Minimum wage works. Here is an article from the german newspaper FAZ (leans economically right) that presents a study that shows the low income sector has shrunk since the implementation of minimum wages.
Germany before had one of the biggest low income sectors in the western world.
And no, the unemployment rate did not skyrocket. In fact, Germany is as close to full employment as it gets.Germany is as close to full employment as it gets.
I wonder what they do in 21st century when everything is mechanized and automated like never before.
That’s literally the exact same thing they said about the 20th century.
UBI and nordic-level welfare should have been implemented in 20th century.
The democrats have been trying to raise minimum wage for idk 15 years now, they just haven’t been given a functional enough majority to make it happen at the national level, though they have absolutely done so at the state level. I think your complaint might be misdirected, and could better apply to the fundamental structure of our bicameral legislature, and especially at the filibuster rule that is getting increasingly unpopular with senators themselves. When the filibuster is gone sometime in the next 6 years I expect, you will see a noticeably more functional senate.
I am thoroughly confused as to why this comment is getting downvotes. It corrects the misinterpretation of the poster in a polite and civilized manner, while bringing forth interesting discussion as to what the future may hold and possible solutions to our country’s predicament.
Unfortunately I think a lot of people find it easier to feel nihilistic than recognize that there is a path forward
Dare I say… Democracy is a scam.
This is incorrect and lazy.
Criticism of the comic aside, two party system is still definitely undesirable. I believe it is a side effect of first past the post voting. What we really should implement is ranked choice voting. It gets rid of the dumb “voting third party is voting for [opposite party]” argument by letting you vote for who you want guilt-free and falling back on your lower-ranked votes if #1 wasn’t popular enough.
But you know, this will always meet resistance because politicians would lose their jobs for implementing this.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/STAR_voting
STAR voting allows you to say “I refuse to vote for this candidate at all,” which certain implementations of RCV do not. It can and has ended up with candidates no one wanted winning in Australia, and other places that have implemented RCV
STAR Voting fails the Later-No-Harm criterion, which makes it a no-go for me. Any voting system that can have lesser ranked candidates siphoning off support from higher ranked candidates is, for me at least, a fundamentally broken system that ultimately just reverts to FPTP when people start bullet voting to avoid that flaw.
222 downvotes lol this really struck a nerve in liberals huh
It’s just shallow and disappointing.
Your idea of what politics is about has to be bigger than shitposting and trolling.
Sir, this is a c/memes
Oh phew, I was worried. Okay okay, what year is it? Do you have any plutonium? I need to get back to my dimension and you’ve been so helpful so far
Sorry that you expected a 200 page analysis of politics from a meme
I love this, nobody can actually defend this as a healthy way of engaging with politics.
We all agree with this premise and mostly that the FPTP system is a large contributing factor to the TPS saying how it has based on seeing how places that don’t have a TPS appear to do so because the have different voting systems like different iterations of ranked choice voting.
What I am wondering is what ‘we’ think the best way to implement voting would be?
Can’t remember which South American country did it, might have been Venezuela, but at least one of them has an official app. You register to vote on your 18th birthday, and get daily notifications about the various proposals at each level of government that applies to your address. They also created a team to boil the proposals down into plain language. You vote personally and the government has to, in theory, listen to the will of the people.
Of course that system will still be susceptible to propaganda, as evidenced by the fact that whatever country did it, still has some serious issues.
I was curious about the app you mentioned and understanding how they solved the privacy & anonymity requirements.
This is the only similar app I could find but it’s not exactly as you mentioned. Can it be this one?
If not I would be glad if you can share any reference to the one you mentioned. That would be really helpful.
Sorry. I remember the article from around 2016. I searched as well, but came up with way too much noise to find the actual one that I was referencing
Thanks for looking. Appreciate it. 🙂
Democrats keep trying to increase minimum wage, read a fucking News source.
Minimum wage and living wage are two very different things. Most Democrats absolutely do not support a living wage, and don’t try to lie to us about how they do.
The problem is, we need caps on profit margins on necessities, and to stop the making of things we need for basic survival investment opportunities.
But that would be difficult to get done. So they go for the low hanging fruit of wages, which never permanently solve anything because they’ll just keep raising prices under this scamflation cycle we’ve been in since COVID.
Every service that is necessary for human survival should have a not-for-profit vendor.
