We're had two waves of layoffs in the past two months, with no notice each time. Never any management always workers. They did this at the end of the day on a Friday, not even at work. They texted us about an hour after we got home.

Corporate is coming Tuesday, I guess to gut the rest of the building. Everyone left is scrambling to get new jobs because we don't believe for a moment that we're gonna stay open.

The fact the manager who had to get a dozen people to explain she can't chain an emergency exit shut today and has never done any work besides complaining about our work gets to keep her job is insane

Been interviewing at entry-level places over the past few months and yesterday I had an interview for a general labor position stocking product in a warehouse and assisting delivery of products to work sites...16$ an hour...Guy tells me it'll be close to 3 weeks before I hear back cause he's got around 20-30 interviews to go through. Cool I get it. But let me just say to you guys WHAT'S GOING ON? How is anyone surviving right now?

This is just ONE of the dozens of places I've interviewed with over the last few months where they either stated before I asked or when I asked about following up the same exact thing...Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful for the job I have now but this shits insane to think that it's really THAT BAD out here.

Moral of the story if you have a job currently, think twice before you do anything you might regret cause this shits bad man just be humble and rough it out for a bit you'll be fine.

Due to a payroll issue, I wasn't paid on time. Waited three weeks just to find out I had an extra $400 taken out. I can't afford to not have that money right now.

edit: oops, I'm using taxes and withholdings interchangeably when really I mean just withholdings. I know I'll get the money back in April, but that's a long ways away.

After almost 15 years, I put in my two weeks! This might have been the only job I was getting paid less the last few years. My colleague asked “Who is going to run the office now” and I said “Honestly, not my problem anymore”. I have the privilege to not worry about money in the short term but I feel SOO free!!! The toxicity, being called derogatory names, doing three jobs, is now over at the end of the month!

We're not allowed to have coffee during work. I've never experienced this at a job, some have even sent me to the machine because I can't function without. It was a big problem I was quickly chugging coffee while waiting for glue to dry.

I work in a niche trade, so it's not easy to find a job elsewhere. I also want to work here because I can acquire the skills I want to develop more. They are also lucky to have me, because I have experience which is pretty rare for someone my age. I worked at a world class company but I had to sacrificing a 20h commute, so they really want me there too with the experience I have. They haven't found anyone the past 4 years.

It's sad because I am new at this job and close buddies with one of the chefs and this new boss we have is a terrible micromanager. I've even found fault in the stories he tells me, he says he has been working there for 4 years already (not true, 2 years) and some other stuff, not going into detail here. A lot of people have left because of him and the place has changed in a bad way.

The coffee is something minor, but I have been warned by a lot of people about him ever since I started. I will be compliant until I signed the contract after my first month. It's sad to see how my co-workers who have been loyal for 10 years are frightened by this micromanaging liar. Some are also too conditioned to be compliant with working overtime every day. I'm not afraid of losing my job, I have some other people jumping waiting for me to return to their company. I won't quit, but it's hard seeing this dynamic with a boss you can't trust. He also set the clock three minutes earlier for some weird reason. Everyone keeps changing it back, but each time he changes it back apparently.

Pictures include just some of the mold and bug infestations I have found around this building. For some context, I work at a dog daycare in Atlanta, and I have just been promoted to general manager. Before moving to this building, I worked at the best dog daycare in the United States (in my opinion) for five years. My company bought out another failing business and put in new managers at all of the new buildings we aquired. I have the divine pleasure of being assigned the building seen in these pictures.

There is black mold in five notable areas including the break room, two different places in the medium dog lodging area, and the dog food prep area. The ceiling is falling down from water damage and what seems like the weight of an animal living in the ceiling. There are cock roaches and water bugs living in the walls in the playrooms and boarding areas. The employees told me that they found roaches in dog food and everywhere you could think.

The reason I feel tricked is because I was given a tour that glazed over all of major problems, and I feel as though the district manager purposely misrepresented the condition of the building to trick me into accepting the position.

When I complained to the district manager and owners of the business, they implied that I was being dramatic. I received platitudes like, "Rome wasn't built in a day," and shit like that. As though the founders of Rome discovered a shittier Rome to improve before building around the mess. I understand it's a comment on the speed of our processes and not a comparison, but I feel as though there are some things that need to be addressed posthaste.

I have employees with kidney disease and asthma having long term exposure to black mold for 40+ hours a week. It just feels like nothing is being taken seriously. From someone who picks up dog shit for a living, this place is disgusting.

The old manager used to sage the place to try and "get rid of the demons." If anyone saw the condition of this building for themselves, I'm highly confident they would leave a bad review and never come back.

I asked how they got around tour parents complaining, and they told me that they just show them the cleanest parts of the building quickly as to avoid inspection. This feels like we are tricking customers in the same way I was tricked, and I'm absolutely at my wit's end. Am I overreacting?

