I mean the fed said the other week that they don’t want higher wage expectations to be a long-term thing in the economy. All this labor progress we’ve seen happening has happened only because it was allowed to happen. It was happening under the pretense that it is temporary and wages will not continue to go up very much. The general ‘they’ were fine with that idea. Because what has actually changed in labor politics since the pandemic? Are people more organized than before? Not really. We get hopeful and want to chock it up to a sudden rise in militancy and finding our footing, but I don’t think that’s the case. They want wages to rise at the rate of current inflation, not catch up on decades of stale wages. In other words they want min wage to go from $7.50 or whatever to $8.50, not from $7.50 to $15. They will pay $15 or $16 or $18 temporarily, but they won’t tolerate it for long. Because that is cutting into their profits even if you consider increased buying power (and therefore consumption) of the poor. The increased buying power is a bad thing to them because it means a feedback loop of people demanding to be paid more because the cost of goods is higher and that raises the cost of goods which causes more demand for higher pay to match the cost of living.
They know consumption is the engine of the economy but they don’t want consumption to grow too fast because it adds to the cost of doing business. We can all disagree with this idea or how it works, but it’s how capitalists right now are thinking. They’re going to act on how they think. So yes, they’re going to beat wages flat again even if it means bringing on a recession or whatever. This is even the view of your benevolent wonky “government intervention is good actually” liberals. At the end of the day they realize that paying people more on their terms will weaken capitalism’s hold on the country. Even if they don’t express it in those terms or can’t articulate the feeling at all. That’s what is happening.
I’m not trying to be doomer and shit on the recent labor victories. It’s just that we have to realize that we’re still not quite at a level of organization we need to be to counter this. And there is no reform to change it because this is the reform. Now it’s militant labor action or it’s nothing because they’re just going to beat everyone back again and things will go back to an acceptable level of liberalism.
We were literally better off with Trump wtf I hate this country so much how was he less bad
Trump could give a fuck about passing anything so long as he could shitpost on Twitter. He bit the hand that fed him in McConnell and the dark money that ran his 2016 campaign.
Biden meanwhile is slavishly beholden to the folk who dark moneyed his win and other centrists in 2020. Biden is an egoless conduit for the donor class and the DNC establishment.
Biden in one year has nominated more TV talking heads and former lobbyists to positions of power than Trump did in two. Only thing Biden hasn’t done is outright familial nepotism.
Only thing Biden hasn’t done is outright familial nepotism.
And honestly as far as corruption styles go, familial nepotism is pretty low on my priority list. At least that only helps a handful of minor ghouls who got their position by being related to someone evil, rather than by being as personally evil as possible themselves. I’d much rather Ivanka Trump than someone from fucking Raytheon or Lockheed
And with someone as incompetent and stupid as Trump, his family tends to be just as moronic and incompetent
It’s honestly baffling. I knew he was gonna suck but I did think he was gonna be marginally better than Trump. My worry was that whoever followed would be an even worse backlash, like DeSantis. Turns out he’s worse in the moment and in the future!
Oh we’re still going to get the backlash. Chuds have gained no ground on the culture war and they are ready as ever to punish their enemies. We’ll have book burnings within the decade.
Accelerationists sobbing over a cake that says “we were right.”
Accelerationism isn’t real. It is even more meaningless than “tankie” or “stalinist.” When you tell somebody things are going to get worse before they get better, you are telling them things are going to accelerate. If you advocate for any form of class struggle whatsoever, you are pouring fuel on the fire and therefore accelerating the crisis. It’s not like leftists are the ones leveling homeless encampments, depressing wages, stoking imperial conflicts, or spreading poverty just so they can have their bloody revolution a few weeks earlier. The concept is pure radlib cope.
Under this paradigm, the only way to avoid being an accelerationist is to remain in denial that any impending crisis even exists or that any action should be taken to confront it. The word itself reeks of Langley.
Oh look, slavery!
No, no, no, you see TECHNICALLY this isn’t slavery, you’re just forced to either work or starve. You can choose!
Applebee’s can barely keep operating anyway, the entire staff turns over every couple weeks
You say that, but without their Quesadilla Explosion Burgers and $1 Mountain Dewgaritas, who would feed the honkies and their ilk?
Taco Bell was applying for a liqour license in my city to sell Baja Blast Margaritas. It was the primary issue on my cities subreddit that they kept getting denied.