Cue outrage…but hear me out. Egypt had a ‘slave” workforce that was paid. But they had little rights. Maybe we could thread the needle.
America’s big problems are retiring boomers and a blue collar workforce unwilling to educate themselves. Maybe they need slave-like guidance. Or incentive to educate themselves. Or else the state will put you to work. Just a thought. :)
I guess you’re trying to avoid admitting how much real anti-Semitism there is among leftists. Anyway, your claims about blue collar workers is nonsense. Who’s going to hire them if they get your desired „skills upgrade“? It’s not like HTML 5 is a real upgrade that’s going to make a difference for them.
Keep in mind that there is now huge racial discrimination in big companies in addition to discrimination against people with blue collar work histories who have tried to move into different fields.
Nevertheless, would you support them getting free re-training, perhaps through community colleges, including stipends for living expenses?
Your problems here are that you’re extrapolating your situation to millions of other people‘s and that you share the arrogance of many people toward blue collar workers, who generally have some very useful skills. They generally aren’t dumb or lazy.
Unsurprisingly, you ignored a policy suggestion. And have you heard of age discrimination?
Firstly it sounds like we have a labels issue. I’m talking unskilled labor. My plumber makes more than I do. But he had to get HIGHER EDUCATION…. as in tech or industry training.
I’m talking about 30 yr old Walmart cashiers trying to feed their family of four. That’s actually a big problem.
Well, someone in that situation probably works two or three jobs, gets the Child Tax Credit, Additional Child Tax Credit, food stamps and the Earned Income Tax Credit. But be specific as to what you think these people should be training for and when you think they’d have time to do it. You don’t have kids, Odd.
There isn’t a shortage of government workers, plus the private sector companies currently employing them must have some need for them. Plus, has it occurred to you that the government training adults for jobs without private sector input means they won’t get useful practical experience and too many of them will go through this training and be unable to get jobs afterwards? How much is this going to cost?
Of course not. There is so much wrong with thisidea I don't even know where to begin. Briefly, if you want another civil war on your hands this is the way to get it.
You got it completely reverse. It's not by the graces of the state that the work force lives, it's on the grace of the work force that everyone else lives. It's not money that feeds people, it's not money that shelters them or keeps them warm. It's by the work of the work force that these things happen. Money is just a system that is put into place to justify why certain people get first dibs on the fruits of the work forces labour.
Jeez... Money works only because the work force allows it to work. The simple truth of the matter is that cooperations and educated people need workers more than the workers needs them. Those who live better lives have more to lose if all the workers suddenly decide to quit working than the workers lose from quittinf.
It already does. Recently graduated college. Can't get a job the pays more $8 per hour. Know so many in the same situation. No wonder everybody is working 60 hour weeks.
My boyfriend is a steel worker he's getting $35 per hour not to mention the money he gets in cash. Last week his boss put $500 into all his guys tool belts. I really resent him a bit because all he has is a high school diploma and he doesn't even have resume together.
You mean private for-profit prisons? No. We don't need that.
Opinion
13Opinion
America already has a slave workforce... it's called "most of us". Just look at the distribution of wealth in this country, for starters. How many families can survive and have enough money to save something on a single income? How many single people can maintain a decent lifestyle and live alone on a one job income? I do believe we're already slaves, but we don't live on plantations or on the master's land any longer.
Medicaid and SNAP are for poor people who can't afford health care or enough food, and it doesn't cover the gaps fully, or even partially in some cases. It doesn't help with housing, or clothing, or transportation. You can get a free cell phone and now, thanks to the current administration, free internet IF the local company participates in the program. Let's not suggest that living at the poverty line is a good thing because there's some government aid to be had.
What would you have poverty level people employed at doing for the government, and how would you justify limiting their benefits as government employees? Most folks on the poverty line have limited skills or education, or have become victims of the government itself, i. e. homeless vets. What would you have them actually do for the Feds or State?
I agree with your last statement about half the population working for not enough to support themselves or a family. Let's focus on these points:
" Fixing infrastructure, doing jobs we need" - This too requires training and skills. You can't hire just anyone to fix a bridge, or repair/build a levee, or pave roads. Training people who want those skills and jobs makes perfect sense as a way to spend tax dollars.
" OR getting educated" ... AHHH... and therein lies the rub. Do the "powers that be" want an educated population? I'd say NO. Historically, our schools have been filling us with misinformation, disinformation, spin and/or lies and lies of omission since the onset of the textbook. Look at who controlled the publishing and what was taught.
By the time you got to college and hopefully had your eyes opened to "everything I know is wrong", you were already groomed and indoctrinated. It takes a lot of work to overcome that, and a lot of research and drive on your own. The populace knowing the "truth" about things isn't a great idea if you're the folks in power. Reagan made sure of that by reversing the burden of funding higher education in California from the state to the individual. Used to be 80/20 state, tax funded, now it's reversed and you need loans to pay ridiculous tuition rates. This way, only the elite get the "best" education.
