I Build Cars For a Living. I Can’t Afford to Buy One.
Вставка
- Опубліковано 21 січ 2024
- Toyota used to host free car giveaways and give workers 12% bonuses. They promised workers would "retire as millionaires." Now Toyota workers can’t even afford the cars they make… while the company’s profits have doubled over the past 40 years.
Are you an autoworker involved in unionizing your workplace? We'd love to hear from you. Fill out this form to get in touch with us: forms.gle/efbcomryw4pzNPaS9
-----
More Perfect Union is a nonprofit media organizaton with a mission to build power for working people. Learn more here: perfectunion.us/
Follow us on Twitter: / moreperfectus
Instagram: / perfectunion
Facebook: / moreperfunion
Tiktok: / moreperfectunion
The Ford thought was: every worker should be able to buy my car.
Where has that gone!? 😢😤
Citizens United
@@user-pg3ti3vc5g which is the most ironic name for something taking AWAY People's voting rights ever. 😪
Stock buy backs.
@@Mellowcanuck33 absolutely. 😪
It went to the supreme court, who determined a company only has a responsibility to it's shareholders, none to their employees.
Tell me about it…. I worked for 7 years at a nonprofit - ahem - that I will call Badwon’t. The CEO makes 300K and the entire senior leadership team got very large increases last year. Our raises were capped at 3% maximum. We also got pto, but no sick pay. In the words of the CFO, “You can decide whether to be sick or go on vacation”. The company also ran an internal food drive for employees. We could donate food to each other because they didn’t pay enough for everyone to buy food…..
People think that woke liberals or immigrants or “the other” are to blame for their problems. They aren’t. Corporate welfare, corporate greed, lack of corporate accountability are. Wake up America!!!!
Corporations want to depress wages and exert control, but hatred for the poor and immigrants blind Americans to Corporations.
Makes you wonder if there are actually “Nonprofit” businesses anymore or if it is literally only a 501(c) tax code cheat to rob our tax system coming and going?
I am sorry you and other workers had to go through all of the abuse.
300k is tiny for ceo of such a large company. Especially since non for profit means he has no equity. PTO is a pretty normal practice. There is definitely crazy wealth collections at the top, but this is a bad example.
$300k is chump change, buddy. C-suite execs at my firm are pulling over $450k. Hell even senior staff members make $250k
CEO’s pay is more like $8-$15m
300k is the most reasonable CEO salary I ever ever heard of. There’s literally nothing to complain about with 300k. CEOs usually take in millions.
Not just autoworkers. University staff, hospital staff, research staff. This is everywhere.
And it CANNOT be like this anymore.
Yep. Only the people on the very top make livable wages anymore. Sad times.
Plus one on the hospital notes. I work in a hospital here in Boston, and I can tell you first hand that it continues to be one of the worst and most stressful financial environments in the country. Not only do they cut our bonuses in our incentives, but they continue to give us a 2% raise, while major corporate entities and shareholders get 50 to 80% raises every single year, and bonuses, on top of that, while inflation stays stagnant at 30 plus percent in the city.
We don't get free parking, we don't get a free accommodations on the train services, hell, we don't even get free lunch, and the lunch at our hospital is f****** terrible.
Pay us back for all the money we get in, pay back into the system, and get nothing in return, and the hospitals wonder why nobody wants to work for them anymore, and they're constantly having to push DEI hires just to be able to fill the gaps in. Come on to make it look good for investors. It's despicable.
@@travisalexphoto bro that's really disgraceful.
The parasites at the top are really trying to just take every damn thing. They would pick our bones dry if we let them.
City politicians could stop a lot of this in its tracks but they don't want to. They take bribes from the 1% to let them do just this.
I could even accept that, if they (city council) didn't dare come around and act shocked when the homeless population skyrockets and then they send the Pigs around to treat the homeless like animals. (But never change the material conditions and the policies that are the root cause in the first place)
As if they don't know why it's happening and their part in it.
Ugh. We gotta stay strong everyone. It might get worse before it starts getting better.
This is what a Gilded Age looks like. Everything goes to the top while the bottom 60% struggle.
@@travisalexphoto I responded to you but I don't know if you can see it.
I use to fix vehicles at a dealership. The GM would always try to gt me to buy a new truck. I always told him......"Do you know what you pay me?" 😂😂
My company is bragging about 2023 Revenue being 52% over the projections. Then immediately after the brag they say they are reducing bonuses this year. After we worked our asses off to make them 52% more profit.
WOW! Don’t mean that sarcastically what so ever. Reviewing the EBITA of companies I invest in and think about investing in.. I’ve noticed that the past two years have given every company I’ve looked at record profits. Record free cash.. and debts that are paid off. Many corporations say we needed to make up for the pandemic times.. but, my research shows that the biggest losers during the pandemic were American small business. Businesses that do over $100 million a year.. well… the loses were not big enough to equate to the kind of profits they are seeing now.
No, they’re probably reserving the profits for a stock buyback, which manipulates the earnings per share and raises the stock value and essentially gives the executives your bonus by inflating the value of the stock offers they get as part of their executive compensation packages.
"they gave out cars to people with perfect attendance" meanwhile that one burger king worker that worked for 27years with perfect attendance got a cheap goodie bag.
Your first mistake is working at burger king for 27 years
@@lv1543you're cruel.
@@scifirealism5943 but not wrong. If you just stay at a place expecting anything without it being in writing and signed by both parties, you fucked beyond belief. You had plenty of time to look for another job.
@lv1543 not everyone can "get better jobs."
@@lv1543Maybe they did look. Reality is there isn’t enough jobs to go around for everybody under capitalism
This is exactly what I hear at the company I currently work for. Some of the older employees reminisce about actually fun company events, bonuses, good pay, good benefits, retiring early, taking year long vacations, the list goes on.
Now all I hear is, "our pay and benefits are competitive" which is corporate speak for "we pay you shit, but everybody else also pays shit so... Be happy you ungrateful swine"
Yeah at that point you gotta run
@@eziahjohnson167run where? There is no escape from this behavior
I love the “competitive pay” spiel, I always ask what they’re competing, with poverty?
The old timers at my place tell me about how they used to be able to drink and take it easy during the week of the holidays, how the pay was amazing, even the janitors were making 100k back in the day, although most of it was because of working tons of overtime. Still, after inflation, it's probably worth almost 200k today.
The generous wages and laid back environment has gone away and now things aren't as good as they used to be.
I’m a UAW member 17 years . Last year was the first vacation we could afford and it was staying in a cabin 20 minutes from my mom’s house for 4 days . Cost 2k and it impacted what we could do at Christmas
CEOs have gained over 1000% pay increase while normal workers only got 15%
If you adjust for inflation a lot of workers are actually making less than they have historically
Productivity and wages haven’t kept pace since 1970.
WAYYYYYY less
The CEO doesn't care about you. He care about stock holders and investors. The CEO themselves have a golden parachute and severance package if things go south.
@@gregorylyon1004 we are all slaves to corporations
Alone we beg, collectively we bargain.
In solidarity with all Workers. 🎉❤💯💯
This
Excuse me, at this point, we demand.
Employers have been giving employees the shaft for DECADES. Wages have not increased in 15 years+!!!
My parents worked for decades at the same job their entire career, pay raises, bonuses, company get to get togethers, holiday parties.... WHAT THE CRAP do employees have TODAY. WE, THE WORKERS, have been moving BACKWARDS! I, for one, am sick of it!!!
Big business is keeping to much of the buyers money, and not sharing it with workers. It's all about greed on the side of all these big conglomerates.