20f

i have been looking for a job for like 5 months now and this was my first actual interview. everything seemed fine and i was asked to come in to trial today for an hour. this was for a music store. i was told to look around and tidy up things that seem messy, i quickly realized the things that had been seemingly intentionally out of place to see of i would notice, thats fine, so i went around tidying and was told about 15 minutes into my trial not to just tidy but to also "fix" things. confused i asked the manager who was training me what was meant by fixed and he looked at me as though i was stupid and abruptly told me to just "fix it" he then obviously frustrated with me tidys the display i was supposed to notice was out of place without even knowing the layout of the store yet.

i was also told that he would be observing how i interacted and greeted customers when they walked through the door, so for every person who walked in i greeted with "hi, how are you? is there anything i can help with today?" trying to not be too overbearing because i know how much others and myself hate being hovered in a store. i was told soon after that i should wait a minute after greeting the customer with "hi" and asking "do you need help". when a customer asked me if they have any music recommendations for a birthday present to a friend i explained it was my first day and redirected them to the manager, after said customer left i was then informed that i shouldn't be redirecting to the manager and i should be giving my own suggestions. bare in mind i have literally been in here for like 30 minutes or under at this point.

anyway bad vibes all around and i dont think i got the job anyway. think i dogged a bullet, but also feeling guilty and weak for not sucking it up considering ive been looking for a job for so long and now i maybe get one i dont want it just because i felt uncomfortable. my previous 2 jobs i ended up being treated quite poorly and walked all over due to me being young and at the time in a rural town.

not devastated just sad and disappointed in myself. i tried my best

Anybody else notice that those that lack people skills the most often move up faster, like straight up assholes and treat people like garbage. I worked with a guy like that before and the company was trying to force an upper management position on him, I'm working with a manager now whose peers said over and over again that he shouldn't be allowed to manage anyone but here we are and now everyone under him is trying to find another job. I see it with so many companies if you want to move up to management just become a complete deutsch bag, you don't even have to be good at your job just belittle someone in front of your coworkers.

Thirteen workers have been killed in Chile’s mining industry so far this year. With more than two months remaining, the death toll is fast approaching the 20 fatalities recorded in 2025, itself the highest figure since 2014. Seven of the dead were killed in six accidents just between September 23 and October 14. The carnage is the direct product of a profit drive that has intensified to the point of outright criminality, and it has created a situation that the ruling class, the government and the trade union apparatus all recognize as explosive.

The dead are not statistics. They are workers, each with name, age, workplace and an employer. They are:

- Marco Monsalve Farfán, who died on January 16 after an accident on January 12 in the Silo 4 sector of the Potrerillos Smelter, part of the Salvador Division of the state-owned National Copper Corporation (Codelco), in the Atacama Region.

- Heriberto Ossandón, 74, who died on May 10 in a cave-in at a mining site in the El Huacho sector of Combarbalá, Coquimbo Region.

- A worker of approximately 60, who died in early June after being struck by an explosion during blasting operations at the El Aguilucho mine in Andacollo, Coquimbo Region.

- A worker who died on August 7 at the Dulcinea mine in Tierra Amarilla, Atacama Region.

- A 56-year-old worker who died on September 15 after being struck by a rockfall while performing bolting work at the Zulema mine in Taltal, Antofagasta Region.

- Carlos Humberto Rodríguez Soto, who died on September 23 while performing maintenance on a mining shovel at Minera Escondida, the world’s largest copper mine, operated by the Anglo-Australian giant BHP, in the Antofagasta Region.

- Waldo Castillo Barraza, 49, a mechanical maintenance technician employed by the contractor Berliam, who died on October 1 in the crushing and materials handling sector of Codelco’s Radomiro Tomic Division in the Antofagasta Region.

- Nelson Torres Parra, 46, a specialist operator for the contractor IMOPAC, who was found dead next to a drilling rig on October 6 at the Los Colorados mine in Vallenar, Atacama Region, operated by the Pacific Mining Company (CMP).

- Guillermo Guajardo López, 53, and Diego Ponce Ponce, 34, both employed by the subcontractor San Lorenzo, providing services to the contractor Aura, were killed on October 11 when a snow and mud avalanche struck the section of the open pit mine at Codelco’s El Teniente Division in the O’Higgins Region where they were conducting inspection work.

- A 66-year-old worker, identified by the initials R.A.B.Á., who died on October 13 after falling into a rock crusher at the Nueva California mineral processing plant in the Aucó sector of Illapel, Coquimbo Region.

- And J.L.R.V., 61, a bulldozer operator for the contractor Transportes Santa Elvira, providing services to Minera Las Cenizas, who died in the early hours of October 14 when his bulldozer veered off the road and fell approximately 50 meters at the Rajo Aguilucho mine in Taltal, Antofagasta Region.

The ages of the dead are themselves an indictment. Ossandón was 74. The Illapel worker was 66. The Taltal bulldozer operator was 61. The Andacollo worker was around 60. These are men who, in any rational society, would have retired years ago. They were still descending into mines and climbing onto heavy machinery because the pension system created by the dictatorship and preserved by every government since obliges workers to sell their labor power until their bodies give out. Five of the eight workers killed since September were employed by contractors and subcontractors, the disposable tier of a workforce that is now roughly 80 percent outsourced across the industry.