They just repealed right to work in Michigan, and Meijer employees presumably used that leverage to significantly improve wages and benefits.
Right to work is another BS right wing policy that needs to die. I put in less than two weeks notice, I’m an asshole; company drops me in an instant, business as usual.
“Right to work” as the name of an anti-labor policy sure has a dystopic newspeak feel.
When will they finally increase it to something plausible, and then appoint some department to review and increase it in line with inflation every year according to XYZ rules.
Seems silly to need acts of congress to increase it every time.
When all it takes to stop them is the nonbinding opinion of an unelected advisor, are they really trying, though?
Or a single House speaker that refuses to even bring it up for a vote. Or or a dipshit that brings it up for vote, then filibusters their own bill (coughMcConnellCough)
The obvious fact that Republicans are much worse doesn’t make it ok for the Democrats to not fight for the things the overwhelming majority of their voters want.
Have you tried voting harder this midterm?
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Maybe if Democratic legislators vote harder, the Republicans won’t be able to stop them!
It should be like one of those buttons you hit with a hammer at a fair. Higher up it goes, the more your vote counts!
The parliamentarian’s word is law, baby.
If only people could eat Democrats’ excuses, no one would ever go hungry.
Sure they do. Keep believing, any day now…
- puts fingers in ears and starts screaming “lalalala…”
puts fingers in ears and starts screaming “lalalala…”
Lmfao, no you -
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/10/14/liberalism-and-fascism-partners-in-crime/
https://libcom.org/article/capitalist-democracy-illusion-choice
You’re correct, but Lemmy seems to be full of liberal morons who think they’re leftist simply because US conservatives are so far right.
They aren’t leftists. They’re moron incrementalist Liberals who don’t understand how CONSTANTLY capitulating to fascists is in fact NOT progressive. At all.
Having fun in fantasyland?
There’s an $18 minimum wage in Denver, for instance. Republicans sure as hell didn’t vote for that.
My home state of Oregon mandates a minimum wage of $13.20 in rural areas and $15.45 in the Portland metro area, and it adjusts to inflation. Oregon has been governed by Democrats for years. Thanks to these and other laws, I can go down to a McDonald’s and get a job that pays $16-17 an hour to start in my city. TriMet in Portland is always advertising a $28 starting wage for bus drivers (no CDL) up to $37 after three years. Rent in my city is $800-900 for a one-bedroom flat with excellent free public transit and fair bikeability. Fuel prices are reasonable. We have strong protections for tenants against abusive landlords. Strong anti-discrimination laws. Everyone has paid sick days. No regressive sales tax. Working-class people can afford a roof over their heads and decent food on the table.
Check out the neighbouring state minimum wages.
- Washington (Democratic government): $16.28
- California (Democratic government): $16.00
- Nevada (divided government): $12.00
- Idaho (Republican government): $7.25
But yeah, keep harping on about how both parties are the same and that Democrats don’t do more to help the working man.
“Look at how well the democrats allow the capitalists to treat me as they ensure they can continue to exploit my labour for their own profit uninterrupted!!11”
(seriously - start by looking at those companies profit margins for a tip of the iceberg idea of just how much they are making off of your labour before you do a happy dance over a couple of dollars more they’re willing to throw your way to keep you from demanding actual freedom)
But yeah, keep harping on about how represented you are in the sham they call electoral politics…
I think OP is just saying that democrats are better than Republicans. We have multiple parties in my country but people vote for tree ones that support capitalism and rich people. We also have people that support a politician that was found guilty of fraud.
Rich people have power so they can do what they want.
OK so one of the slavers is nicer than the other… You’re still owned by slavers. Holy fuck, Liberals are just as fucking dumb as conservatives.
Arguments against electoral democracy by so-called socialists always boil down to “it’s not perfect so why bother”.
Okay, so keep complaining. Your vision of a better tomorrow isn’t going to magically come true if you complain hard enough. You can help make it come true only by participating in the political system we have today. Even if you think it doesn’t work, you have no choice but to participate anyway and hope you are wrong.
This is how I got banned from Hexbear. I told someone “You can either participate in the current system or plot to overthrow it. Are you working with the next Lenin or Mao, or merely fantasizing about it?”
So what about you? What are you doing to build the future you want?
I’m not complaining to complain and I’m not saying don’t vote. What the flying fuck are all these assumptions coming from you?
