‘Workers Strike Back’: 40 Times People Realized That Modern Capitalism Is Starting To Look Ridiculous
Everyone’s entitled to a good wage, decent working conditions, and the respect of their peers. It sounds so simple. So fair. So obvious. And yet, many workers still find themselves exploited even in developed countries. Overworked for mere cents, marginalized, their voices and needs unheard.
The r/WorkersStrikeBack subreddit is an online community that advocates and fights for workers' rights in a wide variety of ways. They’re dedicated to supporting strikes and unions, addressing various workplace issues, and giving advice to anyone who might be dealing with especially tough problems or anti-worker sentiment at their jobs.
Created in late October of 2021, the subreddit already has nearly 78k members and is still growing. Scroll down for some of r/WorkersStrikeBack top posts that highlight the dark side of capitalism, and to learn more about the community.
This post may include affiliate links.
Wow. Medical Debt Causes Divorce Of Married Couple Of 52 Years
Billionaires Must Be Abolished
This Should Not Be Allowed!
Then the problem is politicians, not "capitalism". No amount of money can buy something (a politician) that isn't for sale. The problem with "income caps" for the disabled (or anyone in similar situations) is that they (like income tax deductions for children) are ludicrously low amounts. Designed, not to actually help people, but for no other reason than to keep people poor. They should reflect a "realistic" income level at which someone can live at without assistance. They shouldn't be used to keep someone from earning more income just because they are getting assistance.
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As a disabled person I can confirm this.. I get just over $500/mo to live on plus $140 for food a month.. And if either goes up the other goes down.. If I tried to make more I could lose both.. And if I have more than $2k in my account they stop giving me benefits as well
I think it is, I did read somewhere that if a disabled person's income goes over a very low threshold, they lose any benefits they receive because of their disability
Load More Replies... Technically, there is no income cap on disabled people. But there is a cap on income if you are enrolled in Medicaid. Medicaid is for very poor people who can’t support themselves. The trouble to me comes when a person who makes a certain amount of money but not enough to support himself and pay for the extra insurance and copays and drugs and all that is cut off from any help at all from Medicaid. It’s an all or nothing situation. In Michigan when my sister went into a nursing home, Medicare paid most of her stay for a short time and then stopped. She had about $60k in savings and investments and a $1400 social security income. Plus a house and car. I had to spend her money till she had less than $2k before she qualified for Medicaid. Nearly $7k a month for the nursing home. She could keep her house and car. After less than two years, the remaining $2k was gone because of the property taxes and insurance on the house. Sold the car for some extra money for that.
It's not just Medicaid. I'd get kicked off of Social Security Disability if I made more than a certain threshold. Last time I checked, that cutoff was $600/month *before taxes.* My doctor bills and medications cost much more than that, not to mention housing, food, utilities, transportation, etc.
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Because corporate welfare provides more ROI than disability payments to individuals who are just a societal drain.
Thanks for calling me "just a societal drain." I guess I can't possibly contribute to society in other ways.🙄
Load More Replies... Sorry, but I have to srsly play my 'barred attorney card' again: in no way, shape or form is there any American law of our federal, state of local governments which is an income cap on disabled people. What this person may be thinking of is that if you are a handicapped person who APPLIES FOR GOVT. WELFARE, then, on the question of whether you get that welfare, if you earn over a certain amount you are ineligible. This is sort of in line w/ the 'I hate the rich' mentality; e.g. if a guy is in a wheelchair, but makes $250k annually, as a business consultant, I'm sure many of us would agree that it's a rational policy that this should make said man ineligible for public assistance. If his handicapped condition rendered him unable to work at all, he'd be eligible for help then. On and on the examples could go.
I'm torn. Just a bit. If the cap were on a level that they really don't need outside help, then it would be ok to loose benefits, so others may have them. But if it is a very low cap (which it seams to be) then this is screwed up.
It is above the federal poverty level which is $13590. Which is ridiculous.
