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For the past four decades, the majority of American workers have been shortchanged by economic policymaking that has suppressed the growth of hourly wages and prevented greater improvements in living standards. Achieving a secure, middle-class lifestyle has become increasingly difficult as hourly pay for most workers has either stagnated or declined. For millions of the country's lowest-paid workers, financial security is even more fleeting because of unscrupulous employers stealing a portion of their paychecks.
Wage theft, the practice of employers failing to pay workers the full wages to which they are legally entitled, is a widespread and deep-rooted problem that directly harms millions of U.S. workers each year. Employers refusing to pay promised wages, paying less than legally mandated minimums, failing to pay for all hours worked, or not paying overtime premiums deprives working people of billions of dollars annually. It also leaves hundreds of thousands of affected workers and their families in poverty. Wage theft does not just harm the workers and families who directly suffer exploitation; it also weakens the bargaining power of workers more broadly by putting downward pressure on hourly wages in affected industries and occupations. For many low-income families who suffer wage theft, the resulting loss of income forces them to rely more heavily on public assistance programs, unduly straining safety net programs and hamstringing efforts to reduce poverty.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @06:41PM (4 children)
It is in my self-interest to live in a society that runs smoothly, and that is robust and functional, and therefore provides adequate access to the resources that I both want and need.
That is to say, it is in my self-interest to make sure that I allocate my capital (my resources) towards endeavors and organizational structures that yield such an outcome; that is capitalism—the notion that I control the resources over which I've gained control through prior agreement with those around me (that is, through voluntary trade/interaction).
That's all Capitalism is.
Capitalism is the acknowledgement that overall, resources are allocated best when they are allocated solely by the person who gained control of those resources through prior agreement. That's it. Capitalism is the most liberal, poverty-destroying, robust, modern, civilized philosophy of society in the history of mankind. If any other philosophy of society is to work, it must be based around a foundation of capitalism. Period. Full stop.
Now, bugger off!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @07:59PM (3 children)
Unless you are a billionaire, -your- capital doesn't mean shit.
There are folks with gobs of multi-generational wealth who own the vast majority of the stock, vote as a bloc, and make your ownership/vote inconsequential.
Bernie Sanders has, yet again, proposed a system that will give support for Employee Stock Ownership Plans.
The thing is that, even with an ESOP, it is still one vote per share (still Capitalism).
With the boom-and-bust cycle and 4 giant economic crashes in the USA, Capitalism has repeatedly shown itself to be a failed system.
If you had a roommate as unstable as Capitalism, you would have kicked his ass out long ago.
The solution to making things better is one vote per owner.
Making the Ownership Class and The Working Class one and the same (Socialism) is the hurdle to be crossed to get to something better.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @08:08PM (2 children)
Democracy is a sham: The moron's vote has as much weight as the vote of a scholar. No, thanks.
The weight of a person's vote should increase or decrease based on that person's historical performance; if that person makes a bad bet, his vote loses weight; if that person makes a good bet, his vote gains weight.
Keep your grubby, sticky, unwashed fingers out of my pockets.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @08:21PM (1 child)
If your wisdom/experience is so much greater than everyone else's, you should easily be able to persuade the majority that your way is the correct way.
...you sad, pathetic hump.[1]
[1] used in the signoff of comedian/interviewer/political commentator David Feldman's weekly program on Pacifica Radio.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @10:50PM
The world is filled with people who believe that the creator of the entire universe wants people to cut chunks of flesh off little boys' sexual organs. Good luck working with that.
If fools like Lenin are capable of amassing followers by the millions, then there is very little hope that good ideas will triumph by persuasion alone; there are so many morons, that you must expect disaster to come before the solution—hence the phrase "It will get worse before it gets better."