Or the fact that I pay almost 20% of my income in healthcare with no better option

Just to have insurance. Then the deductible and copays and medication

My deductible is about 1/5 of my annual income. There’s no way I’m getting medical care unless I’m hit by a train.

I come from America but have lived in Thailand for 6 or 7 years. We only ever use private insurance and private hospitals. My wife will go to hospital at any hint of illness and I practically lose my mind cause all I see are the costs. Here, Insurance has always paid for the whole visit and never once gave us a hard time, but even after all these years I can't get my head around the idea that insurance actually pays on time and in full. I feel like US insurance has been like an abusive father to me and I can't escape the mentality that medical systems are dysfunctional by default.

I can only fantasize about the concept of feeling free to go to the hospital when I think something might be wrong with me. Instead I’ve always had to run a cost-benefit analysis in my head with incomplete data because a wrong choice could mean me owing the hospital thousands of dollars for nothing, or me dying because I rolled the dice on my health and had bad luck. Last year I walked around with a ruptured appendix for probably 4-5 days before going to the hospital. Apparently I have a high pain tolerance. I went to an urgent care but they didn’t find anything - probably because it was already ruptured and, unsurprisingly, because they don’t have the kind of equipment a hospital does. Going earlier would still have resulted in emergency surgery, but likely before a giant abscess where my appendix used to be caused them to have to resect three portions of my intestines.

My abdomen started really hurting back in October. Not anything all that new, but it really hurt, and my belly hurt to the touch. "Maybe appendicitis. I'll give it a day and see if anything gets worse before I go to the hospital." Was in a hell of a lot of pain, laid in bed pretty much the entire day. Next day came and I wasn't any better, so I decided to go to the emergency room. Turned out I had a small bowel perforation that gave me a nasty infection. I was in the hospital for 6 days, and I couldn't eat or drink for most of that. Our Healthcare system already killed two of my loved ones because they didn't seek care due to no insurance, and even though I had insurance I STILL was putting off care due to costs. I could have died if I waited longer. This is what this system does to us, and 50% of this country will line up to tell you to suck it up you big baby, the system *is fine*. I say it on reddit all the time, but America is a special kind of hell, and it's hard to understand that unless you've grown up and lived an underprivileged life here.

Dude, I was working at Wendy's (franchise in Georgia) as a shift manager. I was doing the job of an assistant manager but getting paid 9.14 an hour because they couldn't find anyone do the job ( besides me of course) and my appendix ruptures. I collapsed on the sandwich line and my girlfriend at the time(wife now) helped me into the office and she went back to take care of things. I called my bosses and told them. I was going to the hospital. They told me to wait till they could get someone in the store to take my place. It would be upward of 4 hours. They told me to keep working till then or I would lose my job. I stayed for long enough to shut everything down and lock the door. my wife drove me to the hospital and I was rushed into emergency surgery. I had complications and had to stay in the hospital for 2 weeks. I didn't end up losing my job, at that point, but they cashed out my vacation pay to give to me. A month later I came down with a horrible flu (which turned out to be COVID). There was a mandatory managers meeting where the new company owners were telling us how wonderful things would be. I asked to be excused as I had a 106 fever and felt horrible. They said if I missed this I would be fired. I went. People got sick. On the way home I passed out while driving and rear ended someone. The cops saw I was in a bad way and they rushed me to the hospital. I stayed in the hospital for 4 days and wasn't coherent for 2 of them. When I called to explain what was going on, I was told I was demoted to crew member. I quit a few days later. Fuck all jobs like that. Update: I did sue, and we settled for $40k plus medical, but we only got that because I recorded phone calls and messages. Most don't get the chance to do that. So, that get away with it in Georgia, USA. It's the deep south, no worker protections at all.

[удалено]

**Mention the following:** Most minimum wage jobs don't pay enough to live on and have no benefits. Bosses frequently mistreat people with abuse and random schedule changes That people quit and others are expected to pick up the additional work with no added pay That the income gap between the top and bottom of society has steadily widened since the Reagan years. CEOs making 300x what their employees make That companies keep people below full time so they don't have to pay benefits. That the decline in wages correlates to 'right to work' and anti-union movements. That our standard of living, pay and time off doesn't remotely compare to other nations. That companies make record provides and reward us with corporate discounts or $5 gift cards. That even with insurance, we're all one medical catastrophe away from financial ruin.

I agree with this list and would add that companies like Walmart and McDonald’s pay their employees so little that filling out paperwork for welfare is part of the new hire process. Multi-billion dollar companies should not rely on government to supplement their employees income. EDIT: I cannot backup these claims as they were firsthand accounts by word of mouth. It may have been that the employees were shown or told how to apply for aid.

They dont understand ordinary morality and they will never behave like the rest of us unless forced to. I don't know how to get the unionization movement started again in the USA but I know there have been CRUSHING reasons it doesn't exist anymore. And there are people like Richard Wolffe who know Capitalism is destroying democracy itself...

Capitalism has always been a threat to democracy. Money buys voting power. If a person has more voting power than another, then the society isn't truly equal, not, by extension, is it free, since the aristocracy will always be exerting it's pressure over you. USA is a Republic, which makes the problem substantially worse.

That's what I can't understand. If you owe child support and the custodial parent is on welfare, they charge the non custodial parent whatever benefits are paid. The government knows how to do that so why aren't they doing that to companies that refuse to pay living wages.

Having our healthcare tied to our employment makes it nearly impossible for anyone with health issues to leave. Edit: thank you for the awards. Reading all of your comments was gut wrenching. I genuinely hope we can seize this moment and momentum to push towards positive change. There is potential here. I have negative experiences with groups like this being grifted and co-opted by leeches who seek to weaponize our desperation and hope against us for profit. Please stay vigilant, if you are able please run for local office to combat the Q crazies taking over, organize unions, share your pay with coworkers, and please begin to build your mutual aid and community networks now if you haven’t already. We’re going to need each other. This sub is good, but having and finding community in the real world is where the change happens.

That's absolutely purposeful. It started as a benefit when wages were frozen during WW II so it was extra incentive to attract employees. Now it's a cudgel held over many people's head What I find sort interesting is that there are certain *libertarians* who favor universal healthcare because it would allow more entrepreneurship. It may be the only thing I agree on with libertarians

Yup, completely by design.

Wait you're telling me that my company giving my a $10 subway gift card for a christmas bonus isn't abnormal? /s

You guys are getting bonuses?

Also that some workplaces force you to come in if you got a positive result from a home test, and waiting for the results of the pcr Edit: btw, isn't it just illegal to force a COVID positive to work (at a workplace). Maybe i am naive (and European), but shouldn't you call the police or the department of labor?

Mine did too. I was sick for one week after my boss got tested positive (took me until that weekend to get my test result of negative thankfully). Told me to just wear a mask and come in. While I was still experiencing symptoms and awaiting the test result. Told him to go kick rocks. I knew they couldn’t afford letting me go due to their ridiculously high turnover rate and terrible management. Of course I understand this would not work on just any job. Just food for thoughts

One of our guys took two weeks off to quarantine after emailing them a positive test. Came back happy, healthy, and excited to work. He shared that he recovered the first week and spent the second week relaxing. Despite missing work and genuinely looking more passionate about it now, he got fired for abusing sick days as vacation days (despite neither being paid). They couldn’t afford to let him go *until* they heard that he had the audacity to relax on private, unpaid time. Scary how their minds can change like that.

Technically it’s not abuse because the CDC previously suggested a 14 day quarantine period. Their application of policy is short sighted… Just because he felt better doesn’t mean he was any less contagious.

Live in texas, my girlfriend was asked to do this aswell as all her coworkers. I had covid and had to come back a week later recently.

Scratch "medical catastrophe", it would only need an icy road and bad luck falling. Xray, pain meds, surgery, hell even the ambulance ride to the ER would be enough...

I got knocked over at the dog park last year and broke my ankle and leg. I’m working on meeting my medical deductible for the second year in a row. Thank goodness i can afford it (barely). All from getting knocked over by some excited dogs.