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This is being taking way out of context. The income cap is for disability benefits. Clearly the system needs fixed because like all other systems affiliated with the government, it is FUBAR. Essentially the income cap is there to keep people from abusing disability benefits when they could easily afford their expenses but the system currently also oppresses disabled people to not be able to grow past being a state dependant.
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No. The cap varies if it it social security or disability. But it is always below the poverty line. To qualify is almost a 20 hour a week job and for 6 months I was not allowed to bring in any money
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*sigh* ... No, there are no caps on the amount of income disabled people are allowed to earn. There are caps on how much one can earn and still receive government benefits. Unless someone would like to explain why a disabled software engineer making $500,000 a year should receive benefits funded by middle-class taxpayers.
I'm sorry, which country has that cap at over $500,000?
Load More Replies...The online community presents itself as an unabashedly “leftist, anti-capitalist subreddit.” They stress that they are not a place for debates. To them, capitalism is exploitative and evil, and they’re not willing to talk about these basic assumptions.
It’s all very black-and-white. So if you’re going to be posting on the sub, keep in mind that the goal is to give workers more negotiating power at work, not to analyze the nuances of economics and politics. There are plenty of other places to do this. This isn’t one of them.
Cayman Islands
Sad Reality
Love It Here
“Worker exploitation is not up for debate. It is evident. If you intend to debate, go elsewhere,” the mods explain. “Capitalism is an inherently exploitative economic system. This is not up for debate.”
The community believes wealthy special interests groups have corrupted governments everywhere, meaning that they do not represent the will of the people. As a result, wages remain stagnant, affordable medical coverage remains difficult (mostly in the United States), and the climate crisis continues to get out of hand.
Burgernomics
Congrats!
I don't understand why business owners can't just do the work themselves just like how they started out.
Trolling Ancaps, Temporarily Inconvenienced Billionaires
I cannot count how many times I have ranted about that same argument. I mean seriously, they have stated "we have more money than we know what to do with", on Sky News and now they're crying poverty?? F**k off!
In the subreddit’s view, mass striking is what leads to real change. However, it has to be done as efficiently, as widely as possible. They have a handy guide in the subreddit’s sidebar on the right with a whole host of resources for anyone who is thinking of organizing a strike at work.
Hmmm I Wonder Why
That's another "Only in Murica"-thing, I suppose? Minimal wage started in January 2015 in Germany and got up from 8,50 €/h to 10,45 €/h since than. Still low, but improving.
Truth
You Don't Have To Pay Your Boss Miscalculations
However, r/WorkersStrikeBack isn’t the only online community that is concerned with better working conditions and showing the dark, dreary underbelly of capitalist society.
Earlier, Bored Panda interviewed Angel, the founder and moderator of the ‘Humans of Capitalism’ page. They told us that the current capitalist system is flawed, absurd, and unjust. What’s more, this injustice permeates every layer of our lives, not just work, according to them.
Just Like Thomas Edison, Elon Rides Of Tesla's Success
Boycott Amy's
Basically, The Laws Exist To Protect The Capitalist Class
If you are a bank and go bankrupt, government will help you out with a few billion dollars taken from taxpayers' pockets.
For Angel, the future looks bleak. They don’t have much optimism that capitalism as a whole can be replaced easily. In fact, they think that capitalism evolved into corporatism.
"We often see many small businesses collapsing because they are not able to fight with the current trend or to combat with the giant competitors. So they have two options, close the business or sell it," Angel mused.
Can't Afford Job Loyalty In This Situation
Pssssssssssssst! ... It Was Our Money
Secessio Plebis
"We have many companies that have been bought by enormous giants that I do not want to mention and they won't stop there, they are trying to get their hands on any business category. Is there a solution for it? I believe that there can be some solutions, but capitalists will work and find a way to bypass those solutions and continue with the destruction of the system while being totally ignorant about it," they said.