What I’m saying is the two party system gives you a choice between two enemies. Yet you dumbasses CONSTANTLY pretend that Democrats good just because Republicans bad.
A vote doesn’t, and SHOULD NOT, come with an ass kissing.
Funny meme, doesn’t make me wrong. The comic itself agrees with me.
Funny how people deny the truth when it’s not stated as a joke. Almost like you all aren’t actually processing the message. Democrats are liberals. Democrats are still allowing Republicans to keep your wages down.
Isn’t California full of homeless people?
Yes, and that’s because the progressive and left-wing of the Democratic Party is losing a power struggle against the centrists and neoliberals. If you want to change that, be sure to vote in the party primary elections and to encourage everyone you know to do the same.
Have you ever been to California actually? Yes the situation is bad but not everywhere is California is like that.
California is full of … people.
That’s waaaay more complicated than just minimum wage. $16 isn’t even a living wage here in L.A. where we’ve got lots of homelessness.
We ought to employ Land Value Taxation to fund the basic necessities for survival, and the remainder should go towards a UBI.
For what it’s worth, the minimum wage in LA will rise to $17.28 in July of this year. I get that’s still not very high by LA standards, but I stress that progress is better than stagnation.
That’s actually better than I thought. People in other states are so used to the dysfunction that they literally don’t believe these things are possible.
Good news doesn’t spread as quickly as bad news and rage bait. “McDonald’s Workers Can Afford Flat on 1/3 of Income” isn’t a good headline but “Families Increasingly Priced Out By Red-Hot Housing Market” does.
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I think that’s why it’s important to encourage participation in the primary process. There are the neoliberals mixed in with the social democrats and actual socialists. We should be voting for and supporting the latter in the primaries if we want to influence the party in a leftward direction.
My home state of Oregon mandates a minimum wage of $13.20 in rural areas and $15.45 in the Portland metro area, and it adjusts to inflation.
I was part of that! I was on a team that made a web site that visualized the effect on poverty levels on a county-by-county basis when the minimum wage was at different levels. It made the need for a split minimum wage obvious, since the minimum wage that is necessary for metro areas is inappropriate for rural areas. Rumor has it that the legislature used it in the decision making to some degree.
🫡
None of these are living wages. You don’t get a cookie for doing the bare minimum of keeping people out of effective slavery. Give me a fucking break.
Your other comment says—
So pathetic how you claim to support democracy but shit on anyone who criticizes your precious political party and then make juvenile excuses for doing so.
I don’t. But it’s undeniably true that one party is much better, in my opinion, than the other. They aren’t a perfect party but to equate them with the Republican Party simply because they aren’t doing a perfect (or in many cases, even a good) job is stupid.
Right now, the choices are “bare minimum” or “nothing at all”. These choices are not the same. One is clearly better.
If you would like a more nuanced opinion then read carefully the rest of my comments in this thread. I’m not going to repeat my points for every person who comes along with the same retort and insult thinking they’ve “got” me.
Why are they trying, and not doing tho?
Republicans
Republicans aren’t stopping states like NY or CA from passing a living wage. Democrats are stopping that.
So sick of the straw men and blatant gaslighting coming from the democratic party. Anything to excuse why corporations keep getting their way with Dems. Meanwhile it takes 10 fucking years to increase the minimum wage in a blue state.
Exactly. Two party system is a scam.
No, one of the two parties makes posts like this to make stupid people say “both sides” whilst said party passes laws to suppress black votes, discriminate against gay folk, and ban abortions.
Quit trying to “both sides”. It’s what stupid people say.
But I’m not saying that. I’m saying that a two-party system is stupid. And I’m saying that as a citizen of a country that has 9 political parties. edit: to make it clear, if I’d be an American, I’d definitely vote for Dems, no question about it.
Take a civics class
Minimum wage is not the same thing as a living wage. The minimum wage should be a living wage, but it isn’t.
See: NY. We just got our minimum wage increase and it’s 15-16/hr depending on where you are in NY… That’s what we were fighting for more than ten goddamn years ago. $15-$16/hr is an absolute joke on Long Island and NYC. I finally managed to claw my way up to 60k/year and as a single guy the thought of homeownership on long Island is as fantastical and far-fetched as a unicorn, forget about 15/hr… You can’t even rent most illegal apartments at that income alone.
