That’s exactly it. Sure taxes take 40%, but capitalists take 100-1000% of your salary, and last I checked they don’t build roads and schools.
Comment on You okay babe?
sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 20 hours ago
Haha, its usually more than that. Especially if you do manual labor and don’t have a union. Friend of mine was receiving 6% of the value of his labor after we calculated it.
Hacksaw@lemmy.ca 14 hours ago
sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 9 hours ago
Okay so I was gonna respond sooner but I was super baked and unable to answer this when I saw it last night.
You should read Wage Labour and Capital by Marx for some added context, it is short.
Basically the value of a commodity is calculate by c + v + s. c being constant capital (the value of the means of production that has been degraded to create the commodity, hard to calculate without good info), v is the amount of paid labor, and s being surplus value is the unpaid labor.
To calculate the value of your labor all you need to know is the constant capital used to produce whatever commodity you produce and the value of said commodity. By including your wage as v you can calculate the surplus value and then compare them to see what share of the value you produce you actually recieve.
Hacksaw@lemmy.ca 6 hours ago
I did the same using GDP. About 10 years ago the numbers were like this in Canada: the average income was $56k the average tax burden is $7k and the GDP per WORKER was $90k. It’s so funny to watch people complain about the $7k the hobby takes to build society when you ignore the $44k in profit you generate for the rich.
The beauty of the stepped back approach is that because all wages are included and all economic output is captured you don’t need to solve for c, it’s included in wages and surplus value.
The machinery of capital is built on a large pile of labor + stolen surplus value all the way down to the raw material. So it’s all captured with the above.
sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 6 hours ago
Haha, you should try using the median income to adjust for outlier skewing (the income of business owners)
Saapas@piefed.zip 14 hours ago
Where I live construction is one of the things that’s heavily unionized. Well, local workers are. Foreign workers not so much
Maroon@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
Sorry for my ignorance, but how do you calculate the “value” of one’s labour? Like how would you do this for a school teacher?
Different schools have different pay grades, different subjects, etc.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 hours ago
The owner of the construction company is being paid for the work that their employees do. All of that money, after expenses, does not go to the people who did the actual construction.
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 10 hours ago
Tax wealth, not work.
Proles_Uprising_Now@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
If a private school makes 100 million a year in profit and pays you, the only employee 6 million that would be 6 percent of your value. I think.
MrVilliam@sh.itjust.works 20 hours ago
I wish I made 6% of the value of my labor. My power plant has $1M+ days sometimes and there’s only 30 of us running it. I make good money, but not $30k/day good. A couple months ago when we saw sustained deep freeze temperatures for like a week straight, we saw $5M+ days.
We also work crazy hours for those situations. Last week I pulled 72, and the next couple weeks will be 84 hours. But at least they ordered pizza for us.
TigerAce@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 hours ago
When they make that much money, why don’t they hire another 30 or 60 people so everyone can have a normal 32h work week? Are the employee benefits really that good that it’s worth it? I hope they are much more than just pizza. Why would you let yourself be exploited by them, on such an insane level that you are willing to work almost triple work weeks? They are stealing your life while having the financial luxury to just hire more. Have you talked to your union? Work to live, don’t live to work mate.
MrVilliam@sh.itjust.works 2 hours ago
Lol there isn’t a union here and my coworkers are too brainwashed to understand that a union would benefit them.
I would love for a Danish company to headhunt me and yank me over to Denmark. I don’t think that’s gonna happen though.
TigerAce@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 hour ago
In my country (the Netherlands) there is help for expats to settle. Getting a job, house, etc. There’s even a tax cut for expats if you have a specialized job. Denmark might have something similar, I’m not sure. Their language is a pain to learn though (not like my language is fun lol). But like the Dutch the Danish are very good with English, especially in cities. Getting a job while only speaking English is not a problem. Denmark is a beautiful and amazing country, with amazing people. But we have bitterballen.
WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today 5 hours ago
32 hours? I can get that done in like 3 shifts…where can I find this so-called job? I’m so interested already.
TigerAce@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 hours ago
Europe. With benefits, decent holidays, no limited number of sick days, can’t get fired without a proper reason (or you can sue them with a high probability of getting compensation or getting your job back). In Sweden the standard work week is 32 hours. In the Netherlands 36 but many do 32. Here in NL we have extra holiday money and often a 13th month payout. Irregular shifts have bonuses and extra time off, and aren’t allowed to be too long shifts. Not that all jobs are decent, but at least the law protects employees and many employers want employees to stay, so they are treated properly. There are also tax cuts for the first job you have, it just doesn’t apply to other jobs if you have multiple. And you build up a pension if you’re not self employed. I’d like to see the minimum wage to be raised, and equal in the entire EU. So there’s definitely room for improvement. But compared to the US it’s heaven.
yeather@lemmy.ca 14 hours ago
Probably a combo of profiteering and a low number of applicants.
TwoTiredMice@feddit.dk 18 hours ago
My company had a year where they earned $500M after tax, which was equivalent to an earning of $3.5M per employee, and I got a bonus of $6000 which was the standard bonus for all employees weighted compared to their annual salary.
That summer we had our yearly summer party in a tent on our parking lot…
theolodis@feddit.org 13 hours ago
You greedy bastard won’t think of the shareholders? I mean they invested their money! What did you do?
TwoTiredMice@feddit.dk 11 hours ago
Eventually I quit my job and became one of the shareholders at another place.
Yondoza@sh.itjust.works 18 hours ago
Are those figures revenue or profit?
sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 19 hours ago
Sheesh, if that doesn’t radicalize someone idk what does
WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today 5 hours ago
Nope, just convinces you to start a business. If we all started a business somehow, we would ironically create the most equitable society, because everyone earns their exact surplus value. Unless they all work in each-other’s business…
sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 5 hours ago
I can’t tell if you are being sarcastic