4 ms·

Are you sure you're putting blame in the right place and not just falling into some manufactured consent? Every day income inequality gets worse, workers are t

Are you sure you're putting blame in the right place and not just falling into some manufactured consent? Every day income inequality gets worse, workers are treated like garbage[1], wages are going down[2] with unemployment going down, people can't afford health insurance and even if they can they will probably still be broken as deductibles and out of pocket costs rise, 80% of all people are living paycheck[3], 50% of all people in USA are defined as poor or low income[4], 80% of the country makes under $65k/year while the value of our money becomes less[5], 1/5 of children are in poverty[6]. I really think this is a natural occurrence to the failures of this corrupt capitalist system that provides for the few instead of the many. Things are shifting left, and it's certainly not because Russia spent $50k on advertisements on Facebook. You can also argue that the UK was a far greater influence with Cambridge Analytica, but it's something people like to ignore. These are absolutely our own policies having this effect. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/30/accidents-at-amazon-workers-left-to-suffer-after-warehouse-injuries https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/30/accidents... [2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/06/15/for-the-biggest-group-of-american-workers-wages-arent-just-flat-theyre-falling/?utm_term=.13c656824069 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/06/15/for-t... [3] https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/24/most-americans-live-paycheck-to-paycheck.html https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/24/most-americans-live-paycheck... [4] https://kairoscenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Poverty-Fact-sheet-Jan-2017.pdf https://kairoscenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Poverty-... [5] https://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/netcomp.cgi?year=2016 https://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/netcomp.cgi?year=2016 [6] http://www.nccp.org/topics/childpoverty.html http://www.nccp.org/topics/childpoverty.html

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
megaman22 8y ago
Depends on where you are standing. The best metaphor I've seen for the world these days is Scott Adams' about us watching two different movies in parallel at the same time. It's equally possible to look at the same world, and see that business is booming, the stock market is at record highs, employers are hiring and making investments at rates we haven't seen in years. Tension in areas of the world that have been problematic my entire life appear to be on the ebb at the moment. Maybe it's a regional thing... But things are looking pretty fricking awesome over on this side of the fence.
- gfodor 8y ago
  You can go a long way towards flipping between these parallel universes by logging in and logging out of social media.
- prolikewh0a 8y ago
  You're looking at things from the side of the elite and I absolutely agree, that side of the fence looks fantastic. Business is booming for the elite, the stock market is almost entirely owned by the top 10%[1] so nobody is really seeing those gains except people who already have plenty, employers are hiring but nobody has really seen a wage increase since the 90's[2] and wages are actually slightly falling[3]. Where's the bargaining power as we close in on full employment? It's nowhere to be found, and conditions are getting worse for the people who do the work. [1] http://time.com/money/5054009/stock-ownership-10-percent-richest/ http://time.com/money/5054009/stock-ownership-10-percent-ric... [2] https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/feb/11/hillary-clinton/debate-hillary-clinton-says-americans-havent-had-r/ https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/feb... [3] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/06/15/for-the-biggest-group-of-american-workers-wages-arent-just-flat-theyre-falling/?utm_term=.13c656824069 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/06/15/for-t...
  - JumpCrisscross 8y ago
    > wages are actually slightly falling According to your source wages fell, in real terms, between May 2017 and May 2018 by 0.1%. They're up from 5 years ago, up from 10 years ago and way up from 50 years ago. The principal cause of that real decline was gas prices rising unexpectedly.
    - prolikewh0a 8y ago
      Are you adjusting for inflation? Most Americans haven't seen any real wage growth when adjusted for inflation since the 70's. If they have seen real income growth, it has been extremely small. Wages have actually dropped since 1970 for the bottom 40% when adjusted for inflation. https://www.businessinsider.com/record-median-household-income-is-hiding-a-chilling-fact-2017-9 https://www.businessinsider.com/record-median-household-inco...
extralego 8y ago
Precisely. And regardless of the magnitude, we would surely be hypocrites to keep finger-pointing. The US has been implicitly meddling heavily with international elections for decades. It’s quite sad that Americans are not taught the basic lessons of the 19th century French Revolutions, because learning these lessons the hard way is yet again proving catastrophic. The “liberals” (known to Americans as the ‘Democratic Party establishment’) forego moral action for moral identity. The “proletariat” (or, working class, Democratic Socialists) must overcome the denial of their self-identity which is, in American culture and media, a battle on all sides. The average American’s head spins when they try to interpret polical nuances of foreign nations. They are limited to 2 dimensions; every opinion is either good, bad, or moderate; every piece of information is either fact, fake, or partially fact. I cannot tell if the left-leaning American pundits are being sincere when they act surprised at the newish factions in the American left. Are they truly so ignorant of history and political theory? Serious question. It’s one thing that’s American citizens are so simple-minded, but I find it hard to believe the media is not simply playing dumb. It’s truly agregious. Whether approached through morality, love for one’s neighbor, mathematics, or otherwise, capital precarity has every reason to be the first place to look, and must therefore be proven not the culprit before it can be discounted.
kansface 8y ago
HN is not the place to wage the culture war.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