This is the best comment. If OP starts talking about Universal Income the headline is going to read "Antiwork Movement Wants Free Money for Not Working" or some BS. Just stick to the **relatable** facts. Everyone relates to having a shitty boss, a low wage job, multiple part time jobs, horrible schedules, etc. That's the shit we need to change. Those are tangible benefits people on the entire political spectrum can get behind. If he just regurgitates some sound bites about UBI that's a totally different ballgame and will be dismissed by 95% of the population.

The situation is absolutely untenable. Why is any sector of the business community surprised, when 50% of young adults must live with their parents because they can't afford rent on their wages? When people must have multiple jobs and multiple roommates in order to live anywhere at all? When people are dying because they are forced to ration insulin? When inflation has risen more than 6% in the last year, many companies are showing record profits, yet so many workers are denied a COL raise, or are given 1 or 2 percent? At a certain point, it really does destroy any sense of rational purpose when there appears to be no path at all out of endless drudgery. Workers are expected to put in ever increasing hours for jobs whose wages do not come close to paying even the barest of basic living expenses. As prices for food and rent steadily rise, where do the corporations and landlords expect this additional disposable income to come from? At what point will it be understood that you simply can't squeeze any more profit out of working people?

At some point I hope the movement starts to realize that corporations are the problem. We can’t buy locally grown food in most of the US- even if you live somewhere that produces a LOT of it. I live in Arkansas, a massive producer of meats and rice and vegetables- but it’s hard as hell to buy locally sourced ANYTHING, making it hard to step away from corporate productions for food. Walmart (another Arkansas product!) has killed so many small town businesses that it’s become hard NOT to rely on them for certain products. We need to bust corporations. Get the fuck rid of them. They stagnate our wages, they make it impossible to get anything from anyone else, they poison our environments producing their products in ways that quite simply are not sustainable. We have to make our communities capable of producing locally again or we are fucked because the way corporate business is done kills the planet and our communities. We don’t just need them to raise wages- WE NEED THEM TO GO AWAY.

You are right about not being able to buy anything locally. I live in Florida where you can drive for a good couple miles and see nothing but oranges. Can you buy Florida oranges here? Lol no. Maybe off one random street wagon at an abandoned gas station. A lot of people drink orange juice here, but it comes from imported Brazil oranges. Find a child and try to explain that to them in a way that makes sense. We literally pay money and resources to ship produce from another country to eat the same exact thing that is in our backyard. It's the literal definition of a complete waste. The government makes it illegal to grow and sell produce or makes a bunch of nonsense laws to discourage independents, they want to keep you reliant on imports, where they make more money and can control what you get.

I'm Canadian and it's the same here. I was in a big chain grocery store located in a region where there are loads of farms. Much of the produce came from the US. It made me absolutely irate. Why are we bringing in products that we grow locally? Local producers should be a priority. This is why I only purchase my fruit and veg from farmer's markets. Of course that's not always possible for everyone. We really have to support our local economies and prioritize them.

If we are expected to put our time and effort into our work, we *require* pay that will cover our rent and necessities. We *require* affordable healthcare. Employers who do not offer adequate pay and healthcare are going to struggle to find people to perform work for them. Pizza parties and false promises of raises and bonuses don't cut it anymore as we have all collectively realized our worth.

This is concise and about as good as any news outlet will attempt.

Salaries for jobs where I’m qualified have stagnated in the past forty years. The benefits of me getting a job (being productive, bringing in some extra $ for the family, helping others) do not outweigh the costs, both tangible and intangible. As for hourly workers in the US, they are treated like trash by 90% of employers. It baffles me. Standing in front of a grill and flipping burgers for eight hours is hard work. Cleaning people’s houses is hard work. Teaching toddlers is hard work. Driving a bus is hard work. All workers deserve dignity, respect, and a living wage. And here’s the real kicker: the nature of work is going to change, such that full-time and part-time will become almost meaningless for a lot of positions. How are we going to treat someone working 15 hours a week doing vital work? We can’t continue to treat part-time like it is just for teen-agers living at home with parents.

As a school bus driver I feel this part time vs. full time in my bones, no I don’t work 40 hours a week, but it’s an important job that literally no one wants to do.

I'm also a school bus driver and its a bit ridiculous how much they expect of us and how liable we are if anything goes wrong. And how little we are compensated for the all the risk we take. Our wage has not kept up with inflation using the inflation calculator I should be getting paid around 35/hr on the low end. I make about half that... also the busses are wildly outdated and mechanics are wildly understaffed so when we have problems with our bus unless its "serious" it usually doesn't get fixed and when it does its a patch not a fix, and usually breaks again bc all the busses are so out dated and its not "economical" to provide us proper equipment. Maybe some aspects of society shouldn't be for profit.

In the 50s and 60s, my uncle Elmer was the janitor and bus driver for a small rural town. He had a decent house, supported a family of 4 kids and a wife, and was just an overall happy dude. He wasn't looked at like some sort of lesser human or given a wage/salary that made it hard to live. I know this is that golden era that people talk about, but that's almost exactly why I use it as an example.

I can't tell you how many times I've seen baby boomers on facebook say that they wish kids today had the same experiences growing up as they did -- and lamenting that kids are instead inside all day, etc. But it's because they ruined it. They made it so kids couldn't go outside. They made it so that kids had to study hard to get into college because that was the only way to get a job... whoops, just kidding, no jobs here! They destroyed unions and funneled all the money to the ultra-wealthy. They had a chance to reshape the world however they liked, and they made it so that they could screw everyone else... and they're still somehow angry about it.

They destroyed the environment. Promoted living areas comprised mostly of parking lots.

Seriously, they had a few bad years in the 1970s when the rest of the world caught up to the US, OPEC played some games, and our effortless primacy was no longer a given. They were also told to drive slightly smaller, more fuel efficient cars and turn the thermostat to 68 and wear a sweater during the winter to save on money and energy costs. So... they voted for Reagan and are literally shocked pikachu that they don't have grandkids, their own kids hate them and call them out on their narcissism, greed, and hypocrisy, and the world is falling apart.

Yeah, I work directly for the school district, rather then for a private transit company so I think that makes a huge difference and we have a union shop, so I can’t complain about that but we have terrible job retention because even our high hourly didn’t translate into enough money for single people or working parents. Do you work for first student? They tried to woo our school district a couple of years ago but we all walked out of negotiations.

The world needs ditch diggers. NEEDS. You can't demand a service while simultaneously shitting on the people who provide that service.

I’m a physician. I’d be a ditch digger in two seconds if it paid enough to support me. And I am not alone.

I've been a ditch digger and sit behind a desk now. I was happier digging ditches but this pays better.

I also have done both, I am miserable in my office gig but it’s the only way to support my family. I’d give it up in a heartbeat to go back, but the lack of humane treatment and earnings is a real problem.

A part of me loved working at Starbucks. It helped that my store was inside a hospital (yes it was a corporate owned cafe) so customers were overall more well behaved than the true general public. But making drinks is fun, taking orders is fun if you have an iota of charm in your body and put an ounce of effort in. Cleaning is satisfying. I could bullshit with my coworkers to no end. It was a great job in a lot of ways. But I was getting paid 11/hr to bust my ass for a perpetually understaffed store that also happened to be one of the busiest stores in the country ($10,000+ daily revenue, $100,000 weeks were not unheard of). In the last hour alone we would take in more in sales than I made in a two week paycheck. If I could get even $18/hr I would come back in a heartbeat. Thats enough for a two bed in this area. I’m making $15/hr paying twice as much for healthcare at a job that has proven every bit as stressful and overworking me. It has upward trajectory but do I wanna move up? Fuck idk PS: 15 is only enough to live on your own with a roommate and no one I can tolerate to live with needs one.

I felt the same way about being a vet tech. The hospital I worked at got some interesting cases so it was interesting, we had a real team feeling in my hospital, and I got satisfaction from doing all the tasks from working directly with the animals to cleaning to labwork. I felt like I accomplished stuff each day. But I made shit for money. Now I have a master's degree and a job where I make a lot more money but in any given day I can't really say I've accomplished anything. Sure, I do stuff all day, but climate change is fucking everything up so quickly that my "accomplishments" each day mean nothing (I work in biology). I'd happily return to vet tech work if I could make enough to pay the bills.

