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Did my old job only exist because of fraud?

david.newgas.net

331–340 of 457 posts

Re: Did my old job only exist because of fraud?

#331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Properly planning the economy, ala the Chinese tier system, is a good thing. They have 3 tiers. Its called 新基建 - *Xīn Jījiàn Top tier is for essentials like food, electricity, internet/comms, water, sewer. Heavily controlled, usually state owned companies. Middle tier is stuff that's integrated into essential tier. Lower tier is forefront of tech, and not at all critical for life. And a reminder that even fucks like…

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> Every non capitalist would force you to work in random job they assign

Nope. Most non-capitalist systems have a competitive school environment. Students compete for education slots for the careers they want to work in. The only people who end up assigned work are those who have basically no aptitude for higher careers.

> force you to obey some rule or law they wrote for their own interest.

There is no society, capitalist or otherwise, that isn't governed by some set of arbitrary laws, usually for the interest of the state but not always. See, for example, the MJ ban in the US.

> you don't want to do the job? or dont want to follow the law and rules? fine! go to gulag and enjoy it there.

What happens if you don't want to work in a capitalist society or you don't follow the laws? We have a gulag in the US that people are being sent to. Utah just recently criminalized homelessness.

> alternatively, non capitalist eras had real famines and lead to millions starving and dead.

Non-capitalist eras? I don't think there has ever been a true non-capitalist era. Even under the feudal system, that was still capitalism just at it's extreme "might makes right" era. Serfs were forced to do their work because of contracts they signed with their lords for protection. They had to work the fields, in exchange for housing.

There's also plenty of famines caused directly by capitalism. The most infamous one being the Irish potato famine. Ireland is extremely fertile and at the peak of the famine they had bumper crops. The reason the famine happened is because poor irish citizens relied heavily on growing crops for personal sustenance in small gardens. Potatoes being one of the most calorie dense foods for a small patch of land. When blight hit the potatoes, there was not an alternative crop these citizens could get the calories from their small land plots.

Meanwhile, they'd be working giant grain fields and maintained cattle herds which were already sold to english markets.

This famine was entirely from capitalism. The land and the people grew plenty of food, but the capitalists cared a lot more about the wheat and cattle and not the people so the Irish starved.

> putting a price for product/service after risking lots of capital is the real enemy

Yup, in the Irish market that was literally the real problem. The price was higher than the Irish wages.

> why biggest famines mostly happened in non capitalist places is real historical detail with lots of facts.

I think you are mostly just unaware of famines. Not all, for certain, have been caused by capitalism. A decent chunk have been.

Re: Did my old job only exist because of fraud?

#332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Properly planning the economy, ala the Chinese tier system, is a good thing. They have 3 tiers. Its called 新基建 - *Xīn Jījiàn Top tier is for essentials like food, electricity, internet/comms, water, sewer. Heavily controlled, usually state owned companies. Middle tier is stuff that's integrated into essential tier. Lower tier is forefront of tech, and not at all critical for life. And a reminder that even fucks like…

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The irony of defending capitalism's record on human rights with that username...and I'm speaking as someone who likes capitalism.

Re: Did my old job only exist because of fraud?

#333

In Canada this is a huge scam. The government advertizes that it's funding incubators. Great, right? The money doesn't go to the start ups - it all goes to large tech companies like IBM, etc, because, obviously, IBM knows about innovation. The cover is that the government doesn't know tech so it will give money to trusted partners and they will choose who to give the money to because they've been doing such a great j…

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Re: Did my old job only exist because of fraud?

#334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you were salary and not benefitting from it, there's literally no chance you would have gone to jail. This was the equivalent of panicking about running a yellow light in terms of overreaction. The only thing you had to do was write an email, cc your personal email, and tell your boss you think the punches are messed up and that they reflect more than you worked. Your boss would tell you not to worry about it and…

I love when people on the internet think they know better than lawyers about a situation they are barely familiar with.

If I call a lawyer and ask them whether I should jaywalk or not the lawyer will advise me not to jaywalk.

Re: Did my old job only exist because of fraud?

