You don't have to look far to find America's modern day colonial interests. You find them in the coal fields of Appalachia, the farm lands of the midwest, the factories where urban poor work, and the prison labor that maintains our infrastructure. Yeah. We enjoy a higher quality of life than the middle eastern countries where our military contractors don't even try to hide their hatred for the working class, but we're still the feudal serfs serving our lords. Like. Tell me. What would happen if every CEO didn't come into work tomorrow? Everyone's businesses would run just fine. What would happen if every laborer didn't come into work? Society completely shuts down and the police come to beat us down.

What does that tell you about the relative value of both groups work output? And who gets paid? The CEOs. Why? Because they're stealing from us. And like... We should go on general strike. I mean. Really break shit. What's even the point of all this? What function does the government serve. They're rearranging deck chairs while the world burns down. There's a real and present threat that all of us will die in 5 years. And still their main focus is on a whole bunch of nonsense that is completely unrelated to anything we need to keep going. Why the fuck are we subsidizing oil? What the fuck are we giving Israel weapons for? Is the goal just to kill as much of West Asia as possible so there's fewer resources for the rest of the mouths we need to feed?

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[–] reallykindasorta@slrpnk.net 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The economic policy institute has long kept a nice web page explaining this issue https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/

[–] volodya_ilich@lemm.ee 8 points 3 months ago

That link is basically responsible for solidifying my beliefs that leftists are correct about labour regulations and the economy when I was a young adult. I showed it to a friend some time later, and he quite literally told me "millennials discover Marxian surplus value extraction from the working class". Truer words have never been spoken

[–] loops 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Canadian living on the west coast in (sighs) Vancouver. The living wage is $25.68 CAD as opposed to the minimum wage of $17.50, a difference of $8.18 which is about $286.30 per work week (35 hours) and short by $1,145.20 per month ($13,742.40 per year).

I have to say though, this screenshot by itself is useless. Living wages change between municipalities and provinces/states. Not to mention countries.

[–] Fizz@lemmy.nz 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

That is the minimum wage.

[–] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 7 points 3 months ago

Some places... Most its the same 7.25 its been since the 90s when George HW was president

[–] DavidDoesLemmy@aussie.zone 3 points 3 months ago (2 children)

That is the minimum wage in Australia. What's your issue?

[–] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 8 points 3 months ago

Our government doesn't work is our issue. Minimum wage where I am is $7.25 USD, which is equivalent to $11.12 AUD

[–] loops 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

That we don't live in Australia.

[–] DavidDoesLemmy@aussie.zone 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

How would I know where you live?

[–] loops 1 points 3 months ago

Yes, exactly.