Union all the way. U-tube Harlan County USA. It is the best Union documentary ever made. Pass it on.
@@robinlindberg6339 When you act like that, many workers who would otherwise join your cause stay home. Contrary to the tone that is warranted by the history lesson you shared, simple folk don't want to be apart of loud violence any more than they want to be taken advantage of by a broken system.
@@jakehix8132if you join the military you can get both. Violence and exploitation.
Seems like the American dream to me. You have to be asleep to experience it.
Could bulldoze some golf courses.
Waaaaaaaaaa. Whiny bums
R.I.P. Mr. Carlin. Could you envision him alive today? 1 special and he would have awaken the masses!
- George Carlin
@@mikemann1960 He was talking about it years ago before he died, he was years ahead. You can look at his stuff now, and it's still 100% relevant. this shits been going on for decades, it's really starting to affect those in the middle class now more, or what would have been a middle class job years ago. The corporations have only squeezed harder and harder.
To any genuine, or disingenuous detractors out there:
STOP WITH THE HYPOCRISY
THE UNION IS DEMOCRACY!! 🎉❤🙏🙏
Closer to it than actual American democracy in 2024...
The union is thuggary.
Oh please, the Union leaders will entrench themselves and it will be back to business as usual.
Just accuse them of anti freedom of association
@@JB-yb4wnif they screwed up it's their problem, they should still be allowed to exercise the freedom of association.
They did vote out the corporate friendly leaders at teamsters.
The corporate world has become SO GODDAMM GREEDY
as someone who has been part of a successful organizing campaign in the workplace, this is not an easy fight. solidarity with these workers! we are stronger together!
so long you dont force anyone to join your cause and pay the "monthly union fee"...
@@helium3894 it's not monthly, it's quarterly. and it more than pays for itself. my hourly rate is more than 50% higher than it was pre-contract.
@@helium3894 so if a union is voted in negotiators should work for free?
@@goblinzl1 feel free to apply 2 tiers of salary...any raise or cut only affects unionized workers...problem solved...
@@helium3894 are you in management? ill bet you are. how about everyone makes the same for the same job?
heres how it works. union voted in you join. if not you dont join. problem solved.
Greed is not the desire for more, it's the desire for more at the expense of others. 😢
Welcome to capitalism! We've had this same predatory system for millennia and they'll never let us try anything else heh
On a planet with limited resources, greed is also "the desire for more".
I call that gluttony to distinguish from common greed.
@@3nertiait is not capitalism when corporations are given more rights than non corporate businesses and individuals, that is corruption and government control.
@@5400bowen call it what you want, it's awful in every shape or form. Greed/Gluttony is NEVER good.
The American Dream has turned into being able to eat one meal a day & not end up living under a bridge.
That fiction/fiction that includes that doesnt also include licing under a bridge?
Is the one under the bridge not doing much slave labor?
Cavemen style human slaves is fine with me. Isnt it with you?
Yeah, sure.
Welcome to my life
True.
I'm living the dream apparently.
I used to live in Georgetown in 2008. Toyota was THE job to have in a VERY poor area.
Still is.
They hold the town hostage with threats to move unless they’re given a competitive tax break.and have gotten more and more benefits from the state and county while treating workers much worse, it’s still THE job it just is t the job it used to be!
If Toyota left then Georgetowns budget would be in the red within the first month, the town is now built and owned by Toyota.
When was America actually "great"? Answer: When we had strong unions. Strong unions = better jobs = better lives
Inb4 someone says that unions make people lazy or whatever
It was never really great but it was better for some white people during some periods in history, yes.
America has pretty much always sucked, unless you're in the top 0.1% of income earners.
you never had strong unions. you never had a time when the majority of the population wasnt starving to death and most importantly, there's never been a time when the power over our government and lives was not controlled by european loyalists aka people who are only here to extract wealth from american citizens to give to european monarchs and their goons. most of you cant even recon with the fact that europe is our owner. you see europeans living lavish easy lives, never working and always partying, while americans keep expanding the productivity of their work but keep seeing the quality of their lives exponentially dropping, but cant put two and two together to admit that europes been getting 100% of the value of americans work from the very start and in perpetuity. they have no profitable businesses. they dont do their own labor. they dont have valuable resources. and yet, they live the best lives of anyone on earth. they dont have any way to show where the money for all that comes from and how they can afford to just throw away so much on stuff thats not returning more than they're investing. but for whatever reason, possibly the extreme cognitive dissonance that infects every well off eurocentrics brain on the planet, they just cant bring themselves to admit to any of it, despite having to see it every day all day.
Strong unions, strong regulations on business, and civil rights victories.
That kept unions out to set up workers to fail. I know people who used to say it was great. Now they (Toyota) cannot find qualified labour. Yet the profit are unbelievable
unions have taken more money from people than they've given... the problem isnt no unions. the problem is the people who tolerate and emulate monarchy. and everyone who sits idly by and says its ok to do so. allowing entrenched corruption to remain and fester until there is literally overt slavery happening again while people call it willful employment lmao
no if they unionize they gonna start producing crappy cars like the big 3, no to Unions
2.5 billion in profit is nothing when your $220 billion in debt and growing. They are failing
I was an insurance agent that could not afford insurance 😂
Oh man, insurance is a total scam! A friend basically subsidized Farmers for 18 months before they realized they were NEVER going to make any money. By churning through the naive newbies, they base their business model on being subsidized by their WORKERS!
@@dudeonbike800 This also applies to the claims side of insurance.
I have a brother in law that worked for Allstate for over 30 years starting out as an adjuster and by the time he was laid off he was a branch manager. At some point in his career it was actually cheaper for him to get his insurance needs from another company despite his employee discount with Allstate.
insulting isn't it! I worked for tivo and they gave us a free tivo...but i absolutely could not afford the monthly service for the tivo. does that make any sense. it was just a paperweight at that point.
I helped set up whole lines in that place 20 years ago.
People were doing decent then.
Times have changed
Plenty of people do great there now.
@@bartdoo5757 Yes shocking people higher up make a better wage...Imagine if they had a union, they would be doing even better. And Toyota would still be making billions in profit.
@@spencers4121 Not everyone working for a union job makes more money than a non union.
I used to work for the railroad and it was the same deal and we had a union. Of course when your union can't strike "Thanks Ronald Regan" you don't have much power. We would get raises and then have our benefits raise. I see the same thing for healthcare workers. My wife is an RN and her medical insurance is crap. I remember back in the 90's even the cooks and janitorial staff at the same hospital had free healthcare as long as they went to a facility owned by the hospital. The people should be outraged.
My friend's dad growing up worked at one of the local grocery stores. You'd think its not all that great, yet he earned enough to own a 1500 sq ft house on a 3000 sq ft lot and when he fell at work and had to retire early, his UNION took care of him. 1980s Ohio.
This is the inevitable result of what happens when there's legal precedent to put shareholders before employees.
Exactly.
talk to your government about that. Its the law they have to worry bout shareholders 1st. but this fails to mention that yes they made 2.5 billion in profit still have a debt of over $220 billion, in the early 2000s it was under $50 Billion. they are hurting.
Isn't it so interesting that companies always cut salaries and perks during economic downturns, but always seem to forget to reinstate them when the economy recovers.
Yep, like gas prices. They will jump up immediately on a report of bad news, but trickle down slowly after the issue had long since been resolved. Price hikes are a straight pipe, decreases go through a labyrinth of delays.
