• GraniteM@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Suppose that, at a given moment, a certain number of people are engaged in the manufacture of pins. They make as many pins as the world needs, working (say) eight hours a day. Someone makes an invention by which the same number of men can make twice as many pins as before. But the world does not need twice as many pins: pins are already so cheap that hardly any more will be bought at a lower price. In a sensible world, everybody concerned in the manufacture of pins would take to working four hours instead of eight, and everything else would go on as before. But in the actual world this would be thought demoralizing. The men still work eight hours, there are too many pins, some employers go bankrupt, and half the men previously concerned in making pins are thrown out of work. There is, in the end, just as much leisure as on the other plan, but half the men are totally idle while half are still overworked. In this way, it is insured that the unavoidable leisure shall cause misery all round instead of being a universal source of happiness. Can anything more insane be imagined?

    –Bertrand Russell, In Praise of Idleness

  • ZkhqrD5o@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    IMHO: UBI would force companies to pay employees properly. Because the employees would not be forced to agree to shit conditions and scams.

  • DigDoug@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    I was looking for a job and then I found a job

    And heaven knows I’m miserable now

  • MrOtingocni@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Man, I feel this. Either face losing everything you own, starvation and homelessness or stuff your misery down deep and drag your sorry ass to yet another shift at the dream crushing factory.

  • Ex Nummis@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Having just gotten an offer after 9 months of being jobless, I can relate to this. Although the 1k/month hike vs my previous job is a nice incentive.

  • baggachipz@sh.itjust.works
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    2 days ago

    I could probably retire (I’m old) if it weren’t for needing health care. It would be so nice to live in a proper country.

  • tidderuuf@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Those luscious green hills over there? Oh that’s where the Epstein-class billionaires get to enjoy watching us fight each other over scraps they send down to us.