This toll follows a year in which 20 miners died, and 225 workers were killed across all industries in Chile. That is 67 more than the 158 recorded in 2024, a rise of 42 percent. The deaths are overwhelmingly the product of precarious working conditions, precarious employment and precarious contracts imposed under the subcontracting regime that the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet created. This same regime has been preserved and deepened under the center-left governments of the Concertación, the “progressive” administration of Gabriel Boric and now the ultra-right government of José Antonio Kast alike.

...

This is feigned concern of the most duplicitous kind. The same Chamber of Mining that now sheds tears for the dead has spent decades demanding the subcontracting, the speed-up and the erosion of safety that killed them. The same Kast government that now convenes “safety roundtables” has introduced a 2027 budget that dismantles public services while showering tax breaks on the mining monopolies.

The real reaction of the ruling class is not one of grief, but of fear. The concern is genuine only insofar as it reflects a deteriorating economic situation in Chile and on a world scale. US imperialism’s criminal war against Iran, launched in February, has deepened the global crisis, sent energy prices soaring and destabilized the entire world economy. Imperialism’s war budget and the assault on social programs are a single class policy, and its consequences are being felt in every working-class household.

Within this global crisis, the crisis of copper production in Chile has a specific and terrifying significance for the bourgeoisie. The country is failing to produce copper at the highest price in history. In August, national production fell 13 percent year-on-year to 369,500 metric tons, the worst monthly figure since February 2011. The consulting firm GEM Mining Consulting has issued a warning that applies with equal force to Chile, Peru and Argentina: “Announced copper is not delivered copper.” The firm’s analysis, which examines a Chilean investment portfolio of US$104.5 billion for 2025–2034, a Peruvian portfolio of US$64.1 billion and an Argentine financing framework of up to US$7 billion, concludes that a large portion of these investments is geared toward sustaining existing operations rather than adding tonnage, and that the International Energy Agency’s baseline scenario projects a gap of nearly 25 percent relative to primary copper demand by 2035.

This is the context in which the ruling class contemplates the prospect of the working class paralyzing the industry. If the miners were to shut down the mines, if the contract workers and the direct employees were to unite, if the struggle were to break out of the corporatist union straitjacket, the already-catastrophic production crisis would become a disaster for the bourgeoisie. That is the fear that animates every statement, every roundtable, every “dialogue.”

...

The miners at Centinela and Escondida, the contract workers who are dying in the mines, and the entire Chilean working class must build independent, democratic and militant rank-and-file committees that unite direct employees and contract workers, that take the struggle out of the hands of the union bureaucracy, and that link the fight for safety and wages to the political fight against the Kast government and the entire capitalist order. The struggle against the deaths in the mines is inseparable from the struggle against imperialist war, against the assault on living standards, and for the socialist reorganization of society. The lives of the workers are worth more than copper—and only the working class, organized independently and internationally, can make that truth a reality.

Came across this on linkedin today.

An employer goes on about how he burns no bridges etc. treats everyone leaving fair . Asked as ex employee for a work related favour and got told politely no and decides it's worth a rant on Linkedin. Whilst claiming in the comments it really doesn't impact him etc.

Whilst I believe in burning no bridges as industries in local areas are often small, unless good friends I would never do some work for an ex employer for free, it's unprofessional to ask is my opinion.

I was watching an interview by Jon Stewart regarding the dangers of AI and they were discussing the universal basic income. Jon said at some point that people retire and then die because "they lose their purpose".

Unless you're an artist or are working in what you think is a fascinating field or are researching the cure of a terrible disease, work doesn't necessarily mean purpose. It's sad that people make their job their identity and they get lost once they retire. I bet most people would take on hobbies that their current jobs prevent them from enjoying. Or do nothing if they feel like it. This work = purpose crap is infuriating.

https://youtu.be/lnLDjXy2kRA?si=yXUDspbhFb77MBNE

I never thought I’d be relieved to be unemployed. Obviously there is the financial stress and fear of how long this will last. But my nervous system has already begun to exit out of fight or flight. I dealt with an aggressive and negative work environment and a CEO who’d rather do blow in Ibiza than ensure his agency is profitable. I saw him scream on zoom calls. My manager would berate me for answering emails while simultaneously be disappointed at my lack of “initiative”. When I asked for a raise after a year of high performance (backed by data) and work responsibilities that had increased ten fold since I started, all of a sudden I wasn’t eligible. The environment I worked in (all remote btw) got to be so stressful that I had to change my medication to cope. I also developed an autoimmune condition while working there. I don’t think it was a coincidence.

I am a millennial. Two degrees. Good work ethic. Employed since 16. The usual. I cannot believe at my level of experience and professionalism that I had to make a medical change to cognitively deal with the toxicity of a workplace in the good year of our lord 2026.