I've actually added up the cost of owning my truck for the past 5 years. And when I totaled up everything, it blew my mind. So I have decided to sell my truck and ride my bicycle. I live in town and work here. We are overpaying for vehicles big time
Not a bad idea, but it's such a rare few that can do that nor would want to. It sucks that you locked yourself into not leaving town, but if the need arises I guess you could always rent a vehicle for the purpose as you would have to pay their expensive insurance for the duration as it would still be cheaper than owing your own vehicle.
@@michaelb.8953 buy a prius 3rd gen. In Canada you can get a good one for 10 000 (so around 7500 us). Really cheap on gas and extreamely reliable. I have have seen many with 500 000 km and plus.
50-70k for a vehicle it's stupid
The corporate overlords are like, "Wait, you can still afford a '94 Toyota Celica today. So, what's the problem?"
Inflation.
There is no corporation without all of the people who make it run. WE have all the power if we choose to realize it and take action together. The wealthy people in this country need to be reminded of that now more than ever.
It's not the wealthy people who are driving this greed. It the Catholic Church Cartel. The Catholic Church is a Registered Limited Liability Tax Exempt Corporation. It is wealthier than the top 5 major corporations of the world. Just on record it owns 117 million acres of prime real estate and owns $10.7 Trillion Dollars of wealth. It is not required to file any financial records. Tax payers subsidize it's holdings.
The Catholic Church is largest stakeholder in Blackrock, Vanguard, Statestreet and Fidelity. It owns more stock than any entity in the world and is the driver of the mass influx of the world's poverty through its greed.
The Catholic Church is the world's largest political party, and the owner of the majority of the world's gold, land, jewels, art and precious artifacts.
Jesus saves.
And that's why you'll always be poor.
@@jasonrod4523 and that’s why you will always confuse pieces of paper with true wealth. There isn’t enough money in the world to fill that hole in your soul.
@@jasonrod4523 Once the wealthy ruling class is dismantled, we'll still welcome you with open arms, Jason. The capitalist propaganda machine is extremely effective. It took me until I was in my early 30s before I realized I was a wage slave, busting my ass for nothing. We'll be here when you finally break those mental chains.
@@jasonrod4523what is wrong with your brain?
Part of that record breaking profit has been from cutting benefits. So effectively the workforce is subsidizing the profits that the executives get bonuses for. What a wonderful game to play. Unions are needed because the greed of man is more dependable than gravity.
Pitch forks and torches usually solves this problem
look at their debt in the early 2000's it was under $50 billion now their debt is over $220 Billion. caused by regulations, Recalls, and stupid crazy lawsuits Jury's award these days. workman's comp insurance has gone up 5 times what it used to be. Car companies are in big trouble not just Toyota.
Your tie is too tight it’s cutting off oxygen to your brain@@timg2973
Thank Obama for your benefits being cut
My healthcare job doesn't offer health insurance to its employees, and I couldn't afford it if they did. I think about that as I work 6 days a week providing top-notch care to well-off seniors in well-appointed nursing facilities that could be mistaken for 5 star hotels. Meanwhile, I had to sell my house to pay my own medical bills. I have no idea what I'm going to do when I'm a senior.
So many of America's problems would disappear if working Americans were just paid a decent wage for a change. They are suffering from a half-century of stagnant and declining pay due to voodoo trickle-down Reaganomics which we were promised would lift all boats. It didn't. They are long overdue for a very substantive raise. My understanding is that if pegged to productivity (because “hard work is rewarded”) the minimum wage should be well over $20, and if it went up at the same rate as Wall Street bonuses (hardly work?) it would be over $40. Can you imagine what it would be if it went up at the same rate as CEO compensation? Over 1000%! From BusinessInsider: “The typical full-time salary in America would be $102,000 if wages had kept up with growth - but the economy has failed 90% of workers...”
So many of the world's problems would disappear if we weren't all subjugated by capitalism :)
Capitalism is pure evil trash.
Slaves harmed in ways/with whats marketed as wage? Thats not all the harm required.
What other harm should be done to continue to make and keep human slaves or to end that (if thats physically possible)?
If you really think Auto workers are not paid fairly you are clueless and out of touch.
@@Gary_M Yeah, you have to account for cost of living too but something tells me you're just as bad at math as you are at reading/comprehension :)
The reason profts don't reach workers is because those profits are the wages that aren't being paid
Cashiers at chic fil a could make around $100k a year.
It reaches your 401k
@@Pete.across.the.street it used to be a lifetime pension. But GM Ford and stellantis couldn't afford to pay it after 75 years. No more pension funds after 2008 crash
The less you pay the more you make
@@gregorylyon1004 I have a pension still. But it's a crapy union job.
Working in retail we go through the same tactics: 25cent raise, then increased health insurance cost for employees. Sometimes I think CEOs and those in charge get some sort of perverse pleasure in making it harder for struggling families.
Get a 25 cent pay raise then hours cut, when hours are already low. Then hear how the CEO makes 10 mil per year plus bonus.
Work at any corporation that's been around for decades, and talk to the old people who have been there for decades. They all have stories about surprise bonuses and prizes and bigger raises.
Companies went broke doing that crap all the time
People voted globalism 35 years ago and that globalism slashed their own pay and benefits. People have no one to blame but their own selves and they’ll keep electing globalist too because they don’t learn.
thats how it still is at the 40 year old company i work at. they take us to concerts and amusement parks
People voted for the globalism and the lowest wage a long time ago and that’s what they got.
2023 was a 12.1 percent decrease from 2022 profits for Toyota stop just saying record profits without checking first
Toyota builds junk today. I've seen several vehicles needing a transmission at less than 50K miles
im pretty sure even model T workers could afford the car
Only so Ford could keep a bunch of his money by selling his workers one of *his* automobiles ...
You should check out Dodge Bros. v. Ford in the early 1900s. Henry was as greedy as any other robber baron and a big fan of fascism as well, but when he paid his workers more so that they could afford to buy the cars they built, his competitors sued him to force him to lower wages.
Capitalism did fine as long as there was someone else from whom it could steal. Once they ran out of new world to expand into, they turned inward.
Look how far we’ve fallen
Have you seen how bad the economy is?
The model T was priced down to $290 dollars at the lowest cost. And workers were getting $5 a day working for Henry Ford
Wages have not kept up with inflation for 50 years. ALL the improvement in productivity, and then some, went to the fat cats.
It's the southern workers fault. Corps viewed the south and the southern man as inside America outsourcing. They were willing to do jobs for cheaper and they didn't want the unions. They undercut the American worker. A win for any CEO wanting to pocket more cash.
I wish you guys had more subs and views! More people need to see this and take action!
Uh no
@@jonnyfendi2003 Why?
You quit your job then like I did because of poor man wages.
$0.25 raise 80 to 100 years ago was Ballin...
But now in 2024 it like C'mon mayne, WTF
I work for HCA Healthcare. I feel this the same. Disgusting corporate greed. Shitty employee treatment.
I'm not surprised. Try to find another job if you can. You don't want to work for those pieces of trash.
That's just how it was in those days. When I was a teenager starting work in the 90's in those kinds of places it was being phased out.
Why do people who are already incredibly wealthy are increasingly more greedy and go out of their way to make life A LIVING HELL for their Workers!?
I just don't get that... 😢😤
How do you think they got there in the first place?
@@3_pancakes767 nepotism and 'legacy admissions'? 😉
Because that's literally how capitalism works. The best, most successful capitalists are the ones who maximize their profits by ANY means necessary.
