‘Workers Strike Back’: 40 Times People Realized That Modern Capitalism Is Starting To Look Ridiculous
Everyone’s entitled to a good wage, decent working conditions, and the respect of their peers. It sounds so simple. So fair. So obvious. And yet, many workers still find themselves exploited even in developed countries. Overworked for mere cents, marginalized, their voices and needs unheard.
The r/WorkersStrikeBack subreddit is an online community that advocates and fights for workers' rights in a wide variety of ways. They’re dedicated to supporting strikes and unions, addressing various workplace issues, and giving advice to anyone who might be dealing with especially tough problems or anti-worker sentiment at their jobs.
Created in late October of 2021, the subreddit already has nearly 78k members and is still growing. Scroll down for some of r/WorkersStrikeBack top posts that highlight the dark side of capitalism, and to learn more about the community.
This post may include affiliate links.
Wow. Medical Debt Causes Divorce Of Married Couple Of 52 Years
Billionaires Must Be Abolished
This Should Not Be Allowed!
The online community presents itself as an unabashedly “leftist, anti-capitalist subreddit.” They stress that they are not a place for debates. To them, capitalism is exploitative and evil, and they’re not willing to talk about these basic assumptions.
It’s all very black-and-white. So if you’re going to be posting on the sub, keep in mind that the goal is to give workers more negotiating power at work, not to analyze the nuances of economics and politics. There are plenty of other places to do this. This isn’t one of them.
Cayman Islands
Sad Reality
Love It Here
“Worker exploitation is not up for debate. It is evident. If you intend to debate, go elsewhere,” the mods explain. “Capitalism is an inherently exploitative economic system. This is not up for debate.”
The community believes wealthy special interests groups have corrupted governments everywhere, meaning that they do not represent the will of the people. As a result, wages remain stagnant, affordable medical coverage remains difficult (mostly in the United States), and the climate crisis continues to get out of hand.
Burgernomics
Congrats!
I don't understand why business owners can't just do the work themselves just like how they started out.
Trolling Ancaps, Temporarily Inconvenienced Billionaires
I cannot count how many times I have ranted about that same argument. I mean seriously, they have stated "we have more money than we know what to do with", on Sky News and now they're crying poverty?? F**k off!
In the subreddit’s view, mass striking is what leads to real change. However, it has to be done as efficiently, as widely as possible. They have a handy guide in the subreddit’s sidebar on the right with a whole host of resources for anyone who is thinking of organizing a strike at work.
Hmmm I Wonder Why
That's another "Only in Murica"-thing, I suppose? Minimal wage started in January 2015 in Germany and got up from 8,50 €/h to 10,45 €/h since than. Still low, but improving.
Truth
You Don't Have To Pay Your Boss Miscalculations
However, r/WorkersStrikeBack isn’t the only online community that is concerned with better working conditions and showing the dark, dreary underbelly of capitalist society.
Earlier, Bored Panda interviewed Angel, the founder and moderator of the ‘Humans of Capitalism’ page. They told us that the current capitalist system is flawed, absurd, and unjust. What’s more, this injustice permeates every layer of our lives, not just work, according to them.
Just Like Thomas Edison, Elon Rides Of Tesla's Success
Boycott Amy's
Basically, The Laws Exist To Protect The Capitalist Class
If you are a bank and go bankrupt, government will help you out with a few billion dollars taken from taxpayers' pockets.
For Angel, the future looks bleak. They don’t have much optimism that capitalism as a whole can be replaced easily. In fact, they think that capitalism evolved into corporatism.
"We often see many small businesses collapsing because they are not able to fight with the current trend or to combat with the giant competitors. So they have two options, close the business or sell it," Angel mused.
Can't Afford Job Loyalty In This Situation
Pssssssssssssst! ... It Was Our Money
Secessio Plebis
"We have many companies that have been bought by enormous giants that I do not want to mention and they won't stop there, they are trying to get their hands on any business category. Is there a solution for it? I believe that there can be some solutions, but capitalists will work and find a way to bypass those solutions and continue with the destruction of the system while being totally ignorant about it," they said.