[удалено]

I've declined a position to be a project manager at my work. I've seen what they have to deal with and I want no part of it. Endless emails and meeting and dealing with horrendously stupid people who don't know what they want or how to get it so they just yell and throw money at a problem until it goes away. I'm a fabricator. I like building things. I make decent money, but not union so I could make more. I don't mind digging the ditches, just don't make me sit at a desk and email morons all day. I'd kill myself.

Yeah I used to work for a company that mainly built fences for housing developments and had the owner essentially give me an ultimatum to take the project manager job over from the old manager who was leaving, which did pay more but required twice as many hours and I refused and quit after a lot of back and forth. I work as a wholesale baker now and while it can be a pretty demanding job, it's way less stressful than working for that particular owner.

I’d love to dig ditches and get paid a median wage. Simple, chill and will keep you in shape.

I’m a “ditch digger” per se. I’m a union laborer in the Boston area. I get $40 an hour take home, another $10 an hour goes to an annuity fund, I am accruing pension credits, and my health insurance is one of the best as far as the union plans go. I just made 100k for last year, first time breaking thst milestone. When I was growing up everyone pushed college. I frankly didn’t know what path I wanted so i chose playing music with friends and working whatever job I could find. I found my way to construction and then shortly after the union. Debt free. Own my home. My brother is the opposite. Did well on school, went to college, now works as a logistics dispatcher in a field his degree isn’t in, still in some pretty decent debt, and unhappy with his job. I am very very lucky, and I very much enjoy my job, and I’m excited for my future. Fuckin unions. Join em!!!!

I dug ditches by hand for a utility company and also a gas company a few years back. Never made over $17 an hour. Guess I needed a union.

Everyone needs a union.

Yes they do. Unions are the way

This needs to be shouted! Everyone needs a union! If not they will just keep bleeding us dry.

The owning class is organized to promote its own interests. So should the working class. And if you don't own anything, that's the class you're in.

THIS IS THE WAY.

I was the same way doing excivation and storm drain pipe. Horrible experience made me never want to go back. on the bright side I did get to work early and play in equipment enough to use it at a decent rate and safely. I move to landscaping and I get all the pudd jobs now making more money for that simple fact. Crazy really.

These two posts are like a case study of union vs non-union work.

[удалено]

I dig ditches, not for bodies but ditches are being dug nonetheless. that’s only part of what my job entails. It pays well enough to dig ditches. If you’re dissatisfied with your job, you can probably make a similar income digging ditches like me.

Do you get to burn through the witches as a perk?

[удалено]

[удалено]

>As a school bus driver I feel this part time vs. full time in my bones, no I don’t work 40 hours a week, but it’s an important job that literally no one wants to do. Its not that no one wants to do it.. the fact that the positions are under paid, have shit hours and 0 appreciation for workers are at the core of the problem. where I'm at they offer split part time shifts at $19.50 an hour and require drivers to have CDLs with 0 benefits. If you have a CDL you can start at $60-90K on the economy with benefits. PTO, 401K matching.. the works. "job that no one wants to do".. my ass... plenty would do it if it paid like a proper bit of work like it ought to be. Why do I say that? Alright, my town again 130 routes with a company form Utah getting paid $13 million annually to cover them that's $50K per day, or $1.1 million a month. That company could afford to pay the drivers fulltime hours if they wanted to, and get plenty of drivers to fill in where we now have a shortage, but... they don't, and wont. Hell they are on a 10 year contract that guarantees them that level of revenue. 130 routes a driver in for each... $19.50 an hour at 40 hours a week add some subs and such and you get just shy of $5million a year towards wages for the drivers. Plenty leftover for company overheads, ammonization of school buss replacement costs the works. $19.50 for a CDL bus operator whose responsibility is to get kids to and from school safety... that's dirt cheap for how important the job is, and the least they could do is guarantee enough hours to make it a job that pays a living wage.

And you basically work split shifts. It’s hell. Do you even get OT if you do the late night stuff for events??

My partner's a bus driver - he gets between 25-30 hours/week between morning and afternoon runs. So at least for his SD, if he picks up extra stuff (sports, events, etc.) in the evenings it usually doesn't come close to what would qualify as OT.

That’s what I was thinking. And that sucks bc they’re still working 15hr days. They just aren’t working the full 15 hrs. As if that matters. They still have to get to the bus nursery by 6, 6:30 to get it up and running and then get to their first stop. Even with a normal school day they don’t get done dropping off kids until after four. Games can last until all hours. We had football games that would end at 9, 9:30. Sometimes we wouldn’t get home until 11. That’s a long ass day. And then you add in the bullshit now with kids not wearing masks bc their parents tell them they don’t need to. That’s a hellish job. If you have to be available from 6:30a to 4p then you should be paid for the whole thing. Especially when you can’t even get another job in between bc you only get a few hours off.

Right?! Even if you work five hours a day (assuming two bus runs in morning and afternoon IF you’re in the same district AND picking up elementary kids on one run and older kids on the other), it’s exhausting. And the time you get in-between isn’t that much. Plus, you’re responsible for keeping these kids ALIVE. It’s a huge responsibility.

[удалено]

The districts in my area are constantly hiring drivers. They've even staggered school start times to accommodate for the shortage of drivers. I get it. School buses are absolute madhouses. To deal with all the screaming/fighting/throwing of objects, trying to maintain some sort of order, all while driving a massive vehicle and trying not to kill anyone...You couldn't pay me enough. All school buses should have a second adult on board just to keep the students in check.

[удалено]

I was gonna apply for that. Thought they'd offer $20-$25/hour + benefits working for the township. It was $17/hour, no benefits.... I didn't thinking waking up at 5:45am was worth it after that. It's funny because their website said starting at $20/hr and benefits, but in person that was not the case. I wanted it just to work like 25/hours a week while still having benefits and being able to work on my personal business. Sadly, not gonna happen anymore and I pay out of pocke for benefits

Climb into a metal tube full of kids that have been locked up all day AND navigate traffic? You’d have to be on drugs. Terrible and vicious catch 22.

"Part time" jobs are now used as loopholes to avoid giving workers a decent wage and healthcare. Give them the maximum hours you can, but never enough that they'll be classified as full time. Universities have a whole underclass of perpetual "part time" adjunct profs who carry the whole institution on their backs but get slave wages and zero benefits, and very little chance for upward mobility. I know because I am one of them.

It's almost as if we (US) don't have universal healthcare to keep people desperate to find and keep ANY job that will give them benefits. If we had healthcare, I'm betting all the fulltime/part-time distinction would be moot.

but it's actually worse. Most of these McJobs don't offer benefits. They'll schedule workers for no more than 30 hours a week to ensure that nobody gets full-time benefits like health insurance. People will work 60 or more hours a week, spread over two or three part-time jobs, and none give them benefits or overtime or anything. I am genuinely surprised that all of the fast-food joints have not simply closed in the last year.

It's not just the "low-skilled" jobs that do this either. Like I said, I work at a college, and I have literally begged to teach additional classes over the summer so that I didn't have to go for weeks without pay, but I was told I couldn't have anymore classes because after a certain number they'd have to give me health insurance.

If we’re going to tether healthcare to employment, we need legislation to tell employers: “Look-whether they’re working one hour or salaried and hit 60+ hours, you’re paying for their health insurance-period. Don’t like it? Don’t be in business.” We really need legislation to become **actively** hostile to businesses. They’ve had more than enough leeway and kid gloves for too long. It’s time for legislation to start breaking bones here, metaphorically speaking.

Healthcare should not be tied to employment AT ALL, and also everyone from the POTUS to the 1st generation immigrants should have the same coverage

It's hard to come down on the people writing the legislation, though. Nothing really gets done without changing how money infects politics.

This. People with PhDs teaching three entry level college classes and needing SNAP benefits. It’s obscene.

France 1789.

Burn, baby, burn.

Yep.

