this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2023
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Work Reform
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A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.
Our Philosophies:
- All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
- Income inequality is the main cause of lower living standards.
- Workers must join together and fight back for what is rightfully theirs.
- We must not be divided and conquered. Workers gain the most when they focus on unifying issues.
Our Goals
- Higher wages for underpaid workers.
- Better worker representation, including but not limited to unions.
- Better and fewer working hours.
- Stimulating a massive wave of worker organizing in the United States and beyond.
- Organizing and supporting political causes and campaigns that put workers first.
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Seeing as they defined their terms, your insistence on having a linguistics debate is pointless. If their definition of the nebulous term "getting by" matches your definition of "decent" (another nebulous term), that's fine so long as what level you are actually discussing is defined. Which they did.
Beyond that, "decent" was never a word they used, it was a term I used quoting FDR in regards to the minimum wage, in regards to you talking about the minimum wage.
So I really don't see the point you are trying to make.
My point is FDR is wrong. "Decent" is not minimum or getting by. And this article is silly because a single person affording to live alone is far above "getting by".
Ah, well, that's a dumb point then. The article is silly, I've been saying that from the beginning. But again, your expectations for it are silly also.
If you mean he was categorically wrong because minimum wage has the word minimum in it, you are playing more linguistic games and are frankly just wrong. "Minimum wage" means the lowest financial compensation allowed, not the minimum number possible (which would basically be slavery). And by his definition, the intent was to provide a decent life to all American workers.
On the other hand, if you mean that in your opinion a full time worker in America does not deserve to live a decent life, then you are morally wrong. On the contrary, a business that can't afford to provide a decent standard of living for its employees does not deserve to exist. Though that I suppose, depends on the value you place on human dignity. If you don't think your fellow Americans deserve a decent life, then we simply don't see eye to eye, and as peer the golden rule, you are not worthy of dignity or respect either.