And so for the first time ever I am HAPPY to not be in the machine. I’m going to enjoy my time. If you’re in a similar boat I beg you to REST. We never get this time back once we go back to the mines.

So I work in auto manufacturing, and a few weeks ago I started getting some severe pain in my hand whenever I would do one of my usual stations that persisted even during my days off. Pain would flare up whenever my fingers or knuckles bumped against anything, fingers would be locked in place when I woke up and caused extreme amounts of pain whenever I tried to open or close my hand, and any attempts to loosen or adjust my grip leads to my fingers immediately snapping open or clamping tightly.

After a few weeks of reporting the injury and literally having a video album of the condition worsening, I was finally seen by the on-site medical team before being taken to an urgent care clinic and put on an extremely strict work restrictions. Now, how strict are we talking?

* I may lift up to 2 pounds occasionally. Most power tools and parts I would handle were 20-30lbs.

* I may push and pull up to 5 pounds occasionally. This is a factory where we're building cars; even with pneumatic lift systems we're regularly pushing and pulling several times that.

* I cannot use power/impact/vibratory tools with the injured hand. None of the tools can be operated with a single hand due to their weight or the amount of kickback they generate.

* I may occasionally grip, squeeze, or pinch with my injured hand. The fact that this is limited means even the simple tasks that don't require power tools or heavy lifting can't be done for extended periods.

* I have to wear finger braces. This just makes everything from cooking to sleeping more annoying, and I had to type this out on mobile since the braces make typing on the keyboard a massive pain.

Once the clinic forwarded my supervisor the list of restrictions I was under, he called to tell me that they had no way to accommodate my restrictions given my position, and he was putting me on medical leave until I recovered from the injury and completed my treatment/physical therapy.

Fast forward to today, and I get an email from upper management saying they were scheduling me to return to work on Sunday. This is despite the fact that the treatment for my injury is still ongoing and my restrictions prevent me from using my dominant hand in any useful manner. When I replied and explained that my treatment was still ongoing and that the work schedule would conflict with my next appointment, I was told that not showing up would affect my Workers Compensation case and be counted as unexcused absences. In polite terms, if I don't show up I'm fired and possibly forfeit the remainder of my medical treatment.

The thing is, I've had to deal with a workplace injury at this company in the past, and I know they're awful at accommodating medical restrictions. Last year I had an injury that required a cortisone shot, and the company put me back on regular duty the next day. A few hours into the shift I started bleeding from the injection site, got sent back to the doctor, and was put on "light duty" that completely failed to accommodate my injury. I also know that our shift has been extremely understaffed for the entire time that I worked at the company, so it sounds like upper management is trying to put me back on schedule so they have one less empty station, consequences be damned.

Sorry for the long rant, I'm just insanely frustrated by the whole situation.

The Aviation Workers Rank-and-File Committee is conducting an independent workers’ inquiry into the death at Montreal Trudeau International Airport of ramp agent Oscar Robayo, who was crushed to death while performing a routine pushback on a passenger jet.

...

Nearly fifty years after Democratic president Jimmy Carter signed the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, a series of aviation industry fatalities demonstrates the viciousness of the onslaught by the ruling class on working conditions that it unleashed.

Two recent fatal accidents in particular highlight the crumbling aviation system and the erosion of safety in the industry.

On September 6, 21 Air Flight 7598, a cargo carrier operating on Amazon’s behalf under the Amazon Air brand, overshot Runway 30 at Miami International Airport in Florida. The aircraft, a 32-year-old Boeing 767-300 freighter, demolished a Ford Econoline van carrying seven aircraft-cleaning contractors on airport property before smashing through the airport fence, striking a Toyota Corolla Cross on Northwest 67th Avenue and breaking through another fence near a fleet of Tesla robotaxis before finally coming to a halt.

Five of the workers were killed: Rolando Aleman Leon, 55; Yoel Rodriguez Naranjo, 53; Julio C. Pineda, 75; Carlos Acosta Fajardo, 53; and Javierkys Reyes Quevedo, 47. That Pineda was 75 years old and still working as an aircraft cleaner on the tarmac is, by itself, a devastating indictment of the capitalist system.

At Montréal-Trudeau International Airport (YUL), Oscar Robayo, a 39-year-old ground handling worker was killed on August 24. He was crushed to death during tractor push-back by the landing gear of a French bee Airbus A350-900, a massive wide-body jet with a maximum takeoff weight of 280 metric tons.

Both of these fatal accidents occurred due to similar factors. Each involved the practice of airlines and airports subcontracting work to the lowest-bidding companies. Subcontracting acts to depress wages and put a layer of plausible deniability between the major company and the daily operation. Amazon’s entire business model is built on legal separation from the workforce that moves its cargo—pilots employed by Atlas Air and Air Transport International, and cleaners employed by Professional Ocean Service Corporation.

The accidents were also entirely preventable, since the money that could have been spent for life-saving equipment and training was saved by these companies at the cost of lives. Each life ended was that of low-paid least-protected contract workers, who are overwhelmingly immigrants.