Amazon Making Blatantly Fake Twitter Accounts Ahead Of The Union Vote To Discourage Workers From Unionizing
Wow. Can that be a lawsuit, having your own face used on a Twitter account without your permission?
You Can Do It, Too! If They Don’t Want To Pay You Fair Wages, Force Them To Close!
The owner of Jimmy Johns (Jimmy John Liautaud) is a disgusting big game trophy hunter. I personally would rather starve to death than support this piece of fecal waste. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/jimmy-john-liautaud-hunting-photos/
Love The Late Stage Capitalism Of Child Labor Needed To Pay Off That Good ‘Ol American Child Debt
What's more heartwarming than this? Than it not being necessary. A Wisconsin school district just refused the Biden administrations extension of free lunches. Awful humans.
In Angel’s view, any system and society, capitalist or not, has the potential for corruption. "If we go back in time where socialism or communism were at their prime, we can see that the top of the head of the system was corrupted and that resulted with the fall of the system," they pointed out that people ought to have a realistic view of history, not an overly-romanticized one.
Born In The System. Trapped In The System
In 2020 We Were Called "Essential Workers" When They Needed Us To Work And Now We're Back To Being Called "Low Skilled Workers" If The Pandemic Has Shown Anything It's That So Called "Low Skilled Workers" Are Of Vital Importants To The Economy And Without These Workers The Economy Would Shut Down
Sigma Female
The founder of ‘Humans of Capitalism’ told Bored Panda how they envision the future. They believe that we’re in for an automated ‘utopia’ where machines will produce, deliver, and take care of everything. From food and clothing to health. However, that wouldn’t necessarily make things perfect, as someone would still control the system of distribution.
It’s Never In More Pay
This Is What Happens When Companies Run The Country
Well, This Is It
"The idea of getting free food, water, health, clothing, is nice and, in reality, if we take a closer look at the current system we can see that more people are let off and replaced by machines. For example, we can see that McDonald's workers are fired and they have been replaced with machines that work on touch or by sound and they take orders, forward orders to the employees, etc."
"I Started From The Bottom..."
Marshalls: Free Shipping On Orders Over $89, Workers Gfy
Building Class Conscience Through Memes
They can see a dark future where, as technology progresses, more and more workers will lose their jobs.
"I believe that 50 years from now machines will provide food, clothing, healthcare services, and much more, by themselves, with little to no employees monitoring them. But there is an issue with that. You will leave millions of people jobless and cause huge riots as the famous quote from Jean-Jacques Rousseau goes: 'When the people shall have no more to eat, they will eat the rich.'"
Can I Have Nothing Please?
“Wildest Part Of Labor History Class”
Where's the guy who called me an "armchair socialist"? Shouldn't he be here defending the cops and Pinkerton agents who shot coal miners and factory workers on strike?
America Needs A Socialist Revolution
God forbid you say the “S” word. Most Mercian’s think it’s Communism. They have no idea what socialism really is.
The Owner Class Does None Of The Work And Owns All Of The Wealth, The Working Class Does All Of The Actual Work And Gets Almost None Of The Wealth
I'm all for socialism... as you can see from previous posts. But this specific argument is flawed. The problem is, a huge amount of money needs to go into finding and mining the gold, and if it turns out that the gold mine is a failure... the miners still got paid for their work, but the mine owner just wasted a whole bunch of money. The individual miners didn't take any risk. -- So the question is, if you don't like this model, then who should take on the risk? Co-ops are a possible solution, where the miners pool their resources together and invest in the mine, and if it fails, they all share the loss. Another option is socialism, where the government owns the mine and takes on the risk, so ultimately the tax-payer will take the hit if it is a failure. -- There are options, but someone will have to suffer if the mine fails.