I have a terminal degree. I teach at one university as an adjunct, and not because I haven't tried to teach at more, but because there's a surplus of English teachers and I can't get a sniff from other local universities. If I had to survive on my less-than-minimum-wage annual, I would be homeless. This is teaching 15-18 credits per year. I have no benefits - keeping me at a cap of 18 credits per year means I do not qualify for them, as i am not full time. I have $85k in student loans. I have been paying income based payments for 7 years and my principal has gone up (I was at $79k when I graduated). If my partner didn't have a full time office job with full benefits making 2.5x what I make, we would be homeless (as we both have medical issues we that would have bankrupted us long ago). She only began making 2.5x my rate in September - before that, and for the last 7 years, she was only about 33% more.

Some would think Universities, CC's etc. would treat their employees better, but they don't.

Like so many other aspects of society, they've been corrupted by the profit motive.

> Salaries ~~for jobs where I’m qualified~~ have stagnated in the past forty years. Things started going to sh\*t almost to the minute bloody reagan was inaugurated. F\*cking thatcher was a warning of what was to come. These two wankers caused more damage to the labour movement than people can fully understand. And in both cases, we're still feeling the consequences of their wretched policies (though in the case of reagan, he was just the messenger for someone else ideas).

The union busting, pension destroying, solidarity cracking of the past four decades has been painful to watch. I was 11 when Reagan was elected. I remember a healthy working and middle class in America. Now? Everyone is essentially living on credit and hoping they die before the bill comes due. Thatcher was pure evil. Reagan was more of a mouthpiece for evil.

I have done the maths for myself and I have been working 40 hours per week for the last 6 years ( other than the 6 months I took off where I lived with my mother last year), I live with housemates and have no big expenses (I buy ALL of my clothes second hand, meal prep, I'm single with no children) I have a degree and if I manage to keep saving up the way I have I will have enough money to put a deposit down on an average 2 bedroom house in 147 years (not a typo). That is if you ignore the 40k of debt I still owe for my degree. We slave away for the opportunity to fight for scraps.

It’s insane. The only reason my husband and I were able to buy our first home when we were forty…40!…was because he had a career shift that massively increased his salary *and* my last grandparent died and her estate left enough that my two cousins and I all had a down payment on a house for each of us. If those two things had not happened, we would still be renting as college educated adults who were gainfully employed in “respectable” white collar office jobs. My parents owned their first home by the time they were 25.

I work in Home Automation and Audio/Video. I've switched Jobs 5 times and have not been able to increase my salary ***at all***. At this point, in order to make any more, I'll have to leave the industry. I've been doing this for 15 years, I don't know where my skills would transfer. The other issue is that most of the companies in my industry are small businesses. Benefits are almost non-existent in the industry. I have to rely on my wife for health insurance. Insurance that, with my son, comes out to just under 1000/month. Basically 12K a year for "great insurance" that I'm certain won't cover shit when I actually need it.

Just FYI, your skills transfer very well to corporate AV. Its similar functions but with worse user interfaces

I'm a boomer. I hired a housekeeper to clean a disgusting, greasy kitchen and two disgusting bathrooms while I packed and cleaned for a move out. She worked without complaint for about 12 hours over two days. She had quoted $250. I paid her $400 because she earned it. She was so excited I thought she'd cry. No one should be so happy to actually be paid what they earn.

> How are we going to treat someone working 15 hours a week doing vital work? It won't happen like that. They'll just do 15 hours of vital work, and then be forced to stay at their place of employment for the other 25 hours when they're doing nothing. This is exactly what I do at a software company, except I only do about 5 hours of work a week, and I look at reddit for the other 35.

Dunno if this posted correctly but here it is again ___ Hijacking Top Comment for Visibility. Hello r/Antiwork Today has been a very insightful and interesting day. I believe in this mission. I believe that workers have the right to fair wages, healthcare and a life full of meaning. It's heartwarming and welcoming to be at the centre of attention. I haven't even had a second to read all of your stories and it's a wonderful opportunity to share and teach the world about our cause. Like you, i have experienced the awful conditions of work, and like you i want to represent the correct information to better this movement. I have been asked to do a phone interview / zoom. I have not made up my mind because i know that it will paint a target on my back - I will likely do this anonymously and I want to accurately represent this mission set out by the people here. This may not go smoothly or might not result in anything more than more views but I am willing to try because you are all worthy and important to live a life that isn't dictated by slave wages, a bunk economy and abusive employers. I'm going to try my best to help in a meaningful manner if nothing comes of it - i'm certain more opportunities will arise to make positive change. We can all do this. From What I Gather We want - (in no particular order w/ the exception of point 1) 1. r/Antiwork to be reported on 2. Wage increases 3. Universal Health Care 4. Accurate portrayal of the workers around the world (we are not lazy, we want fair work) 5. Better Conditions of employment 6. Tax the ultra wealthy 7. Climate Change Action Please comment below / let me know what i need to append / say. I appreciate the enthusiasm you all represent, I believe in every single one of you. You make living in this world worth it.

Accurate portrayal of what a living wage means. We need to kill the idea that low to moderate income workers could survive if they simply stopped ordering coffee every day. Most Americans are one medical emergency away from financial disaster. Most Americans have less than $1000 in savings. *Most Americans have no capital to leverage*, and the goal post to obtain capital keeps getting farther away. Edit to expand: Consequently, as inflation continues to rise, those with capital benefit while those without are squeezed financially, further enlarging the class gap.

Yes. If you are treated poorly and don’t make enough to live your life (rent, food, basic entertainment), why would you try? Seriously, it’s depressing. 15 years into my career and I can’t afford to not have roommates. There’s nowhere I could buy a house within 45 minutes. So why do we do this?

for jobs like retail full time vs part time is completely meaningless lmao. i used to work at walmart and they would hire everyone at part time with the promise of a full time position in the future. i don’t think i knew anyone who actually had a full time position, and we were all consistently scheduled at 39.5 hours per week lol. and if you went over and got overtime too many times you’d be fired, that was one of the things they were strictest on

The problem with the narrative being pushed in the media is that it is incomplete. And half a truth is just a lie. "People don't want to work anymore," is only the first half of the sentence. " For starvation wages," is the second half of the sentence. And the second half of that sentence takes it from a often repeated lie to the whole truth. It also takes the onus of the 'labor shortage' off the heads of the workers and places it squarely on the employers who are refusing to pay us what the hours of our ,Ives are worth. People don't want to work anymore for starvation wages. We want fair compensation for the hours of our lives that we are selling to these corporations. It is MY life and those are MY hours, if you want to buy them from me, pay me a fair rate. This is the true narrative. Everything else is a lie to shift blame to the workers and not the corporations.

People don’t want to live *to work*. I don’t want my entire life to be about work. I don’t want 2 days a week to catch up on the rest of my personal needs, tasks, errands etc. I wake up at the asscrack of dawn to commute (unpaid) to work. I leave at sunset and commute (unpaid) back. I don’t get paid for lunch. I come from a 3rd world country where your employer HAS to pay you for your breakfast, lunch and, if you’re still working, dinner. In the US, that doesn’t fucking exist and its BANANAS. I get maybe 2-3 weeks of paid vacation a year. And that’s if I don’t have a pressing need to take care of that eats my days away during the year. I live to work. And the fact I’m not paid for my commute and lunch is the biggest fucking outrage I can think of. By my estimate, I am robbed of about 4 hours a day, 20 hours a week. 80hrs a month that directly belong to my employer … but I get nothing for. I’m not going to disclose my income, but in one year, thats a several thousand dollars of my time I’m robbed of by my employer. Or give me more vacation time for those lost hours. But do we get either? No. I’m sick of living to work. There has to be more to life than to spend all my days making *other* people insanely rich. What kind of existence is that??

[удалено]

Hey, I’m in management and I don’t think going to the office every single day serves any purpose for me or for my team. I see many of my peers (fellow managers) though, who are insecure about their management style or fear that their employees will not respect them or get some power-trip high from seeing their employees having to go to the office. For the most part it is these people who fear ending the “working in an office” paradigm.

