Readit NewsCare to elaborate? Many of us held minimum wage positions for some period of time before gathering the skills / tools / time to move on to something better.
> A society absolutely does have a moral obligation to its citizenry, otherwise what is the point of it?
A citizenry has moral obligations to its society. Demanding handouts for minimal contribution does not create a strong society.
> A man must bend his knee to the oligarchs and the state and get crumbs in return? This is what I meant by classist conspiracy theories and capitalist bootlicking. HN needs to wake the fuck up.
I can hurl insults and straw-man opposing views, too. I don't think it benefits anyone, though.
So did I, but I don't regard someone a failure who deserves misery if they did not 'gather necessary skills'. There are a lot of reasons why someone might not be able to move past minimum wage work in life, not all of them their fault. Even if it is and they threw away every opportunity they ever had does that mean they deserve a lifetime of hardship?
> A citizenry has moral obligations to its society. Demanding handouts for minimal contribution does not create a strong society.
Our society provides trillions to oligarchs like Bezos. If we're OK with that then we should be OK with giving more to those who need it most even if they dont work "hard enough".
It seems odd that capitalism would have such a duty to humanity because it’s like saying “art has failed humanity.” Or “this screwdriver has failed breakfast.”
As we're seeing now, wealth and income inequality are at terrible levels. Wage stagnation has been hurting the middle class. Housing is becoming increasingly expensive as jobs centralize on cities. Gentrification pushes out the working class.
We have climate change bearing down on us, the effects of which are already being seen through mass migration, fires, hurricanes, and other disasters. Meanwhile the fossil fuel industry would have us believe there are "two sides" to this argument so that they can continue to profit instead of adapting and doing the right thing. The first to feel it certainly won't be those of us making several hundred thousand dollars per year and looking down on those living paycheck to paycheck. It'll be those living paycheck to paycheck who feel it first.
Neither artists nor bartenders have the power over humanity that capitalists do.
Dead Comment
That's not up for a company to decide, they don't control all the prices and sentiments that determine what is and isn't "decent to live". They can decide what they can pay to hire an extra worker and make more money as a result. If they don't believe they'll make more money as a result, then there's no hire.
It leads to problems and to foolishness like juice-squeezing hydraulic presses for the home, but I feel like that wackiness pays for itself when it has brilliant people asking 'what does life look like when we have solar powered robots and replicators giving us all important things for essentially free?'
Without Silicon Valley disruptive thinking, the answer is simple and time tested: the lord, or whoever's holding authority, takes all the benefit and gives the peasants the absolute minimum he can get away with giving, and it only changes when he gets SUPER greedy.
With Silicon Valley disruptive thinking, there are smart people asking 'hang on, haven't we changed a paradigm here? What else can happen?'
That may produce activists… I don't think you'd call them 'accelerationist' activists. That term is akin to posadism and implies it's activists secretly trying to worsen conditions in hopes of stoking an eventual revolution. SV does have plenty of those, many of 'em leading companies, but in general techno-utopianism wouldn't be characterized as accelerationist.
I will also challenge you on the idea that silicon valley is still disruptive as opposed to the status quo now. The largest companies in the world (by far) are tech companies now. These large companies are actively stifling competition, and they've been caught stifling wages.
Wealth and income inequality are at terrible levels now and climate change's adverse effects are really only starting to be seen. The Gilets Jaune movement in France is ultimately a proletarian battle against the global oligarchy, of which tech is certainly a part of.
We should not consider ourselves 'disruptors' or outsiders anymore. We are the elite.
Guys, i suggest looking at some of these companies balance sheets. In many cases (Walmarts, McDonalds...) even a small 5% pay raise for all employees would eat every single penny of profits.
And relatively speaking IT/Engineering professions are paid a lot less (and have less status) than say lawyers and other equivalent professions.
I've done the same thing, sometimes the urge to react emotionally rather than intellectually and get a good stab in is too hard to resist, but some karmic retribution is only fair. You do the crime, you do the time.