The fatalities in Miami could have been prevented with the installation of the Engineered Materials Arresting System (EMAS), which is a lightweight, crushable concrete block system installed at runway ends to prevent this exact catastrophe from happening. It has been installed at 122 runway ends at 70 airports so far, but is not installed at Miami.

Oscar’s death was the result of his employer, the multinational Samsic, not providing him with an extension cord for his headset, forcing him to walk dangerously close to the nose gear as the aircraft was towed. The headset is used to communicate with the pilot and is connected to the airplane as it is being pushed back by a tractor designed for the purpose.

Worker testimonies obtained by the World Socialist Web Site since Oscar’s death confirm that Samsic has repeatedly violated safety procedures and compelled workers to use broken equipment since it took over ground handling operations in 2023.

...

In the US, the Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938 was passed as a result, creating the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), which regulated ticket prices and routes, and the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA), the predecessor of the FAA, which took over the physical skies. It assumed responsibility for air traffic control from the airlines, pilot certification, and safety systems.

In the capitalist system, these safety controls can only last so long before being overridden by the relentless profit motive. On October 24, 1978, following the demands of airline CEOs who chafed at regulated profit margins, President Jimmy Carter signed the Airline Deregulation Act into law. This law removed federal government regulation of domestic airfares, routes, and the creation of new airlines. It abolished the CAB, which officially dissolved in 1984, while leaving the FAA solely in charge of aviation safety.

To enforce this, the ruling class had to smash the opposition of the working class. In 1981, US President Ronald Reagan fired all 11,000 striking air traffic controllers and broke their union, PATCO. This was the opening shot in a sweeping wave of deregulation and union busting throughout industry and across national borders.

The trade unions, which had in a previous period secured limited gains for airline and other workers through militant struggles within the framework of nationally regulated capitalist economies, were transformed into appendages of the corporations and governments, who took advantage of the globalization of production to intensify the exploitation of the working class and gut workplace regulation in the name of corporate “competitiveness.”

Airline deregulation in the US was followed by the privatization of state flag carriers—Air Canada (1988), British Airways (1987), and across Europe—and by the liberalization of European and international aviation through the “single market” and open-skies agreements.

...

Safety in the air and at airports is incompatible with the private ownership of the airline industry. The answer is not re-regulation but the building of independent rank-and-file committees of aviation workers, organized across company and union lines, fighting for safety as a class question and for the expropriation of the airlines from the capitalists who run them for profit.

It is this fight that the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC) is organizing across the air travel industry. No worker should ever accept being just a line expense in a corporation’s budget. Instead, they should organize to fight to place workplace safety under workers’ control and for political power to run the aviation industry and all key economic sectors in the interests of social need, not private profit.

The Aviation Workers Rank-and-File Committee is taking forward this fight by conducting an independent workers’ inquiry into the death of Oscar Robayo. If you are an aviation industry worker or expert who wishes to provide testimony or share your evidence, we strongly urge you to contact the AWRFC at [contact info to be found through the link]

Hello all,

Hopefully this is the right sub. Felt a bit under the weather, and worked from home the past 2 days. My employer is now requesting a doctors note after the fact. In the handbook, it states they may request a note for “3 or more consecutive days of PTO” due to being sick. Nowhere in the handbook does it state anything about providing a doctors note for anything less/working from home. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Leaning towards telling them to go scratch and not providing anything.

Lord have mercy, what is it with corporate gigs in London organising working hours social events at these silly game places that serve crap food and and alcohol.

Axe trowing, mini-golf, bowls…

It’s the worst… London has so much to offer and they choose these things. Why!?!?!?!

It’s mind numbingly boring and infantilising.

Not to mention the noise, these places are noisy, smelly, and with no natural light available… forced to socialise for several hours until home time but for what reason… no one asked for this.

Let’s talk about something that should piss off every working person.

Between 1950 and 2025, total after-tax corporate profits in the United States increased by approximately 914% after adjusting for inflation.

Over roughly the same period, inflation-adjusted hourly wages for production and nonsupervisory workers in goods-producing industries increased by approximately 80%.

Read that again.

Corporate profits grew more than tenfold in real terms, while workers’ hourly purchasing power increased by less than double.

And no, this isn’t just inflation. These figures already account for it.

So where the fuck is all that extra wealth going?

Because it sure as hell isn’t showing up proportionately in ordinary workers’ paychecks.

Where did all the economic growth go?

Think about how much the world has changed since 1950.

We have computers, automation, advanced machinery, global supply chains, and technology that allows us to produce things faster and more efficiently than previous generations could have imagined.

We’ve made enormous technological progress. Businesses have access to tools that make countless tasks easier, faster, and cheaper.

Yet somehow, we’re still telling ordinary people that the reason they struggle financially is that they aren’t working hard enough.

Work harder. Get another qualification. Find a better job. Stop buying coffee. Cancel Netflix. Learn to code.

Seriously?