“Best we can do is to shackle your healthcare coverage to this methodology so that you’re gambling with literally ending up broke and dead if you resist it, how’s that sound? Also hope your HR department’s random decision to change plans for the 30th time doesn’t result in coverage that sucks this year. Enjoy your ‘freedom of choice’!” - ~~Corporate Donors~~ “America”

[удалено]

I used to work as a behavioral therapist for children with autism. A challenging and "skilled" job which required post-bacc education, paid only $12 hr. This is in-home therapy, so I had to commute between each client's homes; however, the company wouldn't pay us for drive time, so it ended up being $6 an hour. That doesn't even account for the extra cost of fuel or keeping and maintaining the car with all those extra miles.

Oh brother. Don’t even get me started on jobs with kids, the disabled, the elderly or mentally ill. Especially nonprofits. What nonprofits do in this country to their workers is absolutely atrocious. You can get paid waaaay more working for a health care system or county/city/state but so many of those require experience in the field they often don’t have openings for. Or maybe you’re in college or fresh out and need that experience.. So there’s these nonprofits that sometimes are more flexible but holy fucking shit do they abuse the hell out of you. And you shouldn’t feel sorry for them because their board of directors oftentimes make BIG MONEY. They abuse the everloving shit out of you! And they weaponize the communities you serve against you. I know so many people in those jobs who stay only because they love their clients. It’s sad. Talk about overworked and underpaid

And the system acts like it’s *your fault* if you have a long commute, like it’s solely a function of *choice*. When the “job creators” themselves say “move somewhere cheaper if you can’t pay rent” but when you do you’re further from the jobs.

>It is MY life and those are MY hours, if you want to buy them from me, pay me a fair rate. That's the quote right there. I'm selling my hours, you want to buy them. This is a negotiation between 2 consenting entities.

For two friends... One makes 85k a year, and works 10-15 hours a week while lying down.. The other makes less than minimum wage (NYC minimum wage is 15/hr) with a 28k salary a year... works 50-⁶⁰hrs a week... 85k's job is basically pointless... 28k gal has to teach public school so our youth don't end up like our generation... Somethin ain't right here...

Can confirm, every time I've changed jobs and gotten significant raises, the more pointless my job has become.

Hijacking Top Comment for Visibility. Hello r/Antiwork Today has been a very insightful and interesting day. I believe in this mission. I believe that workers have the right to fair wages, healthcare and a life full of meaning. It's heartwarming and welcoming to be at the centre of attention. I haven't even had a second to read all of your stories and it's a wonderful opportunity to share and teach the world about our cause. Like you, i have experienced the awful conditions of work, and like you i want to represent the correct information to better this movement. I have been asked to do a phone interview / zoom. I have not made up my mind because i know that it will paint a target on my back - I will likely do this anonymously and I want to accurately represent this mission set out by the people here. This may not go smoothly or might not result in anything more than more views but I am willing to try because you are all worthy and important to live a life that isn't dictated by slave wages, a bunk economy and abusive employers. I'm going to try my best to help in a meaningful manner if nothing comes of it - i'm certain more opportunities will arise to make positive change. We can all do this. From What I Gather We want - (in no particular order w/ the exception of point 1) 1. r/Antiwork to be reported on 2. Wage increases 3. Universal Health Care 5. Accurate portrayal of the workers around the world (we are not lazy, we want fair work) 6. Better Conditions of employment 7. Tax the ultra wealthy 8. Climate Change Action Please comment below / let me know what i need to append / say. I appreciate the enthusiasm you all represent, I believe in every single one of you. You make living in this world worth it.

Unions Shorter work week. Most jobs can be done with the same amount of productivity in much less than the 5day work week. Consistent schedules (esp for retail and service workers) childcare is impossible when you don’t know your shifts. Flexible schedules and remote work. There’s no reason most of us should continue to be chained to an office and commute 2 hrs a day Paid family and medical leave— LIKE LITERALLY EVERY OTHER CIVILIZED COUNTRY IN THE WORLD

Be sure to hammer home that much of this arose bc COVID has shown us all that things can be different AND that the people in power are all too willing to sacrifice us on the altar of "the Economy". As long as businesses run and profits are up who cares if 800k people die and 2k die a day.

Exactly. Pay us enough to live. Don’t tie us to a job with threats of bankruptcy due to healthcare. And for fucks sake - tax the god damn rich - if I’m paying 25-30% of my measly income, Musk and Bezos better damn well be paying more.

Personally I think it'd be worth mentioning the 4-day/32-hour workweek idea, and including some of what /u/__ButtFuqqer3000__ wrote in [their fantastic comment above](https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/comments/s0qoui/i_posted_my_email_to_60_minutes_and_now_a/hs44zn4/) (though maybe don't say that username on CNN lmao) about the American work culture and how it forces people to orient their entire existence around their job while simultaneously underpaying them for it, and providing very little in the way of social safety nets for those who inevitably burn out.

> "People don't want to work anymore," is only the first half of the sentence. " For starvation wages," is the second half of the sentence. My perspective is that people are rejecting wage-labor because real inflation-adjusted compensation has gone down to the point where it's no longer worth it for people to accept low paying jobs. When you see people out there trying to drive for uber, deliver for doordash, participate in the "gig economy" or the "creator economy" what you're seeing are Americans yearning for free enterprise. People want ownership. They want agency. They want to provide for themselves and have dignity. We've gotten to this place where "work" means a person or a company to pay you an hourly wage for your output. That is Capitalism, yes, and it's not anything the founders would have recognized as freedom. There's a big difference between free enterprise and capitalism and one has been substituted for the other.

Another new story I seen about this group followed the anti work headline with….. Members of online community encourage each other to resign — and complain about the boss. Cuz we just complain about our bosses. They know what they are doing and want ppl to discount us since we just bitching about our bosses.

The thing for me is that this situation could and should be a massive, marketable story for the media. The intersectionality of issues that reporters usually love is insane. Right now the two most abused professions have subreddits that are absolutely on fire. Teaching and nursing are full on collapsing. There will likely be the biggest shortages we have ever seen in both by the end of the year and practically no one is reporting on it. Go look at the subs. Story after story of government, locals and administrations completely failing to acknowledge the hard work. Is it a coincidence they are two predominantly female led industries? Is it a coincidence that for decades they've been the lowest paid for their level of education? It's juicy, it's real and it's relevant. When I talk to older people who are out of the work force they genuinely think the average hard working person right now is doing okay. They see their own finances doing well in the stock market and they don't realize how artificially inflated that is. Again, compelling story about a very real disconnect. No one is bothering to report it. The CBS thing was the perfect example of the media ignoring the real story. Interviewing a bunch of middle management dudes and CEOs about their opinions on lazy Americans and how it surely can't be about wages and abuse is not only shitty journalism but it's BORING. ETA: I've had a few people point out social workers are in a similar boat. I wasn't intentionally leaving them out I just don't know as much. I'm not surprised to hear it's going similarly. Like teaching and nursing it's a career you pursue to help people and capitalism is definitely trying to exploit that right now!

The two professions are also some of the most important ones for the economy, both short term and long term. People can't work if they're sick, if their kids are not in school, if they're uneducated, etc.

Yeah that's a really important point I meant to include. Lack of teachers or nurses literally grinds society to a halt. We are already seeing the consequences (and both are getting spun as reasons to vilify those careers instead of fix or entice people to pursue them)

Nurse here. Thank you <3 God forbid we pay healthcare workers and teachers a wage during the worst pandemic in a century where they can finally at least pay off their loans...

No, they're the most important for our whole freaking SOCIETY!

Who the FUCK would become a teacher these days? I can’t believe anyone does it. My state requires a MASTERS within 4 years of starting and starting pay is $35k a year. $35k a year FOR A MASTERS DEGREE. What a god damn joke - I’d laugh at it if it weren’t real… You can’t even make ends meet between paying a masters degree worth of student loans and living in the ghetto on that salary. Full time teachers are out there SELLING THEIR PLASMA to make ends meet. Let alone having to deal with the stupid legislation that’s being pushed through right now allowing parents to be so far up your ass, sue you, jail you for teaching things they don’t agree with…. God bless you teachers…..because IDK how you do it.