Amazon Making Blatantly Fake Twitter Accounts Ahead Of The Union Vote To Discourage Workers From Unionizing
Wow. Can that be a lawsuit, having your own face used on a Twitter account without your permission?
You Can Do It, Too! If They Don’t Want To Pay You Fair Wages, Force Them To Close!
The owner of Jimmy Johns (Jimmy John Liautaud) is a disgusting big game trophy hunter. I personally would rather starve to death than support this piece of fecal waste. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/jimmy-john-liautaud-hunting-photos/
Love The Late Stage Capitalism Of Child Labor Needed To Pay Off That Good ‘Ol American Child Debt
What's more heartwarming than this? Than it not being necessary. A Wisconsin school district just refused the Biden administrations extension of free lunches. Awful humans.
In Angel’s view, any system and society, capitalist or not, has the potential for corruption. "If we go back in time where socialism or communism were at their prime, we can see that the top of the head of the system was corrupted and that resulted with the fall of the system," they pointed out that people ought to have a realistic view of history, not an overly-romanticized one.
Born In The System. Trapped In The System
In 2020 We Were Called "Essential Workers" When They Needed Us To Work And Now We're Back To Being Called "Low Skilled Workers" If The Pandemic Has Shown Anything It's That So Called "Low Skilled Workers" Are Of Vital Importants To The Economy And Without These Workers The Economy Would Shut Down
Sigma Female
The founder of ‘Humans of Capitalism’ told Bored Panda how they envision the future. They believe that we’re in for an automated ‘utopia’ where machines will produce, deliver, and take care of everything. From food and clothing to health. However, that wouldn’t necessarily make things perfect, as someone would still control the system of distribution.
It’s Never In More Pay
This Is What Happens When Companies Run The Country
Well, This Is It
"The idea of getting free food, water, health, clothing, is nice and, in reality, if we take a closer look at the current system we can see that more people are let off and replaced by machines. For example, we can see that McDonald's workers are fired and they have been replaced with machines that work on touch or by sound and they take orders, forward orders to the employees, etc."
"I Started From The Bottom..."
Marshalls: Free Shipping On Orders Over $89, Workers Gfy
Building Class Conscience Through Memes
They can see a dark future where, as technology progresses, more and more workers will lose their jobs.
"I believe that 50 years from now machines will provide food, clothing, healthcare services, and much more, by themselves, with little to no employees monitoring them. But there is an issue with that. You will leave millions of people jobless and cause huge riots as the famous quote from Jean-Jacques Rousseau goes: 'When the people shall have no more to eat, they will eat the rich.'"
Can I Have Nothing Please?
“Wildest Part Of Labor History Class”
Where's the guy who called me an "armchair socialist"? Shouldn't he be here defending the cops and Pinkerton agents who shot coal miners and factory workers on strike?
America Needs A Socialist Revolution
God forbid you say the “S” word. Most Mercian’s think it’s Communism. They have no idea what socialism really is.
The Owner Class Does None Of The Work And Owns All Of The Wealth, The Working Class Does All Of The Actual Work And Gets Almost None Of The Wealth
I'm all for socialism... as you can see from previous posts. But this specific argument is flawed. The problem is, a huge amount of money needs to go into finding and mining the gold, and if it turns out that the gold mine is a failure... the miners still got paid for their work, but the mine owner just wasted a whole bunch of money. The individual miners didn't take any risk. -- So the question is, if you don't like this model, then who should take on the risk? Co-ops are a possible solution, where the miners pool their resources together and invest in the mine, and if it fails, they all share the loss. Another option is socialism, where the government owns the mine and takes on the risk, so ultimately the tax-payer will take the hit if it is a failure. -- There are options, but someone will have to suffer if the mine fails.
