There’s an Spanish song about that: El vals del obrero (the worker’s waltz)
(Translated with Reverso. Sorry for the possible mistakes)
Proud to be (Proud to be)
Among the proletariat (Among the proletariat)
It’s hard to make ends meet
And have to sweat and sweat
To earn our bread
And this is my place, these are my people
We are workers, the preferred class
Therefore, proletarian brother, with pride
I sing you this song, we are the revolution
Yes, sir! , the revolution
Yes, sir! , Yes, sir! we are the revolution
Your enemy is the master
Yes, sir! , Yes, sir! we are the revolution
Long live the
I’m sick to death of leeches
Those who steal my dignity
My life is consumed by enduring this routine
Who drowns me more every day
Happy businessman, more calluses in my hands
My kidneys are going to burst
I don’t have a fucking buck, but I’m still paying in
To your welfare state
Up!
In this democracy, there is a lot of smart money to be made
Squeezing our social class
They don’t give a fuck if you have fourteen children
And grandma can’t be operated on
We are the workers, the basis of this game
In which he always loses the same pringao
A well thought out game, in which we are kept quiet
And they fuck you if you don’t want to play (Up!)
thebestaquaman@lemmy.world 1 week ago
I agree with pretty much everything you’re saying here, I still want to comment on
I do think it’s a reasonable term to separate those that actually make a decent salary, are self-employed, own their own company (at which they work) together with others, etc. from the more clearly exploited workers that have far too few rights and are not compensated fairly.
I have no problem with selling my labour for money as long as I’m fairly compensated for it. Historically, the working class has not been.
hayvan@piefed.world 1 week ago
If you are working for a salary, you are never fairly compensated. If you received the value you actually produced, your boss can’t make a profit. Profit is only possible by a exploitation.
The intensity of said exploitation is a spectrum, there is a huge difference between having some savings and disposable income versus barely surviving. I also make a decently comfortable living as a software engineer but I’m still a crippling accident away from losing it all and depending on disability benefits.
thebestaquaman@lemmy.world 1 week ago
While what you’re saying is typically true, it’s not inherently built into the system. I work in a company owned by two friends. They own the company because they took out loans with their houses as security in order to finance the lease of an office space, buying work stations, and hiring themselves and me. I work on the same stuff as them, for the same hours, and make the same salary as them.
If the company goes to shit, they have craploads of debt, while I don’t. We have a contract ensuring that I get a fair share of whatever comes in, including options to buy myself into the company at the same rate as what they initially invested once I can afford it. Nobody here is making excess money of others work. I have no reason to believe I’m being scammed.
Again, what you’re saying is true in 99+ % of cases, but it doesn’t have to be that way. There’s nothing preventing a company from deciding that profits are split evenly among all employees (with the owners also acting as employees).
hayvan@piefed.world 1 week ago
This is the only point I disagree with you. Your situation is extremely rare and exists because of the cool founders, and despite the economic system. There is nothing stopping them from exploiting new hires as the company grows. In fact, “free market” encourages cost cutting and aggressive competition.
Grail@multiverse.soulism.net 1 week ago
Even if life is good for you at your income level, you’re still getting scammed to a (much smaller) extent. And the Epstein class use the money they scam off you, to control society. Money has this mathematical effect where it wants to accumulate in one place. It’s like a kind of economic gravity. Any inequality will magnify itself over time if it isn’t carefully controlled by government.
Social democrats think good enough regulation can preserve that very-slightly-inequal system forever. But I say that kind of setup is inherently unstable. Capitalism will always trend towards inequality over time. Instead of trying to control money and make it go against its nature, we should abolish money. A gift economy would be better.