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Companies don’t provide jobs. People provide labor and companies exploit said labor for profit.
by GoodJokes 5y ago
Companies don’t provide jobs. People provide labor and companies exploit said labor for profit.
- ativzzz 5y agoThe comment you replied to predicted your comment: > it’s interesting to watch efforts to spin things one way or another
- 0x262d 5y agopolitical and class ambivalence is also a way to spin things. which the original comment itself did. this is a navel-gazing, meaningless criticism. if you disagree substantively you should just say so.
- friedman23 5y agoClass ambivalence? Who is upper class here? Jeff Bezos? He was born to single mother out of wedlock in highschool. Or is class something you can buy your way into now?
- true_religion 5y agoYes. Social mobility is one of the hallmarks of a class system. If you can’t spend your entire life improving yourself from the circumstances of your birth then you don’t have a class system, you have a caste system.
- tmpz22 5y agoAnd yet his parents were able to slide him a cool quarter million to start Amazon without breaking a sweat.
- username90 5y agoMost people here on HN could do the same for their kids once their kids are adults.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- objectivetruth 5y agoDing ding ding, and that is a signifier of "upper class."
- Aunche 5y agoBefore he started Amazon, Bezos had already been already an SVP at DE Shaw, so it's not like he would have any trouble finding another quarter million from investors.
- 0x262d 5y agoBezos' profits on the basis of how much work his employees do, minus how much he pays them. that's what class is. it's pretty hard to deny it exists.
- friedman23 5y agoThat's being rich not upper class. There is a difference.
- Fargren 5y agoIs there? To me the terms are interchangeable. I tried googling for it and I can't find any clear distinction. Can you tell me what is the difference?
- 0x262d 5y agono, class (in the marxist sense, everything else is meaningless cultural signifiers) is not about "upper" or "lower", it's about either getting paid for wage labor, ie being working class, or getting paid for other people's use of property you own, ie being capitalist class. this is extremely basic and is the fundamental divide under capitalism.
- friedman23 5y agoah thanks for tankiesplaining
- 0x262d 5y agodumb comment. this isn't "tankie" it's basic labor theory of value.
- woodruffw 5y ago> Or is class something you can buy your way into now? In America, class has always been something you can buy your way into. Take a trip to Newport some time, and visit the mansions of the robber barons: each is stuffed with mediocre classical and neoclassical mimicry. The purpose of these ostentatious displays was to prove to each's neighbors that they were sufficiently landed, wealthy, and worthy of their class designation. Edit: But of course note: wealth is neither necessary nor sufficient for class; it only makes it much, much more accessible.
- iratewizard 5y agoCompanies exploit people. People exploit their employers. People exploit each other. People exploit themselves. Midwit theories of Utopia always seem to single in on one thing they can turn into a boogieman, and ignore the rest of the complex system.
- username90 5y agoLabour without a job is almost useless. People with the ability to figure out good use of labour is the limiting factor, not labour itself. And it is really hard to get enough value out of labour to pay modern salaries. If you disagree, why don't you just hire people yourself and tell them to do stuff? Easy money from exploiting labour, no?
- anm89 5y agoI love how simply framing a concept that 99.9% of the population is ok with in Marxist language is supposed to make people recoil in horror. If you want to call it exploitation than call it exploitation. I'm fine with exploitation if the definition of exploitation is "jobs"
- GoodJokes 5y agoThis is the end state of alienated from your labor. Total acceptance of exploitation. Kinda sad tbh.
- Aunche 5y agoWorkers receive compensation for their labor. They aren't entitled to future profit that results from their labor. Otherwise, I'm "exploiting" Apple for make profit off of my work laptop.
- nscalf 5y agoThen quit, don’t get another job, and stop complaining about it. But most people can’t, because they aren’t just blindly exploited, they’re compensated for their work and that gives them more freedom and future options. If you want to say they’re not fairly compensated, go work to get a bill passed. Or run for office. Or make your own company. Just do SOMETHING, making flippant remarks online and whining isn’t productive and doesn’t help anyone.