@@TheAmericanAmericanthis isn't actually capitalism anymore and it hasn't been for a very long time. capitalism actually requires money in the hands of people that buy things. that's what keeps the economy moving. when you take that away, and deregulate everything you no longer have capitalism.
@@intuitionz1198 funny then, how we experienced a VERY similar scenario over a hundred years ago during the Gilded Age... and then during the Great Depression... and then during the 2008 Recession... and now today... it's almost as if capitalism thrives of a Boom/Bust cycle or something, and that the only time things somewhat stabilize is when unions are strong 🤔
Pretty sure the Toyota plant in Woodstock ON is unionized under the CAW. But then again, the government of Ontario does not help keep the unions out like the government does in Kentucky does.
This is why we have states with bigger GDP's than your whole country! We are truly a capitalist society.
Somewhere, Henry Ford must be rolling in his grave in this moment of peak "capitalism"
I'd imagine no matter where his soul lies now he'd be angrier than a poltergeist... Imagine that we've moved so far to the right of FORDISM that FASCISM is the preferred political outcome in America in 2024...
He was a Nazi, get better heroes
He wasn't a great man don't get it twisted. He didn't give a flying shit about his workers. None of these animals do.
Let's not be naive. He was as greedy and selfish as all of the filthy trash that surrounded him, and I doubt he paid all that well even by the standards of his time.
He didn't want his workers to unionize and just because he paid a slightly semi- living wage that doesn't mean jack shit.
Learn the real facts. In some occasions he meddled in their private lives and they still had to work 6 days a week, 10 hours a day I believe.
This government is set up to protect large business owners to the expense of everyone else and until something massive changes that's exactly what it will do.
@@stickynorth he wouldn't. Don't believe the hype. I don't know if my other comment is visible to you but he generally did not give an f about his workers. He was just slightly less bad than some of his contemporaries.
Henry Ford was a fascist.
It is so important today that workers unionize in any job they are in, in order to gain back the power that they lost over the last 60 years.
Power is why corporations hate unions and welfare- because poor people can reject wage slavery.
@@scifirealism5943100%
Reagan, the paid actor, made unions a fucking joke
@@scifirealism5943 Lolwhat? Poor people have even fewer choices in their lives than anyone :/
They put companies out of business with their inflated wages
Working for Werner Trucking. They have started forcing drivers to team or lease. I’ve been offered less and less on every account. Damn straight we need a Union.
Why would any trucking company want to force you to team drive ??? I ask because I have a Class A CDL myself
get off the road and find a local job i got off otr after 15 years of it
You have to always lookout for yourself and go where you skillset is the most needed. I've never been trained by my employer for the job I did, except for my first job as dishwasher at the age of 15. The head cook showed me how the dishwasher worked.
My Mother was a Paranoid Schizophrenic and my Father was an Often Absent Alcoholic. I left home with $6 and 2 changes of Clothes and I haven't been back. I served 4 years in the Military during the Vietnam War Era followed by Community College with a little help from the GI Bill. I've always worked 60-80 hours a week and worked 2 jobs. At 34 years of age I was finally able to buy a house after the mortgage interest rates dropped to about 10%. I have an Honorable Discharge and I have 2 College degrees. I had a 6 figure job and I prepared very well for Retirement. Life is great now. I've never in my 70 years been in a position that I could have afforded children.
Getting an Education and moving is required. I've had multiple employers and 3 entirely unrelated careers since my 4 years in the Military.
That's a crazy life story. Good on you for doing well even with the adversity you were faced with at a young age. So you just walked out of the house and just never saw your parent's again? I couldn't imagine a home life being that bad.
@@michaelb.8953 I didn't exactly just walk out. My Mother discovered that I'd signed up for the local Community College. When she checked with the Voices (Remember that she's a Diagnosed and Medication Non Compliant Schizophrenic) the Voices warned her that the Devil God Satan himself ran the College. She promised me that she'd see me starve to death in a Cold Dark Alley with an Aching Hungry Belly before I was going to Worship Satan. She told me to get the F**k out and not come back. Yep, it almost sounds like a made up story but it's not. I'm sure that you've seen pictures of someone half dressed on the sidewalk spinning in circles and yelling at their reflection in a Store Window. That is what SMI, Severe Mental Illness looks like.
You do what you have to do to survive. I left home that night about 09:00pm and stayed with some friends while I was getting Enlisted in the Military during the Vietnam War Era. That was followed by Community College with a little help from the GI Bill. You do what you have to do to survive.
My Mother had been dead for 20 years when I was talking to my Maternal Grandmother on the phone. She said that I should feel sorry for the family. She said that I had no idea how hard it was for them to lay awake at night when we were young. Knowing that in the morning the Sheriff was going to call them and tell them that my Mother had killed all of us. I asked how come she wasn't permanently committed and the children made a Ward of the Court. She said that would have brought too much Shame onto the family, so they just kept there fingers crossed and hoped for the best and it worked out OK. Nobody died.
I was about 30 years old when I got a Postcard from my Old Man. It had a phone number and a note to Call Collect. He wanted to know if he could reconnect with me.
Do Not Feel Sorry for me. It's been a Hell of a Ride. I have an Honorable Discharge from the Air Force and 2 College Degrees hanging in my home office. I'm a Comfortably Retired Debt Free Homeowner with a Comfortable 7 figure Financial Portfolio. Life is good at 70.
Grandpa you're so out of touch with reality of the current generations. Not even funny. You can do all of that. Right now and all that will happen to you is that you end up under a bridge If you Not inherit a home or get some support from your parents. Hint Kitchen work used to pay seven bucks when a house was 50k Now its paying nine bucks Price of everything is five times more.
It's not a rock rolling downhill, It's a Sisyphean effort of the commons to get a fair share. Pushing a boulder up the mountain, while dodging the assaults of the morbidly rich.
The economically obese. The grotesquely greedy. Affluenza is a real thing. Inherent to extreme wealth is extreme isolation and moral and spiritual stagnation or retardation. There's a paranoia that foments their every moment, that everyone they meet is as heartlessly exploitative and soullessly dehumanizing as they are. They are left trapped in their wealth, completely isolated from real human connection, unable to find meaning when struggle is removed from existence. There is no hero's journey for them, no redemption arc outside of asceticism. And they know this.
That's why rich people always make shitty art. They know they aren't worth their wealth, and they're too terrified to admit to themselves that we all already know that, because to them, they've been rewarded, their POV must be the correct one, thus they stop entertaining the thought that other people think any different than them, they are just smarter, faster, deserving because they got there first.
Their world is a world of delusion with fear at its heart. Prolonged exposure to wealth is toxic to the spirit, it's no wonder everyone jokes about tech bros being so robotic, you could literally upload your consciousness and become the ghost on the machine and lose less of your humanity. Billionaires deserve our pity and contempt, they are beyond broken. They take so much, why should anyone GIVE them anything?
Henry FORD knew that the path to success was paying his employees enough that they could afford to buy FORD cars. Toyota needs to be reminded of this wisdom
Henry Ford didn’t have to compete with Mexico or China.
People at my work (USPS) always complain about how weak our union is. As someone who just got into the company, and has seen nice financial payouts from the union, any union is ALWAYS better than no union. Whenever I'm out on the street, I see UPS working and I'm like "damn, we could be them", and then I see Amazon and I'm like "THANK GOD WE AREN'T THEM".
