- cross-posted to:
- economics@lemmygrad.ml
- cross-posted to:
- economics@lemmygrad.ml
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Biden re-nominated this guy and people will still insist on voting blue. Ulysses Grant raised the wages of federal workers during the gilded age and also cut back their work hours. This was before minimum wage was even a thing. Biden can't even be bothered to do a half measure like that.
Our leaders are so fucking stupid lmao
"Times are tough and people can't afford the basics, so let's make that even worse. surely this won't backfire"
If the fed fucks me over and makes me homeless I will definitely mail my representatives :a-guy:
that is a lovely photograph you plan on sending them. I'm sure they'll appreciate your letter, in which you politely share the photograph.
for their sake, I hope they are never forced to debate you in the marketplace of ideas
Gotta have a back up for their own ineptitude, I guess
"Powell claimed this discrepancy between job vacancies and unemployment is due to high wages, which discourage workers from taking bad, low-paying jobs with few benefits, and therefore give them too much power."
:amerikkka:
capital strike
Jacobin article explaining what a capital strike is: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/02/capital-strike-regulations-lending-productivity-economy-banks-bailout
There are numerous reasons why inflation has been creeping up - supply chains are still being disrupted and are fragile (China's perpetual lockdowns are big here), demand is badly outpacing supply (the stimulus played a big role here), and there's obviously just outright gouging going on especially with fuel. At its base inflation is just capitalists maintaining profit margins by passing rising production costs downstream to the consumer, especially labor costs when those can't be slashed.
But the single biggest reason it's happening now is the pandemic-exacerbated labor shortage. The disease literally killed a million Americans, the vast majority of them working people, who were in turn disproportionately in food service and retail. It induced millions more to retire early, or to stay home to take care of kids while schools, or to become very picky with their job openings because they now want to stay working from home, quitting shifty jobs because there are so many more vacancies now, etc. In short: *the disruption of the pandemic has swung the advantage in bargaining power away from capital toward labor for the first time in FIFTY years. This means even without the pressure of government legislation or organized labor, employers have to raise wages to attract workers, even in retail and food service where wages almost never go up without federal minimum wage increases. In these industries wages have gone up at least $4-5/he.
This is all coming at a time where actually profitable investments are drying up everywhere and an era of large growth at the top of the economy due to a decade of a glut of easy credit and low interest rates is coming to a halt. We have long had a running crisis of overaccumulation, but the capitalists need to maintain their rates of profit and growth. Theyre compelled to. And on top of every other disruption, the rising labor costs bite the hardest.
So the capitalists have been waging full-bore class war since 2021 began. Theyve put a stop to every wealth redistribution measure going to working people - stimulus, rent moratorium, increased UI, COVID leave, COVID health coverage - except the student debt moratorium. And the way they attack rising wages is through inflation - get back the wages you're forced to pay out through increased prices. The 70s are back, baby. :lt-dbyf-dubois:
The dumb motherfucker really does think we’re in the middle of a wage-price spiral
Complete ideological degrangment
They can't be that stupid. They might actually want a revolution and reset.
I’m genuinely at a loss, this shit is Expansionary fiscal contraction circa 2010 all over again but even dumber
lmao this fuckin doofus is making the Boccini boys look like Keynesians
No, they are that stupid. Powerful, but stupid. The only thing they know or understand is greed. They are sheltered from reality by their obscene wealth. Much like the nobility was under feudalism.
Joe Biden is going to be going into the mid-terms with 401Ks destroyed by a collapsing stock market, gas going above $10 a gallon and the central banking system of the US vocally going to war on the wages of working people.
I’m really uninformed about US political history, but surely this has got to be amongst the worst set of circumstances an incumbent would be walking into an election with, right?
I’m not even considering Russia accelerating towards a decisive victory in Ukraine, or monkey pox or another, even more catastrophic, Covid wave. Or that I don’t think anyone can name anything he’s done aside from a handful of Covid tests for people every now and then.
Covid tests which are only available to single family homes***
Shared houses aren't applicable, only one resident can order them lmao
Lol yes - we’ve had the driest Jan/Feb/March on record in California. Fire season, which amusingly leads into midterms, could be truly something this year. He’ll get into a fight with Governor Bateman, who out his own political ambition will probably make an offhand comment about how “even Trump was better to California during fires”.
we had a bunch of extremely dry days here in Connecticut too. Could've been a freak thing, idk.
They might actually manage to remove him from office as retribution for making :trump-anguish: be impeached. The hogs would go wild.