#335

As a junior software engineer, I worked at a large UK bank. Senior management routinely seem baffled that they could announce redundancies or hiring freezes, yet technology costs would continue to rise. One pattern I saw repeatedly was a contractor being let go, only to return via a large outsourcing provider. The provider must have added a substantial markup despite supplying the same engineer back to the same team,…

Most large corporations treat these categories of employment as different budget line items with different rules and limitations: (1) full-time employees, (2) individual contractors, and (3) large contractor "body-shops" or outsourcing providers. Many times in my career, I have seen layoff a few from (1) then way over spend on (2) or (3). The mid-level manager who makes the decision gets to "claim" that expenses were…

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Re: Did my old job only exist because of fraud?

#336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Managers love the idea that contractors can be fired more easily than employees. Except that this flexibility comes at a cost; people insist on being paid more to have an insecure job. The uncertainty never goes away. You can pay someone else to suffer it, but it will always cost more than dealing with it yourself. And that can be ok. Just don't fool yourself into thinking you're getting a bargain.

> Managers love the idea that contractors can be fired more easily than employees. Except that this flexibility comes at a cost; I noticed this early, and spent the first half of my career leaning into it. If you negotiate every gig as a contract, you get to double (or more) your salary. And the only thing you're trading away is job security which, if you pay attention, you'll notice doesn't actually exist for your s…

What happened that made you switch away from contracting?

Re: Did my old job only exist because of fraud?

#337
post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hardly complicated! OP is simply describing what is common throughout government in the UK. This is known as the Revolving Door . Private Eye magazine wrote a special report on it some years back as, frankly, it is scandalous https://www.private-eye.co.uk/pictures/special_reports/revol... [PDF]

The revolving door is a completely different phenomenon, and it is a problem for a completely different reason. It's about politicians in positions of power over an industry later becoming business leaders or highly paid consultants in said industry. This is a huge problem because it works as a long-term bribe: instead of paying for the politician today and inviting inquiries and problems, you make an implicit promis…

Not to take away from your point, but the revolving door is also good because the experts should be the ones who make the rules. There are too many details about every niche that smart non-experts will get wrong and so we need experts.

Good luck reconciling these two conflicting points.

Re: Did my old job only exist because of fraud?

#338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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> Every non capitalist would force you to work in random job they assign Nope. Most non-capitalist systems have a competitive school environment. Students compete for education slots for the careers they want to work in. The only people who end up assigned work are those who have basically no aptitude for higher careers. > force you to obey some rule or law they wrote for their own interest. There is no society, capi…

> There's also plenty of famines caused directly by capitalism. The most infamous one being the Irish potato famine. Ireland is extremely fertile and at the peak of the famine they had bumper crops. The reason the famine happened is because poor irish citizens relied heavily on growing crops for personal sustenance in small gardens. Potatoes being one of the most calorie dense foods for a small patch of land. When blight hit the potatoes, there was not an alternative crop these citizens could get the calories from their small land plots.

Unfortunately thats only a portion of the story. They had LOTS of crops and meat. The Irish were not *permitted* to eat any of it on threat of death by the English.

Ireland was an occupied country since Elizabeth met with Pirate Queen Grace O'Malley in 1593 up to 1921, where half the country won their freedom. Northern Ireland still is a territory of England.

Prior to that, during The Famine, the Irish were forced to ship all "good" food to England. That left them to eat predominantly potatoes. We all know about the monoculture, and the potato blight.

As a corollary, Irish are to Potatoes, as Black Americans are to chicken and watermelon. Its a massive racial insult, and similar in magnitude.

But no, it was the predominant capitalist country of that age that systematically drained all wealth from Ireland. As is the story of capitalism everywhere.

Re: Did my old job only exist because of fraud?

#339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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And in my experience, the capitalists are SUPER OBSESSED with tallying exact numbers of dead by Communist countries. Of course in the USA, "Nobody dies due to capitalism!" It's always a 'personal decision'. Medicines gatekept? Talk to a doctor (state-controlled monopoly) Go to the doctor? Cant afford it? Go die! :) Have a nasty disease that will kill you, but pills purge it? $80k please. And insurance wont pay. Hope…

Inside non capitalist places, those solutions dont even get to EXIST. Nobody even cares about nasty disease solution and funding. They don't get invented or they are not allowed for your use, by design. This is a very narrow view and what a word salad.

Now tell me name of the great "Communist countries" that exist today and they are big and have lots of great things to pursue humankind and human lifespan.

I will wait for the name of those counties :)

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