Sounds like you are new to Fed. Be careful, a lot of Federal agencies are violating bargaining agreement and illegally forcing early retirement or resignation. It's a good idea to get the latest bargaining agreement with your agency and read through the admittedly very long and boring contract to know your rights. Low level managers ofter don't read the contract so they might illegally order you to agree to actions barred by the contract
It all depends on your station. I've said it again and again. I go to all the union meetings and talk to my branch president on the regular. Our station's management right now is pretty decent. If they do something that violates contract, they will almost always flat out tell you, and then we go to our reps for grievances. I've heard horror stories from other stations or when our station had different management, and I'm very glad we have the people we do.
My union is holding my wages back because it is based on our collective. The people who are good at their jobs prop everyone else up and don't get compensated for it.
I worked union jobs in Canada. They were great. Good pay and benefits and job security.
@@karlabritfeld7104 is not like that in the US. No job security, they just laid noff half my office. The pay and benefits, when factored for the work you put in, are only great for those who don't do their job, nor know how to do it.
Americans are struggling and are just living to work. This is many companies and the top keep getting richer.
That's the grand economic scheme. Reaganomics. Rich get richer. Poor get poorer
Thank you for this content. We've got to wake people up and get them fighting to take back the American dream
I did fight back. I quit my job last summer. But in the few years I was there after the pandemic. I got the workers 3 dollars an hour in raises. Lol. We all put in 2 weeks notice. Lol. But I was the only one who actually quit
When a company puts profit first eventually sales will slow once they over saturate the market and the only way to keep posting record profit for their shareholders is to look at costs. And one of the biggest costs is employee pay. Eventually most if not all companies that are on the stock market will cut employee benefits and pay as much as they can get away with to keep their stock prices as high as possible. The people who made the company what it is no longer matter. They are just numbers to be shrunk over time.
A lot of companies are going to go bankrupt in the distant future. No sales
One heinous act that international conglomerates love to pull is to lay people off during the Christmas Holiday season so the executives can pad their end of year bonuses with an accounting game of showing sudden increases in profits by slashing the payroll.
The inevitable result of a society which gleefully segregates human beings into "The Deserving" & "The Disposable."
The system isn't broken.
The system is working exactly as it is designed to.
Yep! Welcome to capitalism!
Wrong. It is corporatism, which is corporate socialism @@3nertia
@@matthewronson5218 Ah, the irony of Dunning-Kruger! ROFLMEYERWIENER!
Try using a dictionary and some common sense or logic, if you're even capable ...
cap·i·tal·ism
/ˈkapədlˌizəm/
noun
an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit.
For millennia the privileged and educated have subjugated the poor and uneducated and they'll use whichever [contemporary] buzzwords get the idiots to fall on their proverbial swords for their masters - much as you're doing now ;)
We've had this same predatory system since before we even had the word "capitalism". We've tried to end it many times but the predators in charge won't allow that. That's why this list is so bloody long:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_revolutions_and_rebellions
It's important to include what actually being in a union means in terms of the workers actual pay. The second most Americans hear "union dues" they will check out. Just like with universal healthcare. You have to show the cost/benefit difference or they'll just walk away. Most Americans have no idea how much cheaper and better universal healthcare would be. All they see it their "taxes" going up a bit. But the return they get on those taxes are exponentially greater than what they are paying now for TERRIBLE healthcare.
I'd be willing to pay my monthly premium towards universal Healthcare instead of these greedy insurance companies
I hate this attitude. Americans ARE capable of handling crisis and shock, we JUST got thru a pandemic, an attempted coup and are currently dealing with being bent over by the aristocracic cartel that owns everything. for.fucks.sake.
I have yet to meet a SINGLE person that can't be shown, in 19 seconds - and fully comprehend -that if I put a new tax here, but take this one away = saves you money and that's a good thing.
Informing the population and giving up on the population are two very different things. Youre bringing up umbrage then deflecting redress, essentially saying we deserve it.
Like, yo, everyone I know that's been in a union doesn't like dues either, but that's cuz they don't like any bills, not that they dislike the union. As it were, everyone having borne witness to obvious effects of capital strike by now, also can see the necessity of the union, cuz corporations are just bloodsuckers.
Unless yr part of the ruling class, I'm frankly confused why you'd parrot their propaganda for them. I hope you're on payroll, fuck.
That’s because the government has continuously shown us that they mishandle tax dollars. The last thing people want is giving them more.
The sooner people start realizing who the enemy is the faster these issues will be resolved! It's a particular group that you can't criticize without getting cancelled. Those you can't criticize are the ones who truly hold the power!
Reading the title. This goes absolutely opposite of what Henry Ford did, when he improved mass production processes so that even the workers CAN afford the cars they made.
You realize he was the one selling them those cars right? It's like putting money back into his own pocket by selling his workers cars lmfao. Y'all are so naive ...
@@3nertia an you're TOTALLY missing the point. did you even watch the video? did you even READ the title?
@@czarcoma Did you even make a point? Because I did and you've, so far, done nothing meaningful to refute it other than use fallacious attacks. Care to abuse any other logical fallacies while we're at it? :)
@@3nertia there was nothing to refute. making fords products affordable to more people, that even his workers can afford it. that was my point, regardless if he's profiting from it or not.
@@czarcoma No, it just meant more people lined his pockets but I can understand your confusion! Thinking is hard - that's why your capitalist masters are glad you don't do it - Ford would've been proud! :)
You should read into the actual history of how Ford [mis]treated his workers though - you may be enlightened, or you may experience cognitive dissonance; either way it's sure to be amusing, for me ;)
In a perfect world, we should not need to have Unions! Unfortunately, this is not a perfect world and greedy corporations are forgetting the common man who helped to make them profitable! Unions are now more important than ever due to the disparity that is prevalent in today's business environment!
Yep.
According to capitalist theory, profit comes before anything else. Unfortunately, greed is inherent in a capitalist system. Unionising is the only way to better our lives without changing the system.
Everyone is Greedy. The more you get the more you want. It's a human condition. Lol
@@gregorylyon1004 greed is a choice.
Murder and rape are not illegal because people gain or lose money.
Women's suffrage is more important than profits or unemployment.
@@gregorylyon1004 No, greed and avarice are a choice! One must realize that money is a tool and nothing more. To be morally superior, you do not take more than you need to survive. After all, when you die, the only thing you take with you is the Greed and Avarice that plagues you! The wealth stays on the mortal plane!
And Older people wonder why this younger generation refuse to work "Regular jobs" and even do stuff like OF.
Working for a year or several years to get a 25 Cent raise is foolishness.
Working 40+ years just to get a pension/retirement check that is barely enough to live on each month is madness
What isn't mentioned is the fact that Toyota is purposefully putting factories in non-union towns and states. What is to stop Toyota from moving the factory to South Carolina, or Mexico?
The fact that they are contractually obligated by the state of Kentucky, by subsidizing costs for certain production lines with taxpayer dollars, to keep these jobs in Kentucky as a stipulation for taking said money.
@@kevinspencer4031 Seattle felt the same way about Boeing, then Boeing opened up a factory in South Carolina, moved their headquarters to Illinois, etc.
CityNerd here on UA-cam spoke of an easy to understand research study that said it is a conservative estimate that cars cost America almost 5 trillion a year. I stand with all people fighting for worker's rights, if these same workers were working on public transit they might be making more and would assumably ride for free and it would save our countries countless costs, deaths and stress.
The underlying cause of workers not making enough money is capitalism, regardless of the industry. If a country is transit-oriented and still capitalist, then the transit workers will still be making as little as possible as profits are maximized for the capitalist class. You are barking up the wrong tree.