Of course, personal decisions matter. But at what point do we acknowledge that individual responsibility cannot explain everything?

If corporate profits can grow by 914% beyond inflation while workers’ hourly wages grow by 80%, perhaps we should stop pretending that telling people to budget better is an adequate answer.

I’m not saying every dollar of corporate profit should go directly into workers’ pockets. Businesses have expenses, investment needs, and legitimate reasons to make profits.

But I am saying that we should be asking some serious questions about who benefits from economic progress and why the rewards are so unevenly distributed.

Workers build, manufacture, transport, maintain, sell, and provide the goods and services that keep the economy running.

They aren’t spectators watching the economy grow. They’re participants in creating that wealth.

So why are we so willing to accept a system in which the financial rewards of corporate ownership can grow so dramatically faster than the purchasing power of the people doing the work?

Most people can’t even afford a fucking house anymore

Let’s bring this back to something people actually experience.

Housing.

For generations, owning a home was a realistic goal for many working people. You got a job, worked hard, saved money, and eventually had a reasonable shot at buying a place to live.

It wasn’t guaranteed, and the experience varied enormously depending on where you lived. But for many people, it was an attainable milestone.

Now, in many housing markets, people can work full-time, earn a respectable salary, and still struggle to afford a home.

They save for a down payment while prices keep climbing. They pay rent that eats up a huge chunk of their income. They postpone having children or starting a family because the numbers simply don’t work.

And then someone who bought a house decades ago tells them they should stop wasting money on avocado toast.

You couldn’t make this shit up.

If housing costs hundreds of thousands of dollars more than an ordinary worker can reasonably afford, cutting out a few coffees isn’t going to solve the problem.

You cannot budget your way out of a housing market that has become disconnected from ordinary people’s incomes.

And housing is only one part of the problem. Groceries, childcare, healthcare, education, and retirement all compete for the same paycheck.

People aren’t asking for private jets or mansions. Many just want a decent place to live, enough money to raise their children, and the ability to retire without spending their final working years terrified of running out of money.

How have we reached a point where these basic expectations can sound like unreasonable demands?

What is the point of an economy generating extraordinary amounts of wealth if so many people who participate in it struggle to build a stable life?

At what point is someone rich enough?

Let’s talk about billionaires.

A million seconds is about 11.6 days.

A billion seconds is about 31.7 years.

A trillion seconds is about 31,700 years.

We throw these numbers around so casually that we barely stop to think about what they mean.

No human being needs a trillion dollars.

Not to live comfortably. Not to travel the world. Not to own beautiful homes, eat at the best restaurants, or provide for their children and grandchildren.

At that level, we’re talking about a concentration of wealth that is almost impossible to comprehend.

Yes, much of a billionaire’s net worth is tied up in stocks and other assets rather than sitting in a bank account. That is an important distinction, but it doesn’t make the concentration of ownership or economic power meaningless.

Meanwhile, ordinary people work for decades and still struggle to buy a home.

Some people work multiple jobs and barely keep their heads above water.

Others have to choose between paying a bill and dealing with an unexpected expense.

And somehow, we’re expected to see nothing particularly troubling about these realities existing alongside fortunes approaching a trillion dollars.

Question this, and someone will inevitably accuse you of being jealous or hating successful people.

No. There’s a pretty big difference between wanting to punish someone for being successful and questioning whether the rules governing our economy are producing a reasonable outcome.

I don’t care if someone is rich enough to live like royalty. Good for them.

But when the accumulation of private wealth reaches a scale that dwarfs the resources available to entire communities, while millions struggle to afford basic necessities, I think we’re entitled to ask whether something has gone seriously wrong.

The problem isn’t that some people have more money than others. The problem is when the gap becomes so enormous that people effectively live in different economic realities.

And wealth isn’t just money. It’s freedom.

It’s the ability to refuse a terrible job because you have enough savings to survive. It’s the ability to move somewhere better, take risks, start a business, or pay for an unexpected emergency without worrying about losing everything.

If you’re living paycheck to paycheck, your choices are much more limited.

That difference matters.

Why the fuck are we all fighting each other?

This is what really gets me.

People are constantly fighting about sexism, racism, religion, gender, immigration, political parties, and whatever controversy is trending this week.

Social media has turned outrage into entertainment. People spend hours arguing with strangers, insulting people they have never met, and treating anyone who disagrees with them as an enemy.

And for what?

I’m not saying racism and sexism aren’t real problems. They are. Discrimination matters, and people deserve equal rights and opportunities.

But we seem to have lost the ability to put things into perspective.

We can care about multiple problems at once. We can oppose discrimination while also demanding better wages, affordable housing, and a fairer economic system.

Yet so many people seem more interested in fighting someone who earns roughly what they earn than questioning why their own financial situation is getting harder to manage.

Why are we so eager to hate our neighbours while being so reluctant to question the people and institutions that have enormous influence over our economic lives?

Why do we keep treating ordinary people with different political opinions as our greatest enemies when we have so many problems in common?