But now, thanks to the Heritage Foundation and "Christian Nationalists", it's getting even worse. They're doubling down on the lies that were originally told in schools by preaching it was "justifiable behavior" and a "God given right" to do whatever horrific acts took place. Add to that, they're removing history that "might make your child uncomfortable" instead of teaching ALL of it. Well guess what America, most of our history is "uncomfortable" to hear once you hear the truth.
The idea now is ban books, burn the truth, and make sure the youngest students are not as "a-woke" as Gen Z is. Force teachers to lie or omit things to the point where they want to quit the profession, and then re-allocate tax dollars to private schools who can control who gets in and what is taught with NO oversight and NO regulation.
My point is, one party right now is stripping money from ALL education, and when they can't do it that way, they re-write it. It would be GREAT to get a bill passed that would PAY for re-education of anyone who wanted it, provided they work for government projects that are NECESSARY for a period of "X" years. Go ahead and TRY to get that through a Republican house. The R's want their constituents as dumb as possible, chasing a dream and regurgitating lies, forever. " I love uneducated people" said the fool about to be imprisoned, if you recall.
I apologize for the rant, but it all ties in.
The slave workforce pours over the border every day from Mexico and in shipping containers from Asia driving labor costs way down. A lot of people couldn't afford to renovate their homes without hiring an illegal standing outside a Home Depot at 7am, and wouldn't be able to afford a quart of California strawberries if they were picked by a US citizen
That is the height of arrogance. Elites have deliberately destroyed a number of opportunities for people here legally by flooding many labor markets with illegal labor. That’s nothing to celebrate.
And I think you’ll see that there has been little to no benefit for consumers either.
Technically US already has a slave workforce, paid like shit with little no rights, so they have to work 2 or 3 fulltime jobs and still barely can afford months expanses. No holidays, no healthcare, no sick leave, ...
Yes, but the problem is the jobs are shit, and for corporations. So they pay nothing and force the state to provide welfare.
I’m saying we reverse that. If you want state welfare, you either work for the state filling pot holes or soemthing. OR get educated in your choice of industry.
It’s you who is stupid- who will work for Wal-Mart and I’m other unskilled jobs? Do you have an answer for that?
And why is working for the government OK but not for the country’s largest private employer?
And if they meet your standard of being „educated“, why would you give them welfare (by which I presume you mean income supplements)?
Your half-baked idea is contradictory and doesn’t take reality into account. Nor should the government be dictating who you work for as long as it’s legal work.
Finally, do you think that everyone has tue basic skills to nectarines for skilled labor or IT or other professional careers? No. But what your plan would actually encourage would be for people to permanency stay in training.
We need a slave voting force, so that's why I'm for open borders.
There already is one. The American economy rests on millions of undocumented workers, many from Mexico, as well as foreign workers at manufacturers licensed by American companies in other countries.
But that’s the point. They do. Entire industries are already dependent on cheap labor from a slave class. We’re just too polite to call it out for what it is.
Gee, what could go wrong? I mean, who works harder when they work for the state? And it’s not like there wouldn’t be kickbacks, misallocation of capital, political favoritism, discrimination for the benefit of favored constituencies. Plus, who’s going to do the jobs you‘re pulling people out of?
No. The influence of cheap labor has had a negative effect on the us economy at least for the working and middle classes.
Doing that reduces everyone's wages, which means people have less money to spend which effects the economy. Basically you want to earn less and for your money to be worth less. A new gilded age where only the oligarchs benefit.
How would that happen? Either we have a “free” workforce fixing America’s infrastructure or people getting a higher education which will net them more money.
Right now we have the guilted age. Where corporations pay shit wages and the state is forced to give welfare with no ROI. We the taxpayers get NOTHING in return.
People are more educated than ever in us history yet wages are dropping. Supply and demand, the bigger the supply of educated people the less you have to pay them because there's always someone else with the same level of education willing to do the same job for less. That's why now to make any money people need nearly 6 years of college whereas before they only needed maybe 4. That's why so many college graduates are working minimum wage jobs.
Corporations pay shit wages because they have a surplus of cheap labor domestically and abroad. Welfare is just scraps, often welfare is given to working and middle class families after taxing the shit out of them. Taking with one hand and giving back with the other, and what they give in welfare finds its way back into their pocket again in taxes.
Yes, but not in a lucrative sense. They aren’t educated for jobs or want to be. Only 30-40% of Americans have college degrees. And college degrees versus just a high school degree adds 100s of thousands of dollars earned over a lifetime.
And you wonder why our economy is suffering.
College degrees versus just a high school degree adds 100s of thousands of dollars earned over a lifetime, this was once the case when fewer people had a college education and a degree was worth more to an employer. Now in 2023 as many as 60% of kids now attend college and will end up working a minimum wage job or interning for free for multiple companies who have no intention of hiring them simply because a college education is so common that they can pay minimum wage or just keep a revolving door of desperate interns. 20 years ago a college education was what you describe but no longer. There's folks coming out of trade school earning more than a lot of college graduates simply because there's a skill shortage.
