaming look at my great deed.
PVilefort
Your grandmother/grandfather lived in rent controlled housing? I am a conservative but I can see the need for rent control but there needs to be significant tax breaks for owners so their housing business does not go under. The owners of buildings are providing a valuable service and that should be rewarded.
zombiejedediah
Interesting that half the political spectrum manages to get elected on a platform consisting exclusively of 1) tax cuts, and 2) xenophobia.
We're a stupid species.
Aranon1183
I would not want to be associated with a gam-gam like that.
tenkindsofawesome
As a young man I excitedly asked her if she was going to watch comic relief, she told me "we've been sending them money for decades, nothing ever improves", she was a ray of fucking sunshine /s
Aranon1183
"Watch comic relief?" Is that a typo?
DaveSamsonite
We are not told this about baristas, this post is social media manipulation based on a completely false premise, attempting to enrage and engage. Ignore blatant social media manipulation.
DaveSamsonite
Downvoters are people that have zero critical thinking skills, and almost certainly did not vote for Kamala Harris.
The delusion that "everyone" is blaming "your generation" for anything in particular is simply delusional.
I fear that young voters are so hung up on being misunderstood that they are unable to buy into defeating Trumpisn.
They firmly believe Trump's actions can be blamed on the Democrats.
doctorId
DaveSamsonite
Its aim is to divert us from the fact that ALL REPUBLICANS are the enemy, not just billionaires. We cant do anything individually about billionaires. Be angry about social media manipulation aimed at dividing progressives. Think for yourself.
DaveSamsonite
If you downvoted because you do not blame republicans for what has gone wrong wigh america - YOU ARE A BIG PART OF THE PROBLEM.
HandoB4Javert
Wealth Tax Explained:
FreePalestineAndTheWorldFromIsrael
The rich truly are a special kind mentally ill.
SquirtVonnegut
Capitalism created the idea that people need to "earn a living." Late stage capitalism doubles down on the cruelty by insisting that even if you're working it shouldn't be enough to live on.
MrsHowVeryDareYou
Holy shit it just now dawned on me how fucked up that phrase is. Earn the right to live.
Telemapus
PEDANTS ASSEMBL! The concept of "earning" your "living" or "livelihood" goes back at least to Chaucer and probably earlier. The specific phrase was a little different "get their livelihood" and it was invented to describe peasants working the land. The first attestation of literally "earn a living" is from 1615, and that's an economy in transition - they still had feudalism and trade guilds, though "agrarian capitalism" was a thing. Earn a living is older than capitalism but capitalism LOVES it.
tmdkcyotes8
https://media3.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1enFxYmU0YXo3cmM0ZWprdXp0enB2ZzVhczQ5NGdwZ2ZubHl0aGRqaCZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/kSlJtVrqxDYKk/200w.webp
Telemapus
NOTE: The above comment is a massive simplification. "Earn" from old english "Earnian". Apparently the West Saxon Gospel (1000CE) talks about "labouring for sustenance". They paired "earnian" directly with whatever it was they relied on to survive. Like we say "earning money", I guess.
spittleteets
Anyone else remember, shit, like a few years ago we called certain jobs like special jobs...no....hmm, OH yeaaaah *ESSENTIAL* workers. Heros risk their health and possibly lives...yeah I don't remember executives getting that designation...
MoxieMonster
Yup I was a production supervisor making shoe parts and was told while others were getting paid to stay home, I had to be there every day...supervising almost nobody. We did pivot to make masks and medical covers for hospitals for all of 3 months. The C-suite then gave us a thank you note but no financial bump due to tough financial times.
DaveSamsonite
Many of us working at essential factory jobs were at companies that fought for the right to stat open. For operations that did not stay open, 100% were laid off.
No one got paid for "not working" but i would have been happy if they did.
The pandemic was not their fault.
1stDrunkJoe
I worked through the entire pandemic. I had to go into people's houses that lied about being sick because they needed better Internet so they could work from their lake houses (too scary in the city). I was essential alright, essentially expendable.
MrsHowVeryDareYou
Thank you for your service! (Pun intended, but not facetious)
1stDrunkJoe
I appreciate you. At least I fared better than many. I got the shot early from the VA so I never got very sick.
Pokegeologist
I was a supervisor at a grocery store during the pandemic. I didn't get told I was essential. I was told I was a loser working a loser job because I gave up on myself after college. First hire offer I got at a .gov job after looking for a literal decade, I got kicked out if the house to force me to take responsibility for myself and get a real job. I'm damn lucky it worked out, because I couldn't afford rent for three years and took a promotion I wasn't ready for to pay bills.
DaveSamsonite
I worked at a grocery store as a stock clerk/checker for seven years to put myself through college. I made minimum wage for five of those - $3.40/hr. I got 35 hrs/week so they did not have to pay benefits.
I then worked in the deli and made $5/hr. There was not one single week where my take home was more than $100.
If I was still in that situation I would have worked during Covid so I had enough to survive but also to ensure I had access to food. Management did not care about us at all.
Pokegeologist
The whole time I was struggling, I was told by everybody, customers, bosses, family I was an idiot too stupid to get it together. Now that I'm doing okayish, I've been told how happy everyone is I finally unfucked myself and started making good decisions like some kind of recovering drug addict. My crime? Being poor.
spittleteets
I'm glad you are in what sounds like a better situation and sucks you have shitty relationships and no social/emptional support. Have you brought up this shift in behavior with them?
Pokegeologist
I live two states away from my family and Mom died last year, so it doesn't really matter anymore. I hate the isolation, but at least I'm out I guess.