megaman22 8y ago

Depends on where you are standing. The best metaphor I've seen for the world these days is Scott Adams' about us watching two different movies in parallel at the same time. It's equally possible to look at the same world, and see that business is booming, the stock market is at record highs, employers are hiring and making investments at rates we haven't seen in years. Tension in areas of the world that have been problematic my entire life appear to be on the ebb at the moment. Maybe it's a regional thing... But things are looking pretty fricking awesome over on this side of the fence.

gfodor 8y ago
You can go a long way towards flipping between these parallel universes by logging in and logging out of social media.
prolikewh0a 8y ago
You're looking at things from the side of the elite and I absolutely agree, that side of the fence looks fantastic. Business is booming for the elite, the stock market is almost entirely owned by the top 10%[1] so nobody is really seeing those gains except people who already have plenty, employers are hiring but nobody has really seen a wage increase since the 90's[2] and wages are actually slightly falling[3]. Where's the bargaining power as we close in on full employment? It's nowhere to be found, and conditions are getting worse for the people who do the work. [1] http://time.com/money/5054009/stock-ownership-10-percent-richest/ http://time.com/money/5054009/stock-ownership-10-percent-ric... [2] https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/feb/11/hillary-clinton/debate-hillary-clinton-says-americans-havent-had-r/ https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/feb... [3] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/06/15/for-the-biggest-group-of-american-workers-wages-arent-just-flat-theyre-falling/?utm_term=.13c656824069 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/06/15/for-t...
- JumpCrisscross 8y ago
  > wages are actually slightly falling According to your source wages fell, in real terms, between May 2017 and May 2018 by 0.1%. They're up from 5 years ago, up from 10 years ago and way up from 50 years ago. The principal cause of that real decline was gas prices rising unexpectedly.
  - prolikewh0a 8y ago
    Are you adjusting for inflation? Most Americans haven't seen any real wage growth when adjusted for inflation since the 70's. If they have seen real income growth, it has been extremely small. Wages have actually dropped since 1970 for the bottom 40% when adjusted for inflation. https://www.businessinsider.com/record-median-household-income-is-hiding-a-chilling-fact-2017-9 https://www.businessinsider.com/record-median-household-inco...

extralego 8y ago

Precisely. And regardless of the magnitude, we would surely be hypocrites to keep finger-pointing. The US has been implicitly meddling heavily with international elections for decades. It’s quite sad that Americans are not taught the basic lessons of the 19th century French Revolutions, because learning these lessons the hard way is yet again proving catastrophic. The “liberals” (known to Americans as the ‘Democratic Party establishment’) forego moral action for moral identity. The “proletariat” (or, working class, Democratic Socialists) must overcome the denial of their self-identity which is, in American culture and media, a battle on all sides. The average American’s head spins when they try to interpret polical nuances of foreign nations. They are limited to 2 dimensions; every opinion is either good, bad, or moderate; every piece of information is either fact, fake, or partially fact. I cannot tell if the left-leaning American pundits are being sincere when they act surprised at the newish factions in the American left. Are they truly so ignorant of history and political theory? Serious question. It’s one thing that’s American citizens are so simple-minded, but I find it hard to believe the media is not simply playing dumb. It’s truly agregious. Whether approached through morality, love for one’s neighbor, mathematics, or otherwise, capital precarity has every reason to be the first place to look, and must therefore be proven not the culprit before it can be discounted.

kansface 8y ago

HN is not the place to wage the culture war.