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Half a million South Korean workers walk off jobs in general strike

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Re: Half a million South Korean workers walk off jobs in general strike

#71

> Nationalize key industries and socialize basic services like education and housing. Yeah, hopefully they don't achieve this.

In some countries with absurdly high house prices, I think some level of nationalisation of housing is an eventual inevitability. Much like Seoul, places like Sydney are so expensive that unless you already own a house, or are eventually going to inherit one, no amount of hard work or education can reliably get you into the market. Entry level prices within 25 miles of the city are around A$1.5m for a detached house,…

Housing is expensive because there is a lot of demand. By nationalizing or similar policy forcing people to sell cheaper all you achieve is creation of a class of preferential buyers (who are allowed to buy cheaply or get housing for free from the government) while excluding others from the market altogether. Those policies just hide the demand it won't magically disappear.

Things you can do are:

-increasing supply by changing laws around zoning, allow building more/higher etc.

-introduce policies that makes it more attractive to live in less populated areas where land is cheaper (hard to say what works but maybe better/faster public transportation, more wfh, preferential tax treatment for companies that move to other areas, if enough of that happens new business/population hubs might start)

Re: Half a million South Korean workers walk off jobs in general strike

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not building roads/apartments is not a solution, unless you really want to cosplay middle ages in your country. So you will have to build something , somewhere . Actually, roads and apartments are in counter-balance. More resedential high-rises in semi-walkable distance from business districts and public transit = less roads are needed (but there is still congestion due to bottlenecks). More spread-out houses - more…

Korea frequently tries to decentralize and build new districts and cities from scratch.It just does not work because of korean culture.

It does not work anywhere in the world. Business and people are quite content with "old" districts and cities.

Re: Half a million South Korean workers walk off jobs in general strike

#73

> Nationalize key industries and socialize basic services like education and housing. Yeah, hopefully they don't achieve this.

One day, hopefully we'll be rich enough to do this and not have it be a mess. Fullly automated luxury space communism is the goal.

Luxury and communism are opposites.

Compatible words with communism are miserable, corrupt, genocidal or tyrannical. You can pick whatever you want.

Re: Half a million South Korean workers walk off jobs in general strike

#74

> Nationalize key industries and socialize basic services like education and housing. Yeah, hopefully they don't achieve this.

Seems very ambitious for such a modest union, 1/36 of the working age population is a bit small if you're going to demand nationalisation. I guess this is one of these framing devices to make their real objective seem more palatable?

3.5% Rule. You only need 1/30th of the population to overthrow a government through economic non participation.

Re: Half a million South Korean workers walk off jobs in general strike

#75

> Nationalize key industries and socialize basic services like education and housing. Yeah, hopefully they don't achieve this.

I agree this would be a bad turn. In the US, it is frustrating to see the poor results produced by the public education system and teacher unions, particularly for K-12 education. The lack of competition and union power has led to an empty incentive structure, where teacher unions regularly oppose having their outcomes measured and don't fear needing to compete with better teachers or schools. Beyond that, organizati…

It's a US problem, not a socialised education problem, same for your social security system, it works in many many other countries

Re: Half a million South Korean workers walk off jobs in general strike

#76
Good for them

> Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed. I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break in pieces.

https://oll.libertyfund.org/title/kurz-the-discourse-of-volu...

Re: Half a million South Korean workers walk off jobs in general strike

#77
post #61
post #14

Maybe all these snowpiercer, squid games, parasite narratives are having an effect? Its like all these dystopic, zombie, monster, battle royale movies and shows are just expressing the never ending exploitaion and helplessness around people.

I did not found parasite to be exploitative, dystopic, zombie, monster, battle royalle movie? It was cross between comedy and something serious, but the rich family did not stricken me as all that horribly exploiting them.

I think you should rewatch it while actively looking for this perspective. I think it's a rather clever satire about class exploitation.

Re: Half a million South Korean workers walk off jobs in general strike

#78
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is not "the only" nor "the" reason.

Having said that, Bevan said this of the way he convinced doctors to join the NHS: "I stuffed their mouths with gold."

Context: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aneurin_Bevan#Minister_of_Heal...

Re: Half a million South Korean workers walk off jobs in general strike

#79
post #22

This already happened, yesterday.[1] About 16,000 people showed up for a rally in Seoul. [1] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/south-korea-squid-game-labor-un...

Never trust media on counts.

Went to some boat rallies that had many thousands of people and hundreds of boat. Highly impressive turnout.

Media reports made it out that barely anyone showed up.

Re: Half a million South Korean workers walk off jobs in general strike

#80
post #14

Maybe all these snowpiercer, squid games, parasite narratives are having an effect? Its like all these dystopic, zombie, monster, battle royale movies and shows are just expressing the never ending exploitaion and helplessness around people.

Well the article pretty clearly spells out the reasons, chief among them, you just need to read it >Abolish “irregular work” (part-time, temporary or contract labor with little or no benefits) and extend labor protections to all workers Or maybe a fucking tv show told them to do it...

That could make so much work and so many industries just impossible... If that wasn't possible, i could never be a programmer and i could never build my business later. None of my world would exist. I have no idea what i'd even do.
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