The economy is suffering because there is so much cheap labor and low wages.
You’re probably looking at stats of non grads.
www.forbes.com/.../?sh=36469e992707
Sorry but forbes is a msm media group linked to big monet, college education is a big money industry. Again those figures are based on 20 years ago.
Of recent college graduates:
•28% of recent college graduates are working at jobs that only require a high school diploma; 6% have jobs with no education requirements at all
•1 in 5 recent grads are working at jobs that are unrelated to their major
•84% of recent grads say finding a job was ‘very’ or ‘somewhat’ difficult
•40% recent grads still seeking employment have lowered their salary expectations
34% of employed college grads could have gotten their current jobs without a college degree
Sigh…I love when arguments devolve into fake news. Forbes is a corporate shill and conservative mag. This is not soemthing they’d admit if weren’t an absolute truth.
How about WSJ? The rights most accredited news agency?
www.wsj.com/.../yes-a-college-degree-is-still-worth-it-6a7bfe7b
Again colleges are corporations in all but name, they aren't going to admit that a college education isn't worth what it once was and naturally who forbes and the Wallstreet journal represent want to get college educated employees for low wages.
The statistics are all there. For newly graduated graduates not those who graduated 20 years ago.
Doesn't mean 72% have higher paid jobs. It means 40% are still looking for jobs and are willing to lower their salary expectations. It means 34% are working minimum wage jobs.
@msc545 the military is the biggest employer in the us. It also gives health care and provides education and training in various fields. It also currently teaches new recruits how to eat right and exercise, it's the world's largest personal trainer and with 30% of men and 40% of women in the us obese that's very important.
What war has the US military lost?
@Avicenna military spending will be cut back in the next 10 years maybe. The US military is replacing virtually everything in its arsenal that dates from the end of the cold war.
Fact is that the military employs 2 million personnel and then when you include all the businesses and industry that all supports.
are you trying to get me to say i'm all for slavery? haha , yep
sounds good to me?
no, people just need opportunities. They are in short supply these days.
No. We had that. It was bad for the economy. We currently have that with illegal immigration driving down wages.
@Avicenna Um actually it was incredibly productive. Free labor for a few hundred years has a pretty stiff price tag that we never paid back. (Not to derail this toward reparations).
But obviously I’m being cheeky or trolling in my subject line above. Perhaps I’m saying welfare recipients shall work and be educated by the state to receive that check.
Abraham Lincoln and his father were forced to move their farm multiple times due to slave labor undercutting the earnings of free men like themselves. Slavery only benefited the slave owners. Slavery had a major negative effect of the development of the southern States.
And by the way I emotionally agree with all of you on the evils of slavery. I hope you guys know this is just thought experiment.
And perhaps Lincoln was rooted out of his farm for deciding NOT to use slaves (which is why he’s one of the best)…
but let’s not downplay the amount of money America received for FREE from slave labor.
America didn't receive money. A few wealthy slave owners received it. Their descents like Anderson Cooper, Richard Dawkins, Obama inherited that generational wealth yet no reparations.
Ironically black people would be disproportionately affected 😅
Nice classicism by the way.
Liberal run forced labour/reeducation where have I heard that before *checks notes* nazi concentration camps and Russian gulags
Vote liberal or get shot into the hole same shit different banner
Know some Holocaust survivors, they'd side with me on your utopian dream
Oh they do and I agree, good riddance to all terrorists and their sympathizing scumbag supporters... the liberals everybody
Just need a Huey and some napalm
They supported the terrorists getting into power by staying in the godforsaken country, flatten the lot and build a six flags on the site
Jail everyone because everyone has done something before
No we have already established that communism doesn't work.
Technically no because, to my knowledge, the slave masters were not funded by the federal government. Slavery in general for any reason is bullshit.
Communism is just slavery in a nationwide scale. You do the job you are assigned, your pay is the same as everyone else (because there can't be a 1% that way right?), the government feeds you which is typically nothing more than bread, speak out and you would find yourself tortured or killed, those unable to be work will be disposed of because they would be of no use. That sounds like being a slave for life to me.
Are you volunteering?
Well, in a sense they already do.
True. For corporations like Walmart. And the state provides welfare for Walmart workers, effectively providing socialized workers for corporations. I’m positing, we tske those workers for us (the govt) and even have some education and betterment. Lol where they can “graduate” from slavery….
Obviously the marketing needs work for this idea…
It already has one
You can also add your opinion below!
Girl's Behavior 
Guy's Behavior 
Flirting 
Dating 
Relationships 
Fashion & Beauty 
Health & Fitness 
Marriage & Weddings 
Shopping & Gifts 
Technology & Internet 
Break Up & Divorce 
Education & Career 
Entertainment & Arts 
Family & Friends 
Food & Beverage 
Hobbies & Leisure 
Other 
Religion & Spirituality 
Society & Politics 
Sports 
Travel 
Trending & News 
Most Helpful Opinions