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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

#141

Post by ekianjo »

dgunay wrote: post #27
0max wrote: post #10

I wonder if Squid Game has had an impact. Gi-Hun had a flashback to an auto factory strike that was pretty traumatic that led him down the path to sign his life away to the game. https://labornotes.org/blogs/2021/10/real-life-auto-strike-b...

So many of their recent films with worldwide acclaim are about rampant classism and economic inequality. Even as someone not super in touch with Korean social sentiment, I still get the feeling that Koreans are getting super fed up with their status quo. Might not be "having an effect" so much as "reflecting the way they feel".

distorsion. poor people being exploited has been a common trope for centuries. Les Miserables anyone?

Ultimately the movie industry in Korea is made of very wealthy people parading like friends of the poor. very amusing.

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

#142

Post by m0zg »

Jcowell wrote: post #127
m0zg wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Allowing employers to control health care is not a good idea. Not that I disagree, but I'd like to point out that you're effectively advocating for all other employers to "cut" healthcare as well. As someone who pays my own (and my family's) healthcare to the tune of $16K/yr for a really shitty plan, I'd also say that _who_ pays is probably not the primary concern here. If it cost one third what it does now (which…

Lol no. Before government got involved a lot of people wouldn’t even have health care due to their pre-existing condition. The very nature of insurance makes it unprofitable in every means and no movement of a free market would change such. Linking Health Care to jobs is barbaric.

And now they don't have health insurance because they can't afford it, and even if they do have it, their deductable is often larger than the entire premium used to be. Whoop-te-do, wonderful government "progress".

Just like the costs skyrocketed when the government got involved in student loans, to the point where some folks now have to pay their loans their entire lives. It used to be that you could fund college through summer jobs. Nowadays even selling a kidney would only cover half a year in some schools.

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

#143

Post by m0zg »

Cederfjard wrote: post #106
m0zg wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Allowing employers to control health care is not a good idea. Not that I disagree, but I'd like to point out that you're effectively advocating for all other employers to "cut" healthcare as well. As someone who pays my own (and my family's) healthcare to the tune of $16K/yr for a really shitty plan, I'd also say that _who_ pays is probably not the primary concern here. If it cost one third what it does now (which…

Do you think healthcare providers could get away with such crazy prices if they had to negotiate with the government, instead of some insurance giant which in turn is bilking some corporation?

If anything, I'd say prices would get even crazier. Pfizer alone has almost a hundred lobbyists on payroll in DC.

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

#145

Post by strikelaserclaw »

lemoncookiechip wrote: post #59
mopsy77 wrote: 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 can tell you from personal experience that pretty much every Kdrama show I can think of, has the same narrative of the "Elite" being corrupt and abusing it's power and influence to do what they want vs the middle and poorer classes. Maybe not always as the focus of the story, but it's a common element. And it's not just the popular shows that make it big internationally. I guess it's ingrained into their culture. I…

sky castle - how even the most privileged people need to cheat to get admittance to elite universities (which are assumed to determine the life of a person).

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

#146

Post by strken »

qaq wrote: post #99
burnished wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any idea then number of people and the volume of resources that go to servicing the wealthy? Yes, I think we'd be doing better if there were fewer extraordinarily wealthy people. They aren't necessary to work together to achieve economies of scale, but they sure are fucking expensive.

Do you? Do you really think you can magically turn raw materials + work needed to build a super yacht into something of global consequence ? Or a Pollock painting will magically turn into a 1000 homes? Or that 1% consumes significantly more food? Most ultra-rich sh*t is immaterial to struggles of regular people. Even if 1%ers consumes extra 300 square meters of real eastate if you divide it across the 99% you will ge…

You're right when you say that the discretionary spending of the ultra-rich doesn't matter, but there are consequences to increasing or decreasing the percentage of capital they control.

If you e.g. diluted the S&P 500 by 20% and spread the new shares equally across the global population, it would definitely cause "something of global consequence" to happen, although I have no idea whether it would be world war 3 or a utopia.

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

#147

Post by ximeng »

barry-cotter wrote: post #30
PebblesHD wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I completely agree, but Tokyo also has sensible tax policies to encourage providing housing, and a government that aims for zero unemployment. I really like their model of ensuring jobs are available so people have money to consume private sector housing, and that there is always such housing available because there is always someone to consume it. There’s about 50 seperate policies places like Sydney and Seoul would…

If there is demand for housing and you do not make supplying that demand illegal someone will supply it. People live in dormitories in Hong Kong right now. Perfectly safe but middle class busybodies don't like flophouses, SROs or dormitories so they make it illegal. If it was legal to provide housing in San Francisco in dorms it would be done. If it was legal to build residential skyscrapers in New York Queens would…

https://hongkongfp.com/2017/02/16/1-killed-2-injured-blaze-s... The subdivided flats are not perfectly safe.

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

#148

Post by watwut »

mola wrote: post #77
watwut wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It is clever satire. And it is not nearly as simple movie as you this makes it to be.

When you actively watch for perspective in the movie, you will find it. You will find those 10 minutes that confirm what you want to see.

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

#149

Post by qaq »

strken wrote: post #146
qaq wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you? Do you really think you can magically turn raw materials + work needed to build a super yacht into something of global consequence ? Or a Pollock painting will magically turn into a 1000 homes? Or that 1% consumes significantly more food? Most ultra-rich sh*t is immaterial to struggles of regular people. Even if 1%ers consumes extra 300 square meters of real eastate if you divide it across the 99% you will ge…

You're right when you say that the discretionary spending of the ultra-rich doesn't matter, but there are consequences to increasing or decreasing the percentage of capital they control. If you e.g. diluted the S&P 500 by 20% and spread the new shares equally across the global population, it would definitely cause "something of global consequence" to happen, although I have no idea whether it would be world war 3 or…

my guess would be inflation

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

#150

Post by watwut »

seoulmetro wrote: post #112
watwut wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's because it wasn't about rich and poor and their roles in society. It was about rich and poor and how each one differs significantly. So many people read the wrong way into that movie and it's disappointing. It has absolutely nothing to do with "class clashing or class struggling against each other" no matter how much the media wants to make you think that.

They said that it is good analogy to class conflict tho. And it is. But not in the "class clashing or class struggling against each other" nor "good lower class against bad upper class" interpretations. The actual class conflict does involve lower class fighting among themselves for little. All while powerful class is mostly confused, occupied by own issues until it hits them and then try to contain the violence.

I think that movie just dont conform to Hollywood tropes. Hollywood movie would make victims obvious bad guys, perpetrators obvious good guys. It would also made poor people obviously lazy. People used to American production have problem interpret movie like Parasite. They read commentary and make above assumptions.

Parasite went out of way to show the rich family as caring about each other, oblivious and easy to manipulate, but not bad people all in all. And the poor family is caring among themselves, but they are not obvious good guys. And they are in fact hard working, very hard working.

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