A conservative working-class family struggling to pay rent and a progressive working-class family struggling to pay rent still have something important in common: neither family can pay its landlord with political opinions.

We don’t have to agree about everything. We don’t even have to like each other.

But we should be capable of recognizing that our disagreements don’t erase our shared economic interests.

Instead, we get caught in an endless cycle of outrage, while the underlying problems continue.

And here’s the really stupid part: people often defend economic arrangements that work against their own interests because they’ve convinced themselves that criticizing those arrangements means siding with the political tribe they dislike.

If someone proposes stronger labour protections, better access to healthcare, or policies that make housing more affordable, why should your first question be whether the idea came from someone on your political side?

Judge the proposal on its merits.

Stop treating politics like a sports team where your side must win every argument, even when you’re the one getting screwed.

Fix your own country before trying to fix everyone else’s

Another thing I find ridiculous is how eager people are to lecture the rest of the world while ignoring the problems in their own backyard.

People will spend hours arguing about what another country should do, how its government should operate, or which foreign conflicts their country should intervene in.

Meanwhile, people at home are struggling with housing, poverty, healthcare, infrastructure, and the cost of raising a family.

How about we get our own house in order first?

I’m not saying international problems don’t matter. Wars and humanitarian crises can be serious, and some situations deserve international attention and action.

But there’s a difference between caring about the world and constantly focusing on problems abroad while treating problems at home as someone else’s responsibility.

Your government has responsibilities toward its own population.

If people in your country cannot afford housing, why isn’t that a major priority?

If families are struggling to afford childcare, why isn’t that a major priority?

If people are working full-time and still living paycheck to paycheck, why isn’t that a major priority?

If young adults are beginning to believe that they’ll never own a home regardless of how hard they work, why isn’t that a major priority?

Instead, we often get endless political theatre, culture wars, and arguments designed to keep people angry at one another.

Foreign affairs matter, but they shouldn’t become an excuse to ignore the conditions under which your own citizens are living.

You can care about the rest of the world without neglecting your own people.

And you can criticize another country’s government without pretending your own government has everything figured out.

Maybe we should spend a little less time explaining how everyone else should run their country and a little more time demanding that our own governments address the problems we’re actually living with.

We’re living in completely different economic realities

Consider two people.

One owns several properties and a substantial portfolio of investments. When property prices rise, their net worth increases. When the stock market performs well, their wealth can grow without them working another hour.

The other rents an apartment, depends on a monthly paycheck, and spends a significant portion of their income on basic necessities.

When property prices rise, the first person gets richer. The second person may find that buying a home becomes even less attainable.

When living costs rise, the first person may have assets that appreciate in value. The second has to find more money to cover the same bills.

When work becomes unbearable, the first person can afford to walk away. The second might have to stay because missing a paycheck means missing rent.

These two people aren’t experiencing the same economy.

And this is why extreme wealth inequality matters beyond simple envy.

It’s about the distribution of security, opportunity, and freedom.

The person who owns assets has opportunities that someone who depends entirely on wages may never have.

And the more wealth becomes concentrated, the more important ownership can become in determining who gets ahead.

We tell young people to study, work hard, save money, and build a future.

But what happens when they do everything they’re told and still find themselves priced out of housing?

What happens when a decent salary no longer provides the security people reasonably expect from full-time employment?

At what point do we stop blaming individuals for failing to achieve goals that are becoming increasingly difficult to reach?

Hard work matters. Personal decisions matter.

But hard work cannot guarantee financial security when the economic conditions surrounding that work make financial security increasingly difficult to achieve.

We need to be honest about that.

So what the hell are we supposed to do about it?

I’m not suggesting that we abolish businesses, eliminate profits, or make everyone earn exactly the same amount.

Businesses need to make money. Investment matters. People should be able to benefit from their work, their ideas, and their willingness to take risks.

But none of that means we have to accept the current distribution of economic rewards as inevitable.

We can support stronger collective bargaining so workers have more leverage when negotiating wages and working conditions.

We can address housing shortages and reconsider policies that make housing increasingly inaccessible to ordinary people.

We can examine tax systems that treat different forms of income and wealth differently.

We can enforce competition laws, protect public services, and question whether productivity gains should translate into better wages, shorter working hours, or greater financial security.

We can vote for people who take these issues seriously instead of choosing politicians solely because they share our views on cultural controversies.

And we can stop automatically dismissing every discussion about economic inequality as jealousy or class warfare.

Because here’s the thing: the people benefiting most from the current economic arrangements have very little reason to change them voluntarily.

Some wealthy people support reforms, and some businesses treat their employees well. But we cannot build an entire economic system around the hope that everyone with power will always use it generously.

Rules matter. Institutions matter. Collective bargaining matters. Political participation matters.

And none of these things improves when ordinary people are too busy fighting one another to demand change.

We don’t have to agree on every policy. We don’t even have to agree on what the ideal economic system should look like.

But we should at least be able to agree that people who work hard deserve a realistic chance at a decent life.