I would think that automakers could set up shuttle buses for their workers to get to their plants and save the workers a lot of money, they could go down to 1 car or even - horrors! - none at all. But then how do they get to the tattoo parlor, bar, liquor store, cigarette store, lottery tickets?
Holy crap.
Problem with CityNerd is he is a highly paid city planner living in a downtown location. he doesn't realize how bad public transit in most area of the US is
Well, part of the fringe benefit package Brazilian Auto Assembly ( and Rubber, auto parts ) blue and white collars workers got , mostly 1st and 2nd shift , was being bused from the plant to several drop offs near home ( usually a 10 min walk at most ).
I lived , and came back to live , in a region that held the most assembly plants. Employment and pay rate is not nearly as it used to be. Be they still get busing. I did while working for an auto parts manufacturer.
The only thing workers kicked in was a token amount at the plant cafeteria , for your daily lunch or dinner tray. They would get meal Stubbs
And medical staff on premises ( usually a general practitioner and nurse ).
Today, outside manufacturing , most salaried employees get meal and transport allowances through a stored value card.
Not to be snarky, but I can't even afford to drive let alone buy a car, nobody wants to address the hardships of those on social security.
Yes it must be a real struggle.
Not to get you down but everything in this country is fucked. A lot of jobs, a lot of wages, social security, all of it. I don't want you to have a bad day but the truth is I would say, 60% of people in this country are getting fucked in one way or another right now.
Government is not a positive force in this country government is a ruthless gangster that will throw us all in a pit for the big Banks and big corporate profit and they sure as hell won't help people get decent benefits if they're on public assistance. They already destroyed most welfare and what remains is pathetic and so minimal as to be useless.
The government structure in this country only serves the top 1%, both parties are the same party behind the scenes, don't believe their lies. There's not a Democrat or Republican currently live that has any intention of trying to change this.
Soap the rest of us are stuck in constant and poverty and/or insecurity. They won't bring down the cost of rent, they won't do anything. There are some housing assistance programs out there and Senior living which is usually lower cost than elsewhere, and perhaps something like that might help you, but you have to look in your area and try to find a resources may be available.
I don't mean to end on a negative but unfortunately this is where a lot of us are at right now.
I don't even think they give food stamps to those who are on social security. These people are very evil and very sick in the head. They seem to think that a person can survive perfectly fine paying for rent and food and anything else out of 700 or 900 or $1200 a month, which in most cases and most areas is impossible. And then of course if you're on disability there are low limits to how much you can have in the bank at any given time.
So. Their agenda seems to be to kill us all through slow starvation or homelessness. I guess they feel for those who reach a certain age or those that are disabled don't have a right to live anymore. I guess that's their philosophy. And of course even for those that do work a huge number of people live under the poverty line because wages are so pathetic, and rent is going up; even some professionals don't make a secure salary anymore.
Yep it's pretty sad times. I've never seen it even near this bad in all my life.
Meanwhile we're a wash and plenty, the stores have much more than they need, but instead of donating it back to their community it all goes to waste. All that food all those useful household goods, right in the trash because there are no laws against it.
We live in mad times and I don't know when it's going to get better.
My generation won't even see social security. And I'm 50 years old. I can't collect till age 67. It will be broke long before then. Pay in for life and never receive a dime. That's my generation
@@gregorylyon1004 it's possible things could change. All it takes is Congress to act. They have all the power because they control the purse. Sadly they don't give two fuxx about the 99%. They work for Wall Street and the 1%. Everybody should be able to get a basic living stipend if they're under a certain income. We can call it BSI, basic survival income.
@@gregorylyon1004 let me know if u can't see my reply
OP: I tried to reply to you but I don't know if it posted
The Irony, in 1914 Henry Ford raised wages for his workers so they could afford to buy the very own cars they built and he also was instrumental getting workers to only work 5 days a week instead of 7 days a week, because he felt having the weekend off would inclined them to buy more stuff mainly his products.
Yep. And then his own workers got greedy years later and formed a Union. They want lifetime pensions for all the workers. Henry got screwed
Well if it's getting too expensive to live cause of inflation, the UAW just endorsed the reason why it's harder to live because of inflation.
Iwish the UAW and the workers nothing but the best of luck, go get what you people deserve
Well. They don't deserve lifetime pensions. Because that cost gets added to every vehicle made and it never comes off the price because the corporate executives Pocket it for themselves. That's why a new truck is $90K dollars. Lifetime pensions paid to retired workers
CAP THE CEO PAY TO 20 X WORKER'S SALARY AND START PAYING WORKERS A FAIR LIVEABLE WAGE!! 😤😤
To 30x, but yes, agreed.
@@AvangionQ sure, 30 x if you absolutely feel that's necessary, but it shouldn't be any more than that, let alone THREE HUNDRED TIMES MORE.
10x and you have a deal what do they deserve so much for they barely raise a pen and pad.
I remember 20 years ago, the american car companies started paying the factory workers the same as foreign cars. Typically they made twice as much. The problem is that in the 70's and 80's QC was a joke. People used to leave notes inside the car saying " this rivet is loose". So when the 90's rolled around, american car sales dropped. They fixed the QC issues, but it was too little too late. So at the the beginning of the 21st century, they could'nt fight for a pay increase.
Try 10 cents from Walgreens if you are “meeting expectations” as a non-pharmacist and zero raises for pharmacists for yearssssss
Corporate greed destroyed the American dream. We as hourly workers are replaceable in corporate eyes. They need to realize that they can’t have a company without us working who build the product. And the hard working, well knowledgeable employees can’t be replaced to get the production numbers they want. It no longer pays to break your back for companies
Working is a complete waste of time! Money does not have enough value anymore! No livable wages for over 45 years! Cost of living is suicidal and inflation completely out of control! 😶🏚😶Going off the grid and homesteading is the ONLY good option left! Working in capitalism is slavery 🏚🏚🏚FACT: US now in depression since 2019! From 1984 to 2019 we were constantly in a recession. 65+ million Americans in abject poverty and over 20 million illegal immigrants in abject poverty in USA. Capitalism is trash. Over 15 million Americans are in homelessness 🏗🏗🏗
Politicians need to pass pro union laws for that to happen
it has never paid to break your back for companines
@@Pete.across.the.street it does when they respect you as a person, most companies nowadays don’t. You put in as much effort as they put into you.
@@rennoc6478 not really, only way to get ahead is to job hop. Staying at the same job trying to move up, never works out.
My brother works for Toyota and even with his discount he can’t afford a Toyota new vehicle either.
I made car parts for cars I couldn't afford to buy. Once as a reward they bought us pizza.
Working for others, or worse corporations, just plain sucks. Endless bs and bloody nightmare dealing with demented nasty people. Waste of your life.
This is why whenever Boomers say that the next generation after them has gotten lazy and they're just overspending, you have to cite examples like this. You don't get bonuses, incentives, and kickbacks like this from corporations or companies making mega millions and billions like this anymore. All you get is your $0.25 raise, and a. Hardy handshake. The upward mobility of corporate environments is completely in the dumps, and it's no wonder they can't find reliable and steady workers who Don't feel disenfranchised by the entire system.
The worst part of it is, if you decide to just quit on it, they'll just replace you with immigrant work for 1/4 the price they're paying you. It's all by design, it's all screw over the actual American worker. There needs to be more accountability for workforces actually paying living wages, and getting reasonable incentives and bonuses to their hard-working staff.
It's the same in hospital work for us too, they took away our incentives, and have cut our pay, but still continue to give us less than a 2% raise every year with inflation in Boston being over 30% on average. It's disgusting, it's the portable, and the excuses need to stop
That's pure evil.