F**k That
Let’s Keep It Up Till All Jobs Are Unionized
Still can't get over the fact that the US are only NOW getting unions FOR the workers
What You Want vs. What You Get, Living Under Capitalism
Unionized Women Earn 23% More Hourly Then Those Without A Union
Can confirm. I had a non-union job before the pandemic, got laid off, found a new job with a union, now make 29% more, have health benefits, and get PTO.
Comrade Clippy
Yikes
The Actual Truth
The Working Class Is Shamed For Eating The Only Food They Can Afford, Yet All Food Is Not Created Or Distributed Equally
A healthy meal goes for about $40 bucks per person here in México :O
Facts...
It's weird how caring for each other, easing the suffering of others and realiziing our potential is what the Bible tells us to do, but so many people think the opposite is true.
F**k Billionaires
That’s... That’s Literally A Good Thing...
I Wonder Why Nobody Want To Be A Teacher
If Billionaires Can Go To Space, Ordinary Ride People Should Not Have To Pay For Ambulances
Do They Even Know What It Is?
This meme fundamentally misunderstands middle america. Middle america comprises white racist males who think that if they work hard enough they will become millionaires and get to a**e-ram the poor themselves. However, what the middle american does not understand is that (a) racism is a side-effect of capitalism, and that their racist rants are perpetrating capitalist differences so as to create a labour class made of black people who can be exploited (b) capitalism is in itself what is keeping them (and black people) poor, and that (c) wealth is never achieved by hard work it is achieved by social networks.
Solidarity
Had the minimum wage kept up with inflation and the cost of living, it would currently be around $26/hour.
Disgusting
This Is Why Revolutionary Class Consciousness Is So Important
Which (and this is painful for me to type) just shows how pointless most desk jobs are. Fast food workers provide a service, delivering food directly to the people who want it. I... crunch numbers on a spreadsheet. Now, my role does have a touch more responsibility (if a McDonald's cashier screws up, a customer gets 7 nuggets instead of 8, or even the other way around. If I screw up, several cashiers may not actually get paid (for example, I'm not actually McDonald's payroll). But is my job really creating that much of a difference in society that I'm worth as much as twice theirs? (Sorry, bit rambling, can't fit a diatribe into the character limit)
How Corporate Profits Even Don't Get Any Blame For Price Increasing? Unthinkable
Yeah Pretty Sure That’s Illegal As F**k
Why Is This An Acceptable Life?
'not Worth It'
Post Offices Matter
This Is Class Warfare!
Class Warfare implies that there is some even balance between the two belligerents. This is more like a Class Blitzkrieg.
It’s A Scam
Amazon Can't Afford To Let Workers Unionize
Imagine Being This Dumb
Wage Theft Is The Largest Form Of Theft Bigger Then All Others Combined But Yet The Mass Media Doesn't Cover It
The Only Reason You Get Any Time Off Is Because Organized Labor Fought And Struggled For It And Won
Kellogg's Is Trying To Break The Strike By Bringing In Scabs Remember Don't Cross The Picket Line, Don't Buy Anything From Kellogg's Untill They Agree To The Unions Terms. Solidarity Forever!
Simple Life Hack ...
My team went from 5 to 2, with an increased workload. We were losing our minds.
Wait! Not Like That
Exactly
Boomers Are Detached From Reality
This is agism and it hides the fact that college tuitions skyrocketed in a very short time. When my grandfather came home after WWII, he went to a state college and tuition was free. That was less than 80 years ago.
This Escalated From 0 To Full Blown Dystopian Real Quick
Capitalist Propaganda At Its Finest
There Is Nothing Good About Huddle Culture
One of the favourite songs of my mother is "Mach dich nicht kaputt" by Juliane Werding (German folk singer) The title simply translates to "Do not wreck yourself". Written in the 70's, it's about a guy who works himself to death and his girlfriend tells him "Do not wreck yourself, it's not worth it". Even back then people knew it was bad to work so long and dedicate every free second for the business. HOW on earth could've this go on for so long? I don't get it...
F**k Elon Musk
Elon names his kids by poking randomly at a keyboard and pays someone else to raise them.