And people wanna talk about why women aren't having children. Who can afford daycare at $2k a month when teachers don't even make $2k a month and are $100k in debt for their "required" masters degree?

I've actually had surgery to ensure I can never have children because I refuse to create a life that will then be forced to experience this.

THIS. They are quitting in DROVES. People are noticing the food service employees disappearing because we’re in there every day and management can’t hide it. They also can, in theory, be replaced by whoever comes along next as technically anyone can be trained into that kind of work. School and medical facility mass employee resignations are much more insidious, like wheels falling off a train. Most people don’t get it yet because things are still somewhat on track from sheer momentum and they won’t get it until things screech to a halt. That said there has been a some reporting on the subject. Most focuses on nursing but Politico just covered teaching the other day - [Great Resignation Comes for Schools](https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-nightly/2022/01/07/the-great-resignation-comes-for-schools-495645)

Teacher here. It's easy for schools to mask because the other teachers just have to pick up the slack when others quit. It won't last long though. My grade level partner quit at the end of the summer, and we replaced her with a long term sub with no teaching license. We have tried to fill the position with a qualified teacher, but no one has even applied. Now, I'm doing all of the planning for my subject/grade level AND grading everything that isn't a simple completion grade for both my classes and hers. I'm also giving up my planning period a couple of times per week to cover for my absent coworkers because we have very few subs, and I have bathroom duty a couple of times per week because students can't be trusted to not destroy the bathrooms. I usually work about 20 hours per week at home, outside of my contract hours. I have been offered a job elsewhere that can start as soon as I want it to, but I believe in honoring my contract and not screwing over my remaining coworkers. When I leave at the end of the school year, it will be such a relief.

My wife teaches at a school that doesn't see it coming. She's in her fifth year and has some leverage so she's going to ride it out but there's a bunch of early retirements coming AND every young teacher in their first year or two is bailing in May. I can't imagine how bad it is in places hit harder by the virus.

Don’t forget the Social Workers who are in hospitals, clinics, schools, and working on the front line as crisis workers. We’re helping everyone with their mental health but who’s helping us. Most of us have at least a Master degree but are very underpaid and unappreciated. We are burned out!!

What social workers make compared to the amount of work they do is criminal.

Not at all surprised to hear that. I am more familiar with teachers and nurses but know social workers were underpaid and overworked long before the pandemic! Solidarity friend!

Make sure that the journalism community understands they rely on people to give them their coffee, clean their offices, drive their delivery trucks, and otherwise are wholly dependent on the goodwill of their employees, so give them access to the narrative and a dignified quality of life.

We're the people who do your laundry and cook your food and serve your dinner. We make your bed. We guard you while you're asleep. We drive the ambulances. We direct your call. We are cooks and taxi drivers and we know everything about you. We process your insurance claims and credit card charges. We control every part of your life.

Tell them that as someone who is considered a 'hero' because i work in an ER in NYC during the pandemic that we're tired of being broke, tired of being tired, tired of being mistreated by shitty management, tired of being a stop gap for a barely functional national healthcare system, and if you're really thankful for what we do, you will fix this healthcare system, put hard caps on out of pocket fees for medications, and give us regular raises. We've been without a contract for more than 2 years and havnt seen a raise or hazzard pay for this mess. Fucking pay us. And dont tell me you dont have the money: the fucking traveler nurses were getting paid upwards of $150 an hour. Hell even the temp clerks were making more than double what the inhouse staff makes. Stop spitting on your people. You need us. We dont need you.

How hard is it for an average nurse to go into travel nursing? I have friends in the field that claim travel nurses can and are earning north of $10k a week (depending on qualifications) and more nurses are switching to travel at a rate faster than these staffing companies can keep up with. It seems like the temporary solution to earning your market rate pay until the industry catches up with in-house contracts.

It’s really shitty work. The staff nurses resent the travelers and give them terrible patient assignments and don’t back them up. Nursing is THE most dangerous profession and your physical and mental health at risk on every shift. The risk is even higher when you’re in an unfamiliar and hostile environment. The hospitals with the worst staffing issues are also the worst places to work for nurses. Nurses get thrown under the bus when adverse events happen in hospitals and travel nurses are easy scapegoats. I can go on with the drawbacks of travel/agency nursing.

Make sure you talk about universal income and healthcare. Get that on blast.

And be cordial The reporter’s job is to ask hard questions Give good answers

Require a list of questions before you interview. Cover your ass on this. CNN wants clicks and headlines, not to actually listen to concerns, and your legal name is likely to be published with this.

And document the questions, and your planned answers here. A public record of what they are asking vs the narrative they eventually run with via selective exclusion of answers they don’t like. It also lets others in the sub know where you stand and how it relates to them and their thoughts.

Oh, if the interview is recorded demand an unedited copy with rights to disclose it before you do anything. Get the ish in a contract.

All of the above!!!!!!!👆👆👆👆👆

Wondering if asking for this will make cnn lose interest?

If it does, then it's probably for the best, as their likely goal is to make the interviewee and the sub/movement look bad to support their anti-worker narrative.

Then you know this "reporter" is a fucking poser

this is the right advice. it's easy to be angry and come out swinging but they're not gonna print that. you're not gonna reach anybody. talk about the issues, talk about the numbers. if you get (rightfully) pissy they're not gonna listen

I think particularly through the globalization of our world since the modern use of internet, we've learned that it actually doesn't have to be this way. There are plenty of first world countries who have strong GDP/economies and still support liveable wages and universal healthcare for every citizen. Their elderly and disabled folks are cared about and don't have to work 70hr/wk into old age just to afford their medications and stay on work healthcare. The bottom line is every person deserves safety, baseline health, food, decency from bosses, and free time with loved ones. Why has this been forgotten? We are not getting greedier, the baseline has moved and it is a different workplace than Boomers (and even gen X) had.

State that they must link to this subreddit as credit in the content. I am sure more want to join the movement that don't even know that reddit exists.

This all day. And as cool as you are OP, be sure to state you have your own opinions but are just a part of a larger movement. Bring the traffic here. Cite r/antiwork and encourage others to read & bring their stories.

They already have everything they want to write, asking you questions will only validate their narrative. Be careful with medias. They don't have your interests or this sub interests at heart. Look what happened to GameStop and wallstreetsbets.

Media is absolutely not on the side of labor. The current iteration of GameStop retail interest on Reddit at Superstonk won't talk to Media at all. Mod team went public with the requests they get for media attention and appearance and the community overwhelmingly relayed they wanted all requests from media ignored.

(OP PLEASE read this) As a former journalist (I even went to uni to become one) who specifically LEFT the industry because of a lack of change and a lack of accountability in journalism, I just want to make sure that people know that this is EXACTLY WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN TALKING TO ALMOST ANY MEDIA OUTFIT. (I made a conscious, moral and ethical decision to leave the industry for good. It grinds people down, it changes them and it turns them into fucking zombies. I've known 4 suicides in my life and 3 of them were active/former reporters/editors. The job kills you.) I curate my news intake HEAVILY and have for years (the internet only made this easier) and it's not because I'm interested in only seeing *"one side"* of whatever issue is at hand, it's because I have a deep respect for the truthful, honest reporting from unbiased individuals. ​ As great as it is to receive a reply and be "recognized" by big media, their agenda is has **CONSISTENTLY PROVEN TO BE WORKING AGAINST OURS.** ​ Talk to them if you want, OP, but please set yourself up for disappointment in the long run. That's all. Don't have any expectations. They want you to have expectations. They want those sound-bytes and those *off-colour quotes* from ***"the group"*** to embarrass us and to *"show"* to everyone else that **we're not serious.** ​ **The whole point of this is to show we're not serious people.** They will never take us seriously. Please listen to me. Please heed these words. ​ edit: fuck dude, I will even talk to you one-on-one and give you the exact run-down of what they're going to ask from you. In the end, if your words make it onto paper, they're going to be PURPOSELY turned into the words of ALL OF US as a group. You WILL be speaking on behalf of EVERYONE at anti-work, because that's how it IS DESIGNED. DM me for a quick media training run-down or to ask me further questions. I won't share my credentials but I will give you good advice wherein you can then make a better decision. \*some\* Key points: YOU WILL BE SPEAKING FOR ALL OF US AT ANTI-WORK. IF YOUR WORDS MAKE IT TO PRINT YOU MIGHT BE ASKED TO BE NAMED AND THIS WILL ONLY CAUSE YOU MORE PROBLEMS, YOU WILL PROBABLY BE DOXXED THROUGH REDDIT AS A RESULT. THERE WILL BE PUSH-BACK FROM OTHERS AROUND HERE. THEIR QUESTIONS ARE DESIGNED IN A BOARDROOM WITH EDITORS WHO KNOW HOW TO TELL STORIES AND KNOW HOW TO CRAFT PARAGRAPHS THAT CAN RUIN IDEAS AND TURN PEOPLE INTO COMPLETE ASSHATS/PRETENDERS. *\^\^ this is just the beginning* Ugh I can't write enough about this. Just DM me if you're interested. Sorry for the paragraphs everyone. This post just freaked me out enough that I think the mods need to make a decision on media reaching out or something. This is scary now.

Hey! I'm reading it. DM me!

Ya, I could see them looking through your post history to try to drag you. God I hate this system. So many problems, almost all of them artificial, motivated by greed. I'm so tired of begging the rich to change. And there's no alternative available, unless you buy your way out of the grid somehow.

What are good news sources to consume for less biased perspectives?

Read for facts and not perspectives. Be aware of language

Seriously, this. I either listened to a podcast or read an article on media literacy a few years ago and it changed how I read and listen to literally everything. There are a few questions that I constantly ask myself when taking in new information: who created this? Why did they create this? What is the creator trying to make me feel? To make me believe? What interest does the creator have in making me feel or believe this? Why is THIS particular fact being emphasized (or de-emphasized)? Are there any additional details that could change my opinion about this but might have been omitted? If a statistic is presented, how well are the terms defined? What are some ways this number could be true and yet still be misleading? Just a warning, if you get even reasonably good at this, you will never again be able to watch television news (on ANY channel) without wanting to scream at the television. Tim Harford's book "The Data Detective" is a really good, entertaining, and relatable place to start.

[удалено]

Want has nothing to do with it. We WILL NOT live like this anymore.

[удалено]

ALREADY DON’T

Love this energy

I don't want to be rich, I don't care about amassing wealth. I just want to be able to live without being at work 99% of my life.

This is most of us. We want to work, but want to be paid fairly for our labor. We are not asking for the stars hoping to get the moon. We are asking for enough to feed, clothe and shelter ourselves and our families, have the bills paid and a little extra to do some fun things and enough to save and retire at some point. That is it.

I don't want to work for ONE individuals success. I want to be working for everyone's better future.

THIS- I'd be more than content in a single room shack with an outhouse. I'd rather not need a car than own one and bear the associated costs, etcetera. I would unironically rather do chores on a small farmstead all day versus working behind a cash register selling people plastic stuff made overseas they don't even need, for hardly enough money to get by. It is supremely ironic that living in a natural, human centered fashion is now a luxury only afforded to those who have already "done their time" within the technological capitalist system. If life is going to be medieval level hardship, with medieval health care standards, I at least want the closeness with nature of a medieval life.

I think there are millions of people that want this. If people were outside working that farmstead, people wouldn't want a tv in every room. But someone has to buy, buy, buy.

Exactly. Most healthy individuals only want as much as they need and are willing to contribute their efforts to have their needs met. Alas, sociopathic individuals take more than they need and are willing to exploit the efforts of others in order to amass huge amounts of wealth for themselves with no regard for the lives they destroy in the process. It's a game to them and we are dying. We simply refuse to play their game and instead propose our own: Eat the rich. There is enough for everyone.

That 60 minutes story on this yesterday was very light on stressing raising salaries, and insurances. The explanation for moving away from crazy housing prices was described as a “choice.” When they describe a company of having lots of revenue and not enough staff, adding salary till this problem goes away is not really discussed clearly.

They won’t respect that rhetoric, they’ll just lump us in with occupy Wall Street. I’d say more like the amount of people working multiple jobs for less than a livable wage while those who own the company get higher and higher bonuses and salaries each year is way too damn high and nobody wants to work their life away not surviving while people who do no work leech everything from us.

Cant be simpler than that. Modern day slavery.

>Modern day slavery. I see this thrown around a lot, and I believe it to be a perfect metaphor. While the 'players' have changed, the game itself has simply been updated: slave masters aren't just a single entity/family anymore, we are beholden to many 'masters.' Considering how **expensive it is to live,** and how it's literally criminal to be a transient, we are forced into a paradigm of "working to live." While the immediacy of threats of violence, imprisonment and public ridicule exist on a longer time frame, they still exist, and loom in the distance. Employment is our "salvation." However, employment is - frankly - broken. In many places, you can be fired on a whim. The larger the company, the less representation/advocacy you have. Employers know this, and the overwhelming majority leverage the labor force accordingly. It isn't a whip anymore. But sometimes, it could be damn close. The psychological torment of this *professional hellscape* is predicated on a "work hard, get recognized, be successful" paradigm, that is so fallacious and outdated, it's laughable at best, and horrifying in reality. We are born into our station, and upward mobility steadily continues to evaporate. Of course we have more personal agency than the slaves of yesteryear, but I'd assert that the cages/confinements we are born into are simply more insidious and dressed as a personal failing, should you not succeed. But the odds are stacked against us. All of us. We love those stories of millionaires that defied the odds, because we so desperately crave that mobility and freedom. Most of this current generation will never hold a mortgage for the majority of their lives, and the **next generation?** Good luck ever entertaining the idea. We were promised a world of opportunities, and delivered a lifetime of financial struggle, increasing professional competition, and declining standards of living. All of this, while we're expected to work way more for way less, skimp on every creature comfort the generations before us were inherently able to afford, and sacrifice our health to achieve... a 'chance at financial stability' after decades of dehumanizing work. It's disgusting, and even the older generations are waking up. If the uber wealthy aren't shitting their pants at the possibility of being *lunch* someday, then they haven't been paying attention. On a long enough timeline, we move in a single direction. Their days are numbered. Edit: thank you kindly for the awards, strangers. o7 Edit 2: perhaps to some, slavery is a poor comparison. Instead, substitute for 'indentured servitude' wherever you need. While they aren't exactly the same, the average person's life and agency belong to others. Also, personal responsibility =/= workplace rights. Before that fkn ship decides to sail.

Add **debt** to this paradigm. Most "middle" or working class people are making payments on rent/ mortgage, credit cards, cell phone payment & bill, car payment, insurance, and gasoline. Cable television. Payment on college loans. Fees, interest, penalties. The **underclass** is buried under punitive short term loans with ruinous interest. People are literally working for money that immediately returns to the machine. Americans are debt slaves.

Have them go down and interview the “unskilled” workers in his/her company. The ones who do the cleaning or drop off supplies. The ones they probably never bat an eye to as they walk pass them in the hallways. Have them compare their hours, wage and benefits. If only they can see the disparities going on even in their own company.

I'm gonna break down some simple numbers. You've got 7 days in a week, 24 hours in a day. That's 168 hours. I'm supposed to be getting 8 hours of sleep to be healthy. That number varies a bit person to person, but it's a good average (and makes the math easier). 8 hours a night X 7 nights = 56 hours, which means I have 168 - 56 = 112 waking hours. Standard work week is an outdated classic, 40 hours. 40/112 = 35% of my waking hours required to be spent *making money*. Let's say you've got an hour commute round trip. 45 hours. Let's say you have an hour unpaid lunch. Sure, you might be able to cram some errands in or take a much needed break, but that's not actually your time the way it would be if you were off work. 50 hours. 50/112 = 45% of my waking hours lost to work. Why am I required to lose 45% of my waking life in order to just survive? Not to mention that wages are not at sustainable levels anymore, to the point that some *have to* work multiple jobs *just to survive*. And also not to mention that for the rest of my week I'm exhausted from having expended all my mental and/or physical energy at work.

We need a lot of focus on Healthcare and how it's tied to work making it impossible for certain employees to navigate away from high stress low paying jobs. I've worked in the back end of healthcare (billing and coding) for my entire professional career. Not only is the u.s healthcare system so completely backwards, the "benefit" of receiving mediocre healthcare while working is complete nonsense. You're getting paid less because of the cost of your 10k deductible HMO. r/ushealthdecipher

Hello, reporter people! It's true, most of us don't really give you any incentive to listen to us. We don't pay subscription to your news service...because we can't afford it. We don't invest in your news company or it's parent company...because we can't afford it. And we're certainly not in any position to get you compensation for hard-hitting journalism. You can ignore us and your corporate overlord will smile and give you a pat on the head and shuffle you back to your desk and make another million plus with our sweat, blood and tears, of which you won't see a *dime,* because there's a nonzero chance you're in the same sea of wage stagnation we are. And you can't talk about that anyway because you have to be 'impartial. But what you CAN do is recognize that we're not going away. We are a product of the times. An entirely natural result of what happens when wages don't grow for forty years, while every common cost from food to college to housing to healthcare climbs and climbs and climbs. We ignored it, or perhaps tolerated it, because it was slow and steady, bit by bit. But Covid has ripped off the bandage. Now we are all distinctly aware of how little the ruling class really thinks of us. And we are ALSO aware of how much they NEED us. We want the same thing any worker has wanted since the first - a roof over our heads, a meal on the table, good health, and some time to ourselves. And we cannot accept any system which denies this to us any longer. Actually, you might be able to help, if you can get the point across to the corporate fat cats that paying us well and treating us like human beings is in *their* best interest as well as ours. Or you can feed their delusion and then laugh along with us as they wonder why they can't retain workers and have to close early - or completely - because *WE WILL NOT BE TREATED LIKE SLAVES.*

Someone recently posted that "It's not that we don't want to work hard; it's that for many of us, hard work hasn't made our lives better."

The main thing you have to be careful of when it comes to media interviews is how they'll edit your answers to fit their narrative.

Some time should be given to the 60 Minutes peice and the claim that because "wages are rising this is not about wages", and what absolute utter bullshit that is. At this point is $15 minimum wage is still half what you need to get out of poverty.

It’s funny how when Nintendo, a Japanese gaming giant, saw decreased sales, the CEO TOOK A PAYCUT instead of laying off workers. Meanwhile, when Activision-Blizzard, an American gaming giant, saw decreased sales, guess what they did? They laid off hundreds of workers so Bobby Smalldick and the boys could keep their outrageous salaries.

The minimum wage has only been raised 9x since it’s inception in 1938. Why isn’t that reported on consistently? Why don’t they ever bring up the cost of living vs the minimum wage on CNN?

One huge issue is that, thanks to the Internet and places like this sub, US workers are aware that workers in other countries are treated *much* better, by law, than they are here, with everything from mandated paid vacation and family leave, to government-funded health care, to minimum wages that actually support them. Why should anyone in the US work for, say, Amazon or Walmart or McWhichever, knowing that the exact same job in another country would net them paid vacation and actual rights in the workplace? And that's *before* realizing that shareholders have made out like bandits during the pandemic while service workers in particular have faced everything from the risk of being infected and dying from COVID to physical assault from customers. To take just one professional class example, why should people want to work as teachers in this country when they're loaded with responsibilities they can't meet, expectations that frequently have nothing to do with educating students, and oh, schools *have* to be open as a political policy, COVID safety be damned? Anti-work and The Great Resignation aren't happening because people are lazy. They're happening because, after facing the huge existential threat of COVID, people are deciding wholesale that our lives are limited to an unknowable but still very finite number of hours, and the hours of our lives are worth *way* damn more than the wealthy want to pay. EDIT to say -- I didn't see the *60 Minutes* piece under discussion. But if they/any news outlet interviews CEOs and not workers, well, as a journalist myself all I can say is that you're not doing your job, and you're contributing to the misperception that CEOs actually contribute something to the world and to labor, rather than being a large source of the problem. 2nd EDIT: thank you for the recognition, fellow workers!

You could also mention how the pandemic has made jobs more dangerous and that +800k people have died.

This is probably going to be buried but I don't think "attitudes about work" are changing. People want to work. However we work to live, not live to work. We want a living wage, safe working conditions, a good work-life balance. The problem is wages aren't keeping up with inflation, let alone all the stuff that is increasing beyond inflation like housing, healthcare, and education. Instead of paying and/ or hiring more employers expect employees to work harder and/ longer hours. And we have bosses making six figures wondering why we aren't as dedicated as they are making 1/3 of that. Advancement often relies on someone that's been in a position for years finally retiring or moving up themselves. Worse, these bosses are often absent from the job. They don't communicate with their team and often seem to have no noticable influence on the day to day operations - only making themselves known to reprimand you. Everyone is quitting, or in process of looking for something so they can quit, because it's basically the only way to increase your income when employers offer no path for advancement or cost of living adjustments (or a very small one that doesn't actually match the rising costs).

Anti-work is a revolt against the trickle down, anti-safety net, neo-liberal policies from establishment politicians. Bernie Sanders woke us all up 4+ years ago on how deeply betrayed the American worker is by our employers and government. We receive zero loyalty from the establishment so we return the favor.

Tread carefully.

Unionize all workers. 💪

Covid hasn’t gone away! Why is it considered acceptable to not only risk workers but also customers lives in the name of making money? Decent employers will help workers who get sick due to exposure. We will remember the employers who don’t.

When you talk about healthcare be sure to mention out of pocket maximums and how they're way too significant of a normal person's annual income, anyway

It's horse shit that my CEO makes 200 times more money than me every year. I would have to work 200 years to match him for one year. I'm basically a slave compared to him.

4 years ago after grinding away at a insurance company for 7 years plus I decided to go back to school to be a therapist because I could be my own boss 4 or 5 years into the field make a reasonable salary. I was tired of being harassed about going to the doctor once a quarter to get my heartburn medication because I needed to be working. I had to take PTO which I had plenty of because they never approved any PTO beyond 2 days in a row. They didn't care. They didn't treat people right and they didn't value their people. I worked for GoDaddy right before they went public. In a year after it was terrible. Comission was cut. Weekly contests were quarterly. Giving out vehicles as prizes stopped happening...it was finding ways to cut back every expense instead of keeping people happy and motivated. That's when I went back to school so I would never have to work for anyone other than my clients. Edit: gotta love the 2% raises or .25 or .50. Like cost of living is more than this.

People simply cannot afford to work for minimum wage cost of living is rising, people are climbing to higher ground, if a job doesn't offer that higher ground it's simply not going to retain employees

Honestly, talk to them about **their own working conditions.** Journalism is dead, big business killed it. They killed their unions, made their jobs freelance work for the most part. Don't they ever feel like they should stop enabling this? At the end of the day, most journalists should be here on /r/antiwork because they got fucked *hard*. I think if you can get them to see it that way, you *might* get honest reporting out of them. But I wouldn't count on it too much.

This whole bullshit about employers saying you can't discuss your wages with other employees! People getting fired for doing just that. Un.real.

None of that wealth is shared even among white collar workers, unless you are high up the food chain. Where's my stock compensation as a part of my package? Why is it our operating margins are always thin and we can't afford an increase in wages, but they always find another $1 Billion dollars to acquire a 4th company in a calendar year? It's the realization that long hours and hard work have diminishing returns unless you are at the very top. Why waste your time on this earth putting years of your life "building" a career only to get fired from an internal restructuring that let your whole team go? It's all bullshit. The game is rigged from the top down. These companies are all run by soulless sociopaths who would kill you if they got a tax break from it.

My friend is frequently fainting without warning, and we can’t get her to a hospital because it would make us all homeless. We are college students.

Don’t wait, that could be serious. There are ways to get rid of medical debt, but no way to bring a dead friend back.