I, personally, could use a good union now.
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I canât really speak regarding other professions, but my own line of work has a whole messy batch of ideas, personalities, and circumstances that conflict regarding it.
On the one hand, the union advocates cite things like the 80+ hour workweeks expected during crunch time, and the expectation to be on call during the night in case the server goes down and to do routine deployments/maintenance but also to be ready in the morning and working all day.
And the way some companies structure their âperksâ for the naive like, thereâs a ping-pong table (but youâll never get to use it) and you get a few free craft beers once a month. Or payscales like âwe canât pay market rate, but youâll get equity that might be worth something somedayâ or âyou get in on our new cryptocurrency from the start so if it catches on (it wonât) you could make a lot!â
On the other hand we have credentialists who think we should have something like the medical field has the AMA or the legal field has the BAR. If only we had some professional gatekeepers like that then we could get higher salaries and wouldnât have to compete for our jobs with people who werenât in the old boyâs club.
But a lot of us are self-taught, and donât agree with that credentialism. We are trying to increase diversity, and donât really like how narrow the field is with âcultural fitâ often being the determining factor. So the credentialists are right out of luck.
And generally speaking, we get relatively easy jobs with good pay fairly easily. So, despite the problems, most people donât feel like they need a union. Many people see themselves as potentially the next Gates, Zuckerberg, or Bezos. They like the idea of being able to hop to whatever hot new thing will advance their career better than getting into some kind of stable but limited ladder progression of seniority.
Thereâs also the side note that the most relatable union jobs are trades that require the person to be there on location. But our jobs can mostly be done from anywhere, by anyone capable. So while a local trade union going on strike could be a major threat, shut down a city or company, we could be replaced by lunchtime with remote workers. Theyâd need some ramp-up time, but still, it wouldnât even be in the same league as far as leverage. We have decent leverage from knowledge and skills, and a union doesnât buy much more.
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Luckily this story ends okay. I recommend starting at the beginning, but this is why I chose this thread:
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The stigma is also for anyone of any color who happens to be poor. I know this from personal experience.
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Car culture is a global scam. We already know this but restating it is always necessary:
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We have never really known an American capitalism that thrived without the car at its core.
Anecdotally, I have always thrived more without a car.
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Because you live in a city. Remember, thatâs where âurbanâ types and lefties live. Real Americans live in areas where your kid canât even go to grade school without being driven there.
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Because gawd forbid they take the bus with all the other kids.
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Begins as a book review, and edges into a generalized indictment of philanthropy.
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The bus just takes you to school.
âEngineâ is more accurate than car; steam-engine powered vehicles, particularly trains, were responsible for the spread of capitalism. And then we have internal-combustion-engine powered vehicles that carry people and goods, whether individually or en masse.
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We donât keep the arms dealers in check.
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We canât keep 'em in check here, much less anywhere else, or so it would appear.
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Thatâs some bullshit.
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That is one chilling metaphor.
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O rly?
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Itâs a statement of giving up. I donât accept that.
It was a statement, an observation. If we canât control guns here, how the heck can we control 'em there?
How can we keep guns in check in the US, then? How do we tear apart and rebuild a culture that is based on white male supremacy and capitalism and their preservation via gun violence? I mean, guns were NOT invented to hammer in nails or build anything whatsoever; guns are weapons of destruction, sometimes mass destruction, solely created to kill living things.
Can it even be done? Or do we have to slash-and-burn everything to the ground and then metaphorically salt the earth somehow?
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