If The Territory Of The USA Was Divided The Same Way As Wealth This Is What It Would Look Like
Ironic...
Didn't you force your workers to come in even when a pandemic was raging??? Did you threaten to fire them if they refused to come in? Or am I mistaken??? Oh and by the way, how are their wages? Do you pay a fair wage? Do they have company health insurance? 4 or 5 weeks paid holidays? Paid overtime? Just asking....
Ancaps Being Ancaps. Wtf Is Wrong With Those People?
I Bet The Same Goes For "Capitalism"
Gonna Go Get Some Coffee. Anyone Want Anything?
Hell, even if 10% was passed on as new wages for employees....quick google search, thats 383000 employees. lets round that down to 38000 to account for the top brass that get fair raises anyway... lets just say everyone gets an equal share of that, that means the annual income for the employee would increase by $53,421/year. I'm not sure what they pay hourly, but lets assume minimum wage. 40hr work week, I'll be generous and assume 2 weeks off a year, that would put them at 67.921/year or 33.96/hr. Even just evenly distributing 1% of that would still average out to about 2.61/hr more
It’s Systemic …
Let some of the f'ng managers go. Usually an area can run without them.
I Guess This Was Off-Topic At Antiwork So I Wanted To Post Here. It's A Brief Solidification Of The Point That There's No Labor Shortage Leading To Supply Issues, And Thus Higher Prices. This Is Clear, Given The Growing Profit Margins
My small business locally owned coffee shop that I am regular at? Profit increase, no prices raised.
Footloose And Fancy-Free Rebels Strike Back!
Meanwhile, Over In R/Smallbusiness...
Beyond Parody
Yet What Force On Earth Is Weaker Than The Feeble Strength Of One?
Nationwide Strike
Amazon Workers At A Staten Island, New York City, Amazon Warehouse Filed For A Union Election Today. Solidarity To Them
Don't Let These Businesses Gaslight You. They've Taken More "Handouts" Than Any One Of Us Will Ever Receive
Only In America...
When We Explain To A Capitalist That The Rule Of Supply And Demand Is Equally Applicable To Wages
This Guy Is Disconnected From Reality
The Power Of Solidarity: More Than 4,500 Mft Union Educators From Minneapolis Public Schools Are On Strike And Picketed Across The City Today
This Is Prevalent In India As Well, For Those Wondering. Employers Are S**ty Everywhere
It's like they understand the concept, but just can't make the connection as to why!! If you keep your salary competitive, your employees are more likely to stay. Duh.
The Courts Are Refusing To Allow Railroad Workers The Right To Strike
Get Back To Work
They've also refused to boycott Russia and remove their business from there.
Well That’s Terrifying
I was reading not too long ago that one of their challenges in staffing their warehouses is that they've already run through so many employees that the pool of available employees who haven't already worked for them is becoming quite small. So many people have worked at their fulfillment centers and gotten burnt out or been fired for not being able to meet their ridiculous quotas. Those positions have high turnover. They tend to be located outside major population centers in small to mid sized towns, so there's not a huge influx of new people into the area and they're exhausting the people who live there.
Somehow I've Deduced That Bankers Are Exempt From This...
People like him have absolutely no idea what it's like to not have enough money . . . And of they ever knew, they've forgotten.
You Don't Have To Be A Mathematician To See That These Numbers Don't Add Up!
Capitalism is a terrible system. It just happens to be better than all the other terrible systems we've tried. I'll stick with the least worst economic system until we get something that is proven to work better.
