People are checking out because the middle class is non-existent. It doesn’t matter how hard you work - the the prospect of getting ahead, owning a home, retirement is out of reach for the vast majority of people.
People can work hard and stress themselves out or they can check out of the system and achieve largely the same result.
This is about the failures of late stage capitalism. To claim the issue is free healthcare is gaslighting.
“Middle class” contrasts with “upper class” and “lower class”, not with “ruling class” and “working class”; it’s the wrong perspective.
It may be today, but a strong middle class is what placates the working class. Give em something to shoot for so they won’t shoot you.
“Middle class” IS working class. It’s a false distinction that only serves to undermine our only tool against the ruling class, class solidarity. (I think we’re kind of saying the same thing.)
Gaslight
Obstruct
Project
Time for another round of:
“Turn on, tune in, drop out.”
Waaaay ahead of ya haha
This is about the
failuressuccesses of late stage capitalismFTFY
free healthcare
does he think everyone in the US gets the same healthcare that congresspeople get?
Probably.
Is this free healthcare you speak of in the room with us right now?
Is he mad that young adults can stay on their parents’ health plan until age 26?
Which the parents pay for… They just don’t know what words mean anymore.
Theres nowhere in the country that has legitimate free healthcare, and only a small handful of states that have healthcare for those below the poverty line.
Where are these supposed young people just living it up off free healthcare?
How do you not work and still have money for the Xbox subscription and steam sales?
Or food or shelter or anything?
Look up the book “Hell’s Angel’s” by Hunter Thompson.
There’s a section in the book where he writes about the economics of being a hippie/biker/artist circa 1970.
A biker could work for six months as a Union stevedore and save up enough money to go on the road for two years. A part time waitress could support herself and her musician boyfreind.
That’s what these guys grew up seeing and reading, huh? So they’re trying to govern with assumptions that have not held true for decades.
No they are not governing. They are attempting to rule using rhetoric they know sticks with older generations. That’s it. Just gotta keep people voting and they will say and do anything to get those votes.
Nah, young folk these days just don’t want to work. They need to buckle down, pull on the ol’ bootstraps, and work a part time job at the factory while going to college. No reason that shouldn’t support a family of 4 with a single income!
Sounds awesome! Reminds me of a Chinese Buddhist couple who work a few months then travel a few months to temples
I would take anything Hunter S. Thompson wrote with a massive grain of salt. He’s fun to read but gonzo journalism isn’t a great source for facts.
First, he wrote the book in the 1970s. People would have noticed if he was wildly off base.
Second, you can do a quick search and prove his numbers were correct.
So us person here. This free healthcare he speaks of is news to me.
He gets free govt Healthcare and probably stays at home playing video games. It’s all projection.
With fascists every accusation is an admission
The amount of dirty looks I got today casually playing slay the spire on my steam deck as a 41 year old man in the waiting room of a medical facility was pretty impressive.
Cmon they were just jelly u had a deck lol
It’s so sweet. I am bad at consoles and haven’t owned one since Sonic made his debut but this thing rocks.
I’d give you dirty looks as well if you weren’t playing on A20 and fighting the heart
They were wondering why you weren’t playing Balatro.
Please tell me more about this free healthcare
Pretty rich coming from a guy who lets trump take every power congress is supposed to hold. WTF does he even do at work? If we stopped paying him, would anything at all happen? Every republican seems like a whiny crybullying grifter to me.
Young men who are capable of playing video games all day are likely depressed, and have a clinical problem. Our volition to be productive was demonstrated during the 2020 lockdown and the great resignation of 2021-22, in which young men (as with all other working demographics) learned:
- They felt better in a non-toxic work environment
- They couldn’t couch potato for more than a week without getting fierce cabin fever, and
- They got highly skilled when they were doing a thing they liked.
The ones who resigned from old jobs were the ones who were able to monetize their hobby enough to quit. Many more got productive, but didn’t find something in their craft for which there was a ready market.
Speaker Johnson is a fierce MAGA and conforms to the common fascist trope of never speaking in good faith. See Sartre’s antisemite quote.
With several perspectives including that crunch remains a thing in AAA game development, our ownership class and CEOs are less concerned about maximizing profits than they are being lords with a feif and peons (compulsory servitude).
Oh and death to all monarchists. Disney deaths preferred.
I would prefer to work a job than to grind in a videogame. Unfortunately, Americans live in a nation where bad working conditions, low pay, heavy competition, instability, and ghost jobs makes job seeking unpalatable.
American capitalism is a cancer.
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True. Even the Nordic Model nations are backsliding from what I hear. It is why I think that we need to try an wholly artificial economic system, with rules and principles. Similar to a Constitution’s framework, but focused on providing for the wellbeing of all citizens.
Yes socialism will work with another name attached to it.
The only social system that can work is if democracy comes into the workplace, and that is what socialism is. When workers unite and control the means of production, then we will all truly be free. This is what Marx meant by saying: “Workers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains.”
The only problem is the name. Some have called it democracy at work, but I feel that is not snappy enough.
My homebrew is Universal Ranked Income, or URI. There are at least two jokes in that shorthand.
Anyhow, the premise is that everyone gets a Rank 0 income with universal benefits by default. $10k is given to every citizen each year, money being solely used for lifestyle rather than necessity. Higher ranks replace the income of lower ones. Schooling is a job with an income based on grades, $12k-$20k range of income. Rank 2 is jobs like being a waitress or clerk, giving $40k. Astronauts fall into the highest category of R5, thus they get $100k. All jobs are ranked according to objective Effort, Risk, and Knowledge metrics. Employers can’t pay more or less than the income rank, nor offer benefits to select employees.
Essentially, there are absolute floors and ceilings on income and wealth. Everyone also gets issued standard items like food, clothing, cars, and so forth, but these are very generic - you spend money to get clothes with interesting patterns, varied food, bigger cars, larger shelter, and so forth. Capitalism is reserved for things that need to be attractive, while socialism is used to ensure survival and wellbeing.
And rich people don’t have jobs because they mooch off poor people.
Hypocrisy at its finest.
Music is making younger generations lazy.
Nono, it’s books.
Nono, it’s film.
Nono, it’s TV.
Nono, it’s music again, but only certain kinds of music like rock and metal.
Nono, it’s video games.
Younger generation is lame. We were so awesome. Remember how awesome we were? Kids these days!
And we’ve made their environment worst than ours and it’s their fault.
Fucking youngsters
Those inane Shakespeare plays are making the world a dumber place!
Putting aside the, “Everyone but an idiot knows the poor must be kept poor, or they will never be productive” logic, it’s also just dumb as shit to claim that “able-bodied young men” are going to be super motivated to get off the couch for the sake of health insurance - not even real healthcare, we’re talking about paying hundreds of dollars a month so that if you get sick you can “only” be saddled with a very high deductible.
I fucking hate these people’s guts. Something something Luigi’s Mansion.
Meanwhile: Politicians who never had a day of honest work their entire life.