F**k That
Let’s Keep It Up Till All Jobs Are Unionized
Still can't get over the fact that the US are only NOW getting unions FOR the workers
What You Want vs. What You Get, Living Under Capitalism
Unionized Women Earn 23% More Hourly Then Those Without A Union
Can confirm. I had a non-union job before the pandemic, got laid off, found a new job with a union, now make 29% more, have health benefits, and get PTO.
Comrade Clippy
Yikes
Capitalism is a terrible system. It just happens to be better than all the other terrible systems we've tried. I'll stick with the least worst economic system until we get something that is proven to work better.
Our financial system is f****d up. Like, how are we supposed purchase necessities if we make $2 an hour with 90% of it going to taxes and bills? And they wonder why the homeless population is getting bigger. Minimum wage should be raised to an actual wage we can LIVE off of. People still live with their parents because the system isn't giving them enough to live. I say tax the s**t out of the billionaires. They've got enough money just laying around. And inflation isn't making things any better. Workers wages stay the same while the price of goods go up making it even more impossible to live. Even if you get like $25000 or more a year, most of it is going to fixed expenses like bills and taxes so you have $11 to go buy this week's groceries. The middle class is shrinking because we're all losing money while billionaires are getting richer. This concludes my TED Talk. (yes I know a lot of this is an exaggeration but it helps me express how f****d up this is)
Living in a country that US tourists find expensive and got high taxes I don't get these posts. For our taxes we for example just pay between 11-32 USD depending on who, how, where and when. We never pay more than 127 USD during a 12 month period and the daycost for any hospital recovery is 11,60 USD. But I can add that medical prices were raised a lot after the ISIS war when we received many refugees. How ever most medicine have humane prices and also have a maximum cost per year: 252 USD counted from the first purchase. For daycare the maximum tax is 111 USD/month/child over 3 y. Elementary school is payed with the taxes and includes food and books. Most roads are payed for and some more things. But of course do we have rich people who only gets richer and low-wages. as for a cleaner it's approximately 2297 USD/month and unions for all categories of employments. We have brakes and free water! Some workplaces even have free coffee/tea/hot chocolate and/or soda and access to food for a reduced costs for ordinary workers. So reading these posts I get terrified and will never visit US.
Capitalism is a terrible system. It just happens to be better than all the other terrible systems we've tried. I'll stick with the least worst economic system until we get something that is proven to work better.
Our financial system is f****d up. Like, how are we supposed purchase necessities if we make $2 an hour with 90% of it going to taxes and bills? And they wonder why the homeless population is getting bigger. Minimum wage should be raised to an actual wage we can LIVE off of. People still live with their parents because the system isn't giving them enough to live. I say tax the s**t out of the billionaires. They've got enough money just laying around. And inflation isn't making things any better. Workers wages stay the same while the price of goods go up making it even more impossible to live. Even if you get like $25000 or more a year, most of it is going to fixed expenses like bills and taxes so you have $11 to go buy this week's groceries. The middle class is shrinking because we're all losing money while billionaires are getting richer. This concludes my TED Talk. (yes I know a lot of this is an exaggeration but it helps me express how f****d up this is)
Living in a country that US tourists find expensive and got high taxes I don't get these posts. For our taxes we for example just pay between 11-32 USD depending on who, how, where and when. We never pay more than 127 USD during a 12 month period and the daycost for any hospital recovery is 11,60 USD. But I can add that medical prices were raised a lot after the ISIS war when we received many refugees. How ever most medicine have humane prices and also have a maximum cost per year: 252 USD counted from the first purchase. For daycare the maximum tax is 111 USD/month/child over 3 y. Elementary school is payed with the taxes and includes food and books. Most roads are payed for and some more things. But of course do we have rich people who only gets richer and low-wages. as for a cleaner it's approximately 2297 USD/month and unions for all categories of employments. We have brakes and free water! Some workplaces even have free coffee/tea/hot chocolate and/or soda and access to food for a reduced costs for ordinary workers. So reading these posts I get terrified and will never visit US.