Our financial system is f****d up. Like, how are we supposed purchase necessities if we make $2 an hour with 90% of it going to taxes and bills? And they wonder why the homeless population is getting bigger. Minimum wage should be raised to an actual wage we can LIVE off of. People still live with their parents because the system isn't giving them enough to live. I say tax the s**t out of the billionaires. They've got enough money just laying around. And inflation isn't making things any better. Workers wages stay the same while the price of goods go up making it even more impossible to live. Even if you get like $25000 or more a year, most of it is going to fixed expenses like bills and taxes so you have $11 to go buy this week's groceries. The middle class is shrinking because we're all losing money while billionaires are getting richer. This concludes my TED Talk. (yes I know a lot of this is an exaggeration but it helps me express how f****d up this is)
Living in a country that US tourists find expensive and got high taxes I don't get these posts. For our taxes we for example just pay between 11-32 USD depending on who, how, where and when. We never pay more than 127 USD during a 12 month period and the daycost for any hospital recovery is 11,60 USD. But I can add that medical prices were raised a lot after the ISIS war when we received many refugees. How ever most medicine have humane prices and also have a maximum cost per year: 252 USD counted from the first purchase. For daycare the maximum tax is 111 USD/month/child over 3 y. Elementary school is payed with the taxes and includes food and books. Most roads are payed for and some more things. But of course do we have rich people who only gets richer and low-wages. as for a cleaner it's approximately 2297 USD/month and unions for all categories of employments. We have brakes and free water! Some workplaces even have free coffee/tea/hot chocolate and/or soda and access to food for a reduced costs for ordinary workers. So reading these posts I get terrified and will never visit US.
Can people in America work in a Mcdonald's without high school? Just curious... Here vast majority of jobs require high school meanwhile there are people in college who can't write properly.
The majority of students at the University of Wyoming can barely write their names. Hyperbole aside, most of the students I encounter write at a 9th-grade level.
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The title should have been "in the over deregulated american economy". Capitalism is just the frame, the tool. It's efficient, but has to be slightly regulated and controlled.
Capitalism is a terrible system. It just happens to be better than all the other terrible systems we've tried. I'll stick with the least worst economic system until we get something that is proven to work better.
Our financial system is f****d up. Like, how are we supposed purchase necessities if we make $2 an hour with 90% of it going to taxes and bills? And they wonder why the homeless population is getting bigger. Minimum wage should be raised to an actual wage we can LIVE off of. People still live with their parents because the system isn't giving them enough to live. I say tax the s**t out of the billionaires. They've got enough money just laying around. And inflation isn't making things any better. Workers wages stay the same while the price of goods go up making it even more impossible to live. Even if you get like $25000 or more a year, most of it is going to fixed expenses like bills and taxes so you have $11 to go buy this week's groceries. The middle class is shrinking because we're all losing money while billionaires are getting richer. This concludes my TED Talk. (yes I know a lot of this is an exaggeration but it helps me express how f****d up this is)
Living in a country that US tourists find expensive and got high taxes I don't get these posts. For our taxes we for example just pay between 11-32 USD depending on who, how, where and when. We never pay more than 127 USD during a 12 month period and the daycost for any hospital recovery is 11,60 USD. But I can add that medical prices were raised a lot after the ISIS war when we received many refugees. How ever most medicine have humane prices and also have a maximum cost per year: 252 USD counted from the first purchase. For daycare the maximum tax is 111 USD/month/child over 3 y. Elementary school is payed with the taxes and includes food and books. Most roads are payed for and some more things. But of course do we have rich people who only gets richer and low-wages. as for a cleaner it's approximately 2297 USD/month and unions for all categories of employments. We have brakes and free water! Some workplaces even have free coffee/tea/hot chocolate and/or soda and access to food for a reduced costs for ordinary workers. So reading these posts I get terrified and will never visit US.
Can people in America work in a Mcdonald's without high school? Just curious... Here vast majority of jobs require high school meanwhile there are people in college who can't write properly.
The majority of students at the University of Wyoming can barely write their names. Hyperbole aside, most of the students I encounter write at a 9th-grade level.
Load More Replies... The title should have been "in the over deregulated american economy". Capitalism is just the frame, the tool. It's efficient, but has to be slightly regulated and controlled.