Why do you think all these corporation are moving to the South, Toyota just opened a plant here in Alabama. Very anti union down here, not to mention the very lacks labor laws. If not mistaken starting line wage is only $15 at Toyota here, one time even starting out at a car manufacturing plant was an instant middle class wage job.
Boomers are the most domesticated generation in history. They slept walked us into endless wars, endless inflation and their eating everyone under 50 to fund this McMansion retirement.
I am a nurse and I cant afford to live in the community I serve
Do you mind if I ask what your yearly salary is? I guess the ownership class feels only they deserve to make a good living and everyone else deserves to starve.
I was CAR-FREE for over a decade. I've been bicycle commuting for nearly 30 years, now.
I estimate I saved approximately $10K\year by not owning a car. My savings reflect that estimate.
I think you’ve saved way more than that!
Hey. I agree with you. I ride my bicycle to work all summer. I added up the cost of owning my truck over 5 years. It was mind blowing to say the least. The truck is definitely going down the road. Lol
I can't be car free but i do the same with rent free living and its enabled me to buy land and soon I'll have an rv
Americans are SO hardworking and loyal. It blows my mind why these companies don't cough up a little extra so their workers will have a living wage, healthcare, etc. because that kind of free advertizing is truly priceless. Happy American workers are the most loyal and, compared to most Europeans, they expect less. It seems like a bad idea -- in the big picture -- to disenfranchise their workers. It would be so little for them to help their workers just live comfortably. An employer that's relatively good to its employee means all their children invest and participate in the culture, etc. It affects generations -- for the better. I don't see what the end game is in treating American workers so badly. It seems like ultimately it will hurt the company.
capital is like cancer cells, just like how cancer cells reproduce uncontrollably until they kill the host, killing themselves in the process. capital is self destructive, only able to focus on short term gains, at the cost of long term stability. I believe marxists call it the "internal contradictions of capital accumulation"
Are they hard-working? Not at my Union job. If you are loyal, that's your own fault. Got to job hop until you get the wages you need
Are you writing this from 1965? It sounds like you should use the health benefits from your union job for a pyche eval. @@Pete.across.the.street
this is how things go when you have such massive wealth inequality. It NEEDS to be fixed at a systemic level. BUT when you have people voting for republican's to stagnate wages, it just makes everyone's life worse (even business's)
they are in debt at the tone of a quarter Trillion dollars. they are failing all car companies are. you cant blame a party.
@@timg2973 lol yeah, I am going to ignore this verbal diarrhea
@@AndTecks thats right cuz you go off feelings and not facts. mental illness is serious get help.
I like to share my experience about the gm plant in Spring Hill Tennessee. Worked for Ryder in gm under the union 21.00 an hour, up 3% year over year for years. Heath insurance was great. The Ryder contract because we are union we can’t lose or gain anything because our contract protects us. Gm the employees next to us now make 40 dollars an hour and now have there. Retirement restored. Non union car manufacturers don’t don’t have this bulkwald to protect you. As he said himself they will slowly take it from you.
What exactly does retirement restored mean ??? A 30 year and out defined benefit pension???? Or a 401K ??
@@gregorylyon1004 fully funded pension paid for solely by gm.
I was thinking about applying there, is it the battery plant?
@@gregorylyon1004 hmm I had replied full pension fully funded by gm. I don’t know where that comment went.
@@docholiday3800 ultimate cell is not under the Ryder banner. Ryder tried to bid on it but was out bidded. Pay should be in same pay range as Ryder but I don’t know what the benefit package of the company that runs it is.
Stories like theirs need to be heard. Thank you for sharing.
it's so horrible that a car accident can put a person out of a job because the cost is too high and employers are too unforgiving, that to have a job at all, you need to depend on your parents to give you a boost so you can get your first car and therefore your first job, and the unlucky people who can't are either unemployed or going through great lengths just to go to work everyday. the car is a worker prison, it's a ball and chain.
life in eurocentric culture for anyone not born into a supportive well off family is little more than a death march. you literally, scientifically and mathematically cant do anything (legal) to make enough money to stay alive. they force most of the population to commit crimes to be able to barely be alive in this country. while europeans never do work yet never go without necessities. yet europe has zero profitable businesses and no one works, so idk where they get all the money to throw at stuff that has no return on investment like that.
Blame capitalism
Its more a gov interventionism just like communism
@@HIDHIFDB communism lifted 800 mil out of poverty while capitalism caused billions to die my dude
@@waspwrap1235 Sure buddy sure, Hey what if we switch nationalities you can live here in the paridisiatic Venezuela and i can live in that Horrible capitalist hell, what do you say?
So you failed to mention that this guy is a TEMP worker. I worked at that plant and still live there. Family works at that plant. You have to be a temp for 2.5 years. THEN you might become an actual Toyota employee and make $30+ an hour. A lie by omission is still a lie.
What an amazing channel, always a fan and keep up the HONEST WORK FOR OUR COMMUNITIES!❤
Fantastic reporting, so wonderful to see all the hard work everyone is putting in to make things better. :)
I thought Toyota gave out big raises right after the UAW contract ramifications last year.
They did give a raise. These people are blowing smoke up your ass. Lol
Thats what they want you to think, yes, lol
"Big raises" given out voluntarily don't happen.
That was more of a job ad than anything. Also, an attempt to get ahead of unionization desires from workers.
He was making almost $15/hr 30 years ago?!
I'm hardly making $17 an hour today - this story is a story of rich people, to me
17 dollars is average today. It's sad. Retired people get more from social security handouts than we make working
@@gregorylyon1004 and that 17/hr average is only enough for us to rent one room within a shared home with roommates…
Our “average” is barely enough for rent alone - and most places somehow want an income of 3x rent.
We’re having to have roommates well into middle age and beyond. Gone are the days where the average wage is enough for even basic housing.
The entire piece is about how people who were once considered well off and, to an extent, rich are having a hard time now…
But to us? They have ALWAYS made significantly more than us.
Like you said: they get more from the social security we are paying for as retirement handouts, than we make through honest hard work.
and we keep having to pay into social security for them to be able to continue receiving their handouts - even though there is no promise of it being there for us when we retire.
Our Millennial generation is the first generation to have to pay into social security with no promise of receiving social security for our retirement. We’re required to be actively funding previous people’s retirement.
In real time.
All thanks to Reagan…
The very fact we have to pay in to it without any shred of hope of ever receiving it for ourselves - it’s baffling more people aren’t upset about this.
Try being a contract employee. There's no guarantee of a raise, no benefits low pay, and you get to watch the people who are hired in get their annual bonuses while you don't even get a verbal thank you from the boss.
Workers have given up so much in my lifetime it's depressing.
We'll all retire millionaires. By the time we're able to retire, so like 80-90, inflation/greedflation will ensure a million bucks will be like $30,000 now.
Heres a truth we all need to accept, prices will never go down, we all know this. Corporations are not going to change their stripes, so we need to collectively fight back against them and legislate what kind of society all this effort is for. Because leaving it on its own, deregulated, means life will just get harder and harder every year. We have 43 years of first hand evidence now. Call a spade a spade. I dont want any fucking pizza parties, i want financial security, health care, and collective achievements we can all be proud of, like landing in Mars/Ceres/Titan. Not making the first Trillionaire.