Democrats simply do not care about electoral outcomes. Their job is to sit pretty and eat shit
archer voice Do you want revolution? Because that's how you get revolution.
nobody I know has had their wages keep up with inflation over the past decade
these pieces of shit hide trillions offshore and then blame the people they steal from.
The average American worker would make $100,000/ year under a totally equal redistribution policy. And that's off Net national income, so less the costs of maintaining capital stock. That literally just the living labor value.
That means that the exploitation rate is almost exactly 2 (median wage is $50k). Marx always used a surplus accumulation value that was equal to variable/labor value, and that was in the peak of industrial revolution England.
yep, the exploitation is inherent to the mode of production and it's admittedly flawed to view things in terms of "wages keeping up with inflation" because it ignores what you said, good point
the maoist uprising against the landlords was the largest and most comprehensive proletarian revolution in history, and led to almost totally-equal redistribution of land among the peasantry
the neoliberal uprising against the people was the largest and most comprehensive capitalist counterrevolution in history, and led to almost totally-inequal redistribution of land among americans
Noooo. who else is gonna tackle parents to stop them from trying to save their kids???
There is no direct link between interest rates and wages, which is the only lever he can pull. In the 2008 recession, we saw a drop in wages when interest rates went up, which is probably what hes going off of. But there is something called the lucas critique which says that you can't predict the effects of a change in economic policy based on past conditions so it's anyones guess what will actually happen. He does want to make us poorer though to curb demand for labor.
the lucas critique which says that you can’t predict the effects of a change in economic policy based on past conditions
You mean economics is junk science and economists are little more than charlatan wizards prognosticating in the entrails of a goat?
yes. but actually. fuck economics. all my homies hate economics. Marx solved economics in the 19th century. everything else is wrong. 😤
Yeah but also the laissez faire system they've built has only one dial to control it labelled "$1 = $1 + X interest", and its so inherently chaotic that nobody on Earth can predict it.
1 labor hour pay = 1 labor hour work + 1 surplus labor hour work
This is why it's so unpredictable, the current system violates conservation laws
What demand? Orders literally aren't coming into factories atm. This idiot is working off of last or two quarters ago numbers. This isn't reflective at all of any economic reality I live in.
He's talking specifically about labor demand not meeting labor supply which has the effect of raising wages. He also thinks that wages will continue to increase until it hits the equilibrium point which he thinks will cause more inflation because buying power will be higher. I don't know what reality he's living in. (i edited by comment above to make it more clear that hes talking about labor demand)
there is something called the lucas critique which says that you can’t predict the effects of a change in economic policy based on past conditions
A whole field of people that admit they're useless bastards lmao. :maduro-katana-1::stalin-gun-2:
In a world where they know media attention will be laser focused on guns and the inevitable inaction of the US government regarding guns for the next several weeks
I mean yeah, but if rent keeps going up they're going to reach a critical intersection between wages and living expenses where people might actually get desperate. Sure, the bread n circuses will distract the middle class but people near the poverty line already are just scraping by on the covid job market momentum.
Material circumstances of individual people don't matter to the Fed, the economy™ does. They also state that unemployment can never go below a certain number (iirc it's something like 3%), or that will also cause significant inflation , the unstated fact being that some people will have to be fucked for the economy™ to work.
So that may be another pony they trot out down the road if the 'wages too high' gambit doesn't work on it's own
The unemployment bit is really interesting, and I don't doubt that they'd do it. My point is that everyone here is convinced the average person doesn't have a breaking point where they'll seriously consider unrest and I think a drop in wages without a similar drop in cost of living will be that. I think the current calm is being floated by post-covid high wages.
I don't think it's people in general they believe that about, just mostly Americans, who are very...housebroken.
I don't think this will do it, I don't even think the current crop of issues taken together will, but...I think we're getting closer
Deliberate malice is for certain a more powerful driver of anger and change than blithering incompetence
Like I don't doubt white people will be complacent and do little rightoid protests like in Canada. But the discourse among young poc offline is trending increasingly toward anarchism. Online I'm seeing previosly lib popular figures with
millionshundreds of thousands of views flashing theory briefly on video and talking about leftist shit when previously they didn't fuck with socialism.the discourse among young poc offline is trending increasingly toward anarchism. Online I’m seeing previosly lib popular figures with millions of views flashing theory briefly on video and talking about leftist shit
One of the things that genuinely gives me hope for the future is seeing the significant uptick in leftwing discourse in large public spaces online. But I am also an incredibly cynical bastard, so my incredibly cynical belief is that many of them are just trend-hopping and they will still vote blue for everything and run back to liberalism wholeheartedly the instant liberals do something, ANYTHING materially meaningful
Online I’m seeing previosly lib popular figures with millions of views flashing theory briefly on video and talking about leftist shit when previously they didn’t fuck with socialism.