We should be able to agree that housing shouldn’t be an unattainable dream for so many working people.

We should be able to agree that children shouldn’t grow up believing that financial security is reserved for people who were fortunate enough to be born into wealth.

And we should be able to question why an economy that generates so much wealth leaves so many people feeling financially insecure.

Stop fighting your neighbour over every political disagreement long enough to ask who actually benefits from the way things are.

Start paying attention to the policies that affect your wages, housing costs, and financial security. Hold politicians accountable, regardless of which party they belong to. Support workers who are fighting for better conditions, and stop dismissing economic inequality as someone else’s problem.

We don’t need to agree on everything, but we need to stop accepting that working hard and still struggling to afford a decent life is just the way things have to be.

If we want things to change, we need to stop treating the status quo as inevitable and start demanding better from the people who have the power to change it.

PS:
I don’t want to make it political, it’s strictly an economical rant.

TLDR: After adjusting for inflation, US corporate profits have increased by roughly 900%, while real hourly wages for production and nonsupervisory workers in goods-producing industries have increased by only around 80%.
In other words, corporate profits have grown more than 10 times as much as workers’ wages. Meanwhile, ordinary people are struggling with housing costs, bills, and the rising cost of living.
Maybe it’s time we stopped fighting each other over everything and started asking who this economy is actually working for.

Years ago, I was working in a small auto repair shop, only two full time employees, plus the boss and a part time office worker. Boss always complained that I made too much money. So he decided I was going to get a raise, but he was going to put me on commision. I would only be paid based on the labor charged to customers for the jobs that I did.

So Monday, the first day of my commision time comes along, and I immediately get busy working on jobs left over from the week before. Paying jobs. In the mean time, the office is filling up with customers, and the phone is ringing constantly. Boss calls me up front, says he needs some help. I told him sorry, I don't get paid to answer the phone, or to write up customers, or to call in the stock order, put the stock order away, pick up or deliver parts, drive customers home, clean up the shop other than my own work area, and pretty much everything else that I could think of that I usually did previously, when I was paid hourly, but was no longer part of the "payable" package.

He said, "that's not how it works."

I said it sure is.

I had been there for almost 10 years and pretty much did everything except payroll. It wasn't a great job, but I enjoyed the work. But he was no longer very interested in the work part of owning a business. He would come in late every day, promise a bunch of work, then go to the bar down the street for lunch from around 11 until 2 or 3, some times even later, then come back and then complain that all the work wasn't done.

Sure, it was his place, he could do what he wanted. But if I was doing the work, I expected to get paid for it.

Being on commision only lasted a week or so, I went back to hourly, and got to keep the raise. Things got a little sour after that, and I eventually moved on to another shop.

Huge news from Brazil!

Brazil's Senate has approved a constitutional amendment to end the traditional 6-days-on, 1-day-off work schedule (6x1), replacing it with a 5-day workweek and 2 days of paid rest per week.

Here's what makes this historic:

- Two days off per week instead of just one.

- No pay cuts for workers.

- Weekly working hours will gradually decrease from 44 to 40.

- Millions of Brazilian workers are expected to benefit.

The change still needs to be formally promulgated, and implementation will be gradual.

For millions of people who spend almost their entire lives working just to survive, this means more time with family, more rest, and more time to actually LIVE.

A job should provide a living, not consume your entire life.

Source: https://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/politica/noticia/2026-10/senado-aprova-fim-da-escala-6x1-e-reducao-da-jornada-de-trabalho

I joined a consulting MNC straight out of university because I was scared to take risks, and it was during Covid. Looking back, I wish I had interviewed with more companies instead of accepting the first offer I received.
I hate almost everything about my job. The work gives me no joy, and my degree is completely unrelated to what I do.
I have four years of experience. Three of those years went to waste. I was practically on the bench for most of that time or made minor contributions to projects that don’t really add much value to my CV or help me in the job market.
I finally got the opportunity to contribute meaningfully to two projects, but the lead keeps forgetting to include my name when congratulating the team which is genuinely disheartening.
I’ve started interviewing with other companies, but they see four years of experience on my CV and expect me to know much more than I do.
At this point, I feel like my lead is trying to push me out without actually firing me. But how am I supposed to leave without another job offer? And how am I supposed to get a job offer when I haven’t been given the opportunities to gain the experience employers expect from someone with four years of experience?

To summarise, I’m cooked, both career-wise and mental health-wise.

The lack of respect for job applicants is just wild. This company kept me on the hook for six weeks, made me do a phone screen, virtual interview, in person panel interview, and in person writing sample, all of which I had to use PTO for at my current job (where I am miserable) and then didn't even give me the courtesy of a phone call - just an email saying we went with another candidate but please keep us in mind for future openings. Like I would ever reapply after this. I have a master's degree, 10 years of experience in my field, and was beyond qualified for this position. You made me jump through hoop after hoop, stringing me along, the least you could do is grow a pair and call me to tell me I wasn't hired. Fuck these employers.