That's messed up
Look at the Legacy workers from the Big 3 automakers decades ago. $20 an hour in 1995 and a lifetime pension upon retirement. And the truck was 20 grand to buy one brand new. Those days are gone
I'm so glad we didnt raise people's wages. That way the prices for goods wouldn't increase as well. /s
SMH. Okay so wages are supposed to increase to keep up with inflation. You were always supposed to be able to get by on your job. The reason prices go up is not because wage increase this is proven by the fact wages have been stagnant for awhile while prices skyrocket. Companies need to be reigned in their greed is monstrous. They will raise prices regardless of wage.
@@KombatW0mbatthat’s the joke
@@KombatW0mbat wages are not supposed to keep up with inflation. Wages have gone up, but inflation is higher so buying power has shrank. You are not gauranteed a living wage... or anything for that matter.
Public companies are legally required to put stockholder returns first. Increased wages for employees is counter to that.
ALL WORKERS UNITE! Solidarity, friendship, family and love!!
United yes but staying away from communism that thing is worse that the actual situation
I work for Toyota and they keep coming out to me every day begging for me to join them and I keep telling them no why won’t you guys accept no for an answer and just let me work and let me do what I want to do
I hope you guys can unionize and get better pay and benefits for you and your families.
Go for it Toyota. Form a Union and send your jobs to Mexico when the plant closes. Pablo the Mexican will definitely thank you for sending him a decent job so he can feed his 10 kids. Lol
The problem is that every corporation sees workers as slaves and property and they want to keep the vast majority of the profit they make to themselves, their top executives, and their shareholders. Nobody else.
Even those wages and the giveaways that the gentleman at 2:00 what's discussing was nothing but a crumb off of the masters table. I know to him it seemed like a nice gesture and a sizable award, but it was still next to nothing compared to the overall largest and profit that company had made that year. Even back then the company was taken advantage of and stiffing their workers, it just didn't seem that way to that guy because his usual we've all been socialized to accept so little and so when they give just a little bit more than we expect we suddenly feel like the heavens have shined upon us. I mean in the 90s $15 an hour STILL wasn't very much. I guess the cost of living where he lived was low so he could have a reasonable standard of living on that, but the truth is, even back then he was taking it raw from the company. The executives were making six and seven figure paychecks while he was barely topping out at $30 or 50K a year IF he was lucky. So even back in the good old days it WASN'T that good- it was still highway robbery. These corporations will NEVER treat you right or give you anything more than crumbs unless they are legally forced too. It's ALWAYS been a scam. It's always been a criminal enterprise, from Day 1.
Even though the workers are 99% of the reason why the company is successful and profitable, by some sick twist of logic corporate bigwigs don't think workers deserve anything. The workers do almost everything. The c-suite is dependent upon the workers, and yet the workers are the first to go out the window when they need to make "cutbacks". These places just see workers as their objects, as their meat robots to be used as needed and thrown away when necessary. They're angry they even have to pay them at all.
They have this sociopathic sense of entitlement that tells them that they're entitled to everything, and the workers are just something that they have to use in order to get it, but in reality if the world was fair to the poor suffering business owner, then they would bring slavery back so they (corporate boss) could get their labor for free again which is what they really want.
Because even though the collective efforts of their employee base is the ONLY reason the company exists and is staying alive, somehow the company brass who lives off of these selfsame producers doesn't feel they (workers) deserve to see the profits their work has generated.
Everybody else in a company is literally a parasite, wholly dependent on the collective body of the workers, including the upper management, and yet company ownership rarely if ever feels they deserve to be compensated accordingly.
Such is the crime and the gangster nature of every large corporation.
A large company is nothing more than organized crime masquerading as a legal entity.
Its workers are robbed blind everyday and everyone else runs off with the loot. Since this is legal it's considered fair and just; or at least, that's what they keep trying to make us believe. Apparently their constant non-stop brainwashing efforts in western society have yielded great results. Every time we talk about Labor Justice it never fails to provoke one of the brainwashed dogs piping up in opposition- and you just know that fool is either unemployed or makes shit money. The only difference is, we have enough self-respect to know when we're getting fucked, and the other guy seems to love it, as he doesn't seem to want better for himself or for his fellow workers/professionals out here.
In a just world, this would never happen (corporate abuse) because it would be seen for what it is, massive robbery, but there's some kind of evil spirit or dark magic that holds this world together and the good guys don't rule here, the criminals do; the users, the killers, the exploiters, and so on; and all Western governments seem to serve this goal. Hopefully that won't always be true, but that certainly true today, and it's been true for a long time. I mean any so-called divine power didn't seem to care that the new world was being plundered and centuries of slavery and all kinds of crimes against humanity were being happily carried out by many powerful interests; as they are today still.
If by chance we can get real leftists into office we can start instituting hard and fast labor laws that can mandate labor protections of all sorts, but until we do this kind of nonsense will just continue.
I read that whole thing. THAT IS TRUE PASSION.
Evil actively goes out snd destroys good, but good waits until evil attacks to combat it. That is why we all need to be John Wayne. Fight tyranny against all always, not just when it comes for you. Your writing is so spot on.
Leftist are part of the problem. The Uniparty wants slave wages. Democrats are only pro labor when it’s below a living wage. Both parties represent the same oligarchs. Thinking “I just need MY guy in office” is immature and naive. Red and Blue serve the same masters, and those masters want SLAVES.
He was paid $14.00/hr in 1990s as a rookie.
$30/hr in todays money. 😮
Where has this country gone to…
We took a pay cut while executives pay increased by 300%
Put it together one peice at a time and it won't cost you a dime. -Johnny Cash
On a more serious note it makes me furious seeing how poorly workers are treated when they are the ones making the money.
We could have our country back tomorrow if we were willing to unite and put our 2nd amendment to good use. But sadly, that won't happen.
You'd be united in prison, or a graveyard.
What is disappointing is that Americans allowed this to happen because a lot of them think they’re temporarily embarrassed millionaires. I hope people start acting their wage and demand more dignity.
The fact that a company can make NET profit of $77 Billion in 2023......and they can't even pay their workers enough to be able to afford the non-luxury sedan vehicle they assemble at the plant.....is absolutely outrageous
Thanks for your work MPU. Best of luck to all these union efforts. Cheers
It is not fair on the factory workers.
Especially sad when its workers can't even afford its products. And we're NOT talking BMW, Mercedes or Audi.. These are everyone cars.. At least in theory...
I have twice worked for a union and I found their leaders were more greedy than the CEOs for the companies I worked for. Never again.
Average CEO pay has risen 1000% in the last decade, worker pay has risen 15% but with inflation they have less spending power.
Makes it seem like you’re making up a negative experience to back up your ideology because the actual numbers show tell a very different story
Yep. The old canard or a fallacious argument trotted out for decades about uncited CEO pay vs workers pay as "evidence" in that Union echo chamber, as if everyone should get the pay of a CEO and as if one slice of many factors is the end all, be all, of their argument's fallacy.
"Because there is SOME truth this statement, everything that is regurgitated after that feeble assertion must always be true", typically followed by another fallacious
Then dismisses your stated actual experience, giving YOU the negative connotations of your own struggle to back up her ideology, aka projecting.
You'll never hear about the pension funds pilfered and the Unions direct ties to Organized crime syndicates from Union operatives - they have their own vested and undisclosed interests.
NIce try to unionbust. You failed. Don't try again
I’ve worked as a contractor at a Fortune 500 company for years instead of as a full time employee, no degree yet. The only reason I’ve stayed is bcs it pays me enough to pay my bills and college. I hope to God this works even if my future isn’t blue collar bcs that’s all my family has ever been and even tho I’m technically white collar we’re starting to see the negatives of this system too.