Awesome. Link?
(Edit: To be clear I'm not being flippant or disbelieving, I just really like to see that kind of thing. If it was already posted, I missed it).
In hindsight my sleepy brain inflated the numbers by an order of magnitude. But these people tend to line up with my impression of RL zoomers who seem better educated on intersectionality and vague anti-liberalism.
CJ the X is a little confused but they've got the spirit. I'd consider them a decent entrypoint for newbies because they like post-marxist/modern junk, but they're kinda reactionary in a weird spiritual way. It's just a lot less toxic than Vaush and PatSocs.
FD Signifier is becoming a big name in the space. His goal on youtube is to carve out a niche in the algorithm for anti-establishment black men. He talks a lot about the toxicity of black masc/patriarchal culture and the hypocrisy of liberals who appeal to black identity. I've seen him show up in videos/streams with ancom breadtubers (like thought slime) and while he's stated historically that he's iffy about communists (because racism on the left), he seems to be warming up to them and borrowing anti-imperial talking points.
Khadija Mbowe has actually been doing black video essay content for a bit longer. Her focus tends to be on feminism and queering relationships. Like Signifier, she platforms other users for alternative perspectives (she made Signifier popular as he is now). And some of these channels are a lot more left of her. I think she is reading some stuff off the anarchist library because her recent video on romantic relationships featured quotes from a manifesto that I found mainly on anarchist websites.
The general trend I've seen is that the more fucked things get, the more they read, and the more socialist talking points they put forward in their work. And a lot of that change has been within the past year. On top of that, you can add the anti-cop and anti-work rhetoric that's been in 'the culture' for decades and is now filtering upward into the agitprop-creator intellectual class when they were previously solidly lib.
Thank you. I've watched FD Signifier before and appreciated some of his analysis, so it's great to hear he might be leaning further leftward. Haven't heard of the others at all, but I'm always happy to see lib/breadtube 'stars' turning genuinely anticapitalistat the very least, so I will check those out. (Thoughtslime is pretty good, and their Scardey Cats channel is a guilty pleasure of mine. I've been watching Matt/Mildred for a few years now).
The general trend I’ve seen is that the more fucked things get, the more they read, and the more socialist talking points they put forward in their work
Here's fucking hoping that's representative of a trend not just on lefty (bread) youtube, but across the working class. With all the hopeless bad news, the rise in, for example, unionization is beautiful and heartening to see. The spread of actual leftist ideals in popular culture gives me some hope for this bleak-ass fucking reality we're in. Anything that points to, as you said, that filtering upwards of anti-cop, anti-work rhetoric into anything even slightly more mainstream, is a kind of emotional/mental sustenance to me. Thanks.
think we’re getting closer
closer to what, though? everyone is still hypnotized by TV/internet and lives in their little isolated pods in neighborhoods that can only be navigated in the magical steel box.
The problem is that people, individual people, don't all just spontaneously decide that "We've had enough of X!" and then go fuck shit up. They exist within communities which become subject to specific material & economic conditions, which they speak amongst themselves about, and then begin to collectively organize & deliberate among themselves what to do in response to those material conditions.
Americans cannot be moved into revolutionary or insurrectionist action because they (we), very deliberately lack any communitarian, or social character of any kind. No-one in real life talks about any of these things, and if they do they do so entirely within the context of whatever the glowing electric box in front of them tells them to say about it. I work in a car parts plant, our lunch-room is plastered wall-to-wall with tvs that are on a permanent tri-weekly rotation between CNN, Fox News, and ESPN. There is literally no way you can have a conversation during work hours about any of this shit without your own arguments getting drowned out by thought-terminating hog shit in real time.
Americans cannot be moved into revolutionary or insurrectionist action because they (we), very deliberately lack any communitarian, or social character of any kind. No-one in real life talks about any of these things, and if they do they do so entirely within the context of whatever the glowing electric box in front of them tells them to say about it.
They've really got things under wraps this time. I honestly have no idea how any of this could possibly ever change. There would have to be no TV or internet for months.
“It’s them, not you”
Oh, right, I thought so, I hate them. :grillman:
same world where Powell thought all of his past decisions would go over well. :yea:
in a world where the working class ain't gonna do shit about it :shrug-outta-hecks:
