It’s interesting to me that we frame a lot of issues as costing money.
Unhoused folk cost money to house.
Disabled folk cost money, too.
Immigrants cost money.
Trans folk cost money.
Nobody ever says, “Hey, how much does Jeff Bezos cost?” “How much does it cost us to have Elon Musk around, hoarding his money?” “What’s it costing us to have all these fabulously wealthy people?”
It’s costing us a lot more than we ever talk about. Not just because their hoarding of wealth takes that money out of circulation and contributes directly to poverty and the spiralling cost to human beings everywhere.
Also because things are being framed in this way, because we are being forced to think of ourselves and others in terms of cartoon dollar symbols.
That is not a natural state of affairs for humans, it is not something that is morally defensible, and it is something that eats away at each of us in different ways depending on our position vis à vis wealth.
Capitalism, where “I’mma hold your life hostage to extract money from you” is considered a business strategy rather than the fucking crime it would be in pretty much every other situation.
Armed robbery: “If you don’t give me exorbant amounts of money, I am going to kill you.”
Pharmaceuticals: “If you don’t give me exorbant amounts of money, I am going to let you die.”
I spent five weeks at the firm’s newest warehouse in Tilbury, Essex, armed with a secret camera bought from Amazon’s own website.
I found staff asleep on their feet, exhausted from toiling for up to 55 hours a week.
Those who could not keep up with the punishing targets faced the sack – and some who buckled under the strain had to be attended to by ambulance crews.
The plant, with no natural light, is flooded with fluorescent bulbs – night and day have no meaning.
Many of the clocks have been covered over with tape by employees desperate not to be reminded how long is left of their shift. But time still rules here – a new package must be sealed and ready to go every 30 seconds.
Whatever the hour thousands of workers are racing to hit goals set by computers monitoring their every move. In my five weeks I saw staff struggling to meet impossible targets, in constant fear of the sack.
Two half-hour breaks were the only time off my feet, but it was barely enough time to race to the canteen and wolf down some food to keep my energy up.
My body ached, and my fitness tracker showed I walked at least 10 miles most days.
Here’s a new article from Bloomberg for all the assholes saying that it can’t really be this bad, or the workers should be thankful for Amazon:
“The emergency responders of Licking County, Ohio, are under strain. At least once a day, a medical unit from West Licking Fire Station 3 makes a run to the Amazon.com Inc. warehouse 3.1 miles away, in the township of Etna, about 20 miles east of Columbus. The calls for routine medical issues that occur in grueling warehouse jobs come at all hours, says Steve Little, the fire district administrator. Shortness of breath. Chest pains. Myriad minor injuries. During the busy holiday season, he says, the warehouse sometimes issues multiple emergency calls a day.Amazon isn’t helping cover the costs. Under the deal the company negotiated in 2015 with local officials and the state’s private economic development agency, JobsOhio, it’s paying no property taxes to Licking County for 15 years. As part of a two-warehouse deal, the state gave Amazon $17 million in tax incentives, and JobsOhio handed over $1.5 million in cash, funded with income from the state’s liquor monopoly. The new facilities are “almost a million square feet we have to protect, but we get no extra money,” Little says. “We have no voice in these deals, and we get no cash. Our residents are being forced to pay instead.” In November, voters in Little’s district will be asked to approve a five-year, $6.5 million property tax levy to keep the fire department operating.”
this is what the rise of pedophile culture looks like–little girls are being indoctrinated into beauty rituals at earlier and earlier ages to feed the misogynistic pedophilic male gaze.
this is what the intersection of capitalism and misogyny looks like–fashion and beauty products are being marketed to females no matter their age as long as is generates profit and feeds the male gaze.
this is what porn culture looks like–due in part to the widespread availability of porn, females are considered sexual objects before they are considered human beings and so no matter what, a female must always be sexually available and presentable to men.
^Exactly. Please, when you see young girls who look like this, remember not to blame the literal children for their own oppression. They’re just trying to “fit in” and be accepted by their peers. Blame the fucking adults who sell them this image and profit from it.
Thank you for explaining what bothered me about children looking like that. I could never quite put my finger on it.
It’s really depressing how Labor Day has gone from “give laborers a day off” to “give white collar office workers and executives a day off but make retail laborers work so that executives can get a latte on their day off”
because there can be a store like this full of food and people on the same block starving because they don’t have enough pieces of paper to trade for it.
because the people who planted, maintained, harvested, and inspected all that produce are compensated barely enough to sustain themselves
because in order to drive down the prices of bananas, the us government and american fruit corporations destroyed the democratically elected leftist governments of numerous central american countries, placing murderous despots at the head of these “banana republics”.
because the scars of these crimes against humanity still haunt millions to this day.
lovingdread 