The conversation needs to be about what constitutes a living wage and how to calculate it at a given time for each area not just blanket minimum wage increases to specific numbers that sound nice to chant like “fight for fifteen.”
Achieving a living wage starts by raising the minimum wage.
Lol getting down voted out of pure tribalism. The complete unwillingness of their base to seriously criticize Democrats is such a massive fucking turn off to voting for them.
The democrats seem more… ribbed in this drawing.
bOtH fUcKiNg SiDeS is an attitude that can suck my wang
I’ve just started blocking these people
When it comes to the Federal minimum wage, they are equally bad, as is the point of the comic.
Really? Are democrats opposed to changing that, or just not prioritizing it because it can get complicated and there are a million other concerns?
Are democrats opposed to changing that, or just not prioritizing it because it can get complicated and there are a million other concerns?
Are those “concerns” bigger than the concern of Trump winning the general election? Make a choice. Raising the federal minimum wage in order to avoid losing to Trump sounds like a bargain to me.
It’s the first part. The vast majority of Democrats are “moderate” and “corporate captured.”
It’s not a “both sides are equally bad in all respects.” It’s “both sides will not give us a change of law to enable a living wage be the standard.” It’s only speaking to that one aspect.
It might also be a complicated topic, but you don’t solve a complicated topic by never starting on it.
Then spend some of that energy telling moderates to start compromising with leftists and progressives if they don’t want to lose to fascists a second time.
Sadly, while we would value your support for stopping multiple genocides by voting against Trump, your numbers are far outweighed by that of moderates. I am sorry you can’t comprehend very basic cause and effect and if that costs us our country, I guess you can rest well being so stupid you won’t think you were part of the problem.
Well which is it? If our numbers are insignificant then we can’t be part of the problem because we have no effect. Pick a lane.
🚫 Both sides are equally bad.
✔️ Both sides are bad, but not remotely equally so.
Well yeah, if you’re going to actually describe reality instead of erasing it, I’m on board
This is correct. Not everything has to be black and white
It’s more of a light grey vs dark grey.
I would say medium-light grey and the deepest black imaginable
“Blacker than the blackest black” black?
I’d say that’s more accurate.
REEEEEEEEE
Why am I “throwing my vote away” for voting third party?
Go find one of the millions of times this has been explained already.
Its always refreshing to look at the american political system if i am disappointed by the German one. Sure our sucks too, but at least we have more then 2 unvotable major parties.
In the German system (or any other multiparty system), voters can effectively punish a political party without wasting their vote, because there is a lot of overlap between the parties.
If you don’t like the current coalition but are a left-leaning person, you can vote for Die Linke. You might not agree with all of their positions but you at least can agree with some of them. Even if that is not palatable if you previously voted SDP you can switch your vote to Green or vice versa to punish the specific officeholders representing your constituency. If you voted for the FDP last time, maybe try Union next time. There are many ways to do this, and overall I think it makes the parties themselves more accountable to the voters because voters defecting their party list votes can drastically change the makeup of the Bundestag.
Similarly, right-leaning UK voters are punishing the Conservative Party by threatening to or actually voting for Reform candidates. Scots can punish the SNP by voting Labour.
You can’t do this in the US. In the USA, the only recourse the voters have over the parties is to vote out undesirable candidates through primary elections so that the party cannot nominate them. This works alright, sometimes, but it is not an effective way to punish party leadership for bad decisions, and many primaries are uncompetitive anyway.
I see the more severe problem in the two party system, that is enforced by the weird voting process: https://www.history.com/news/two-party-system-american-politics
There are two sides, but you can alter that a bit if you get your asses to the primaries.
Lol, my primary choices 2024:
Biden
Democrats completely gave up on local elections in a purple county because it’s in a red state.
There are lots of things to vote for besides president. Frankly, if your political involvement is limited to caring only about the President once every 4 years, then you have no right to complain. The only way to change things is to get more involved, not less.
People are downvoting you but you’re absolutely right.
You chuckleheads don’t even know what the complaint was.
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Meanwhile in California there are a ton of choices, but the party has already decided who’s gonna be the candidate in so many other states, that we don’t count.
Congress matters way more for minimum wage than president.
In Cali we can choose between Porter and Lee for (somewhat) pro-labor policies. Schiff is a standard Clinton OligoDem.
I prefer Lee’s policies, but am worried that she and Porter will split their votes and put Schiff through.
