https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/21/whirlpool-ceo-says-hes-starting-to-get-worried-the-us-labor-shortage-may-become-structural.html

  • Gonzalo [they/them]
    ·
    3 years ago

    tfw you destroy the standard of living to the point that your wage slaves stop having kids

    :confusion:

    • hexaflexagonbear [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      We're a small pile of money away from Democrats doing a 180 on birth control and abortion.

      • Gonzalo [they/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        The Democratic party already has abandoned reproductive rights, that’s why they let those conservative supreme court justices through.

        They’re just not going to admit it publicly to the pay pigs who voooote for them.

        • cawsby [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          The neoliberals co-opted the women's liberation movement in the United States and made it mostly about abortion and white women breaking glass ceilings. Don't worry, we will always protect abortion, they said. Well, they didn't protect their seats on the supreme court and now we are in this mess.

          In the 1970's when socialists and labor were involved in the women's movement they were demanding universal healthcare, universal childcare, etc and if you might've noticed the democrats have completely abandoned or means-tested those programs to oblivion.

    • nohaybanda [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Tfw you've been exporting slavery worldwide and the labour aristocracy at the heart of empire is no longer necessary

      :porky-happy:

      • Gonzalo [they/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        Yup.

        On one hand: :sicko-yes:

        On the other hand: :sicko-no:

        • came_apart_at_Kmart [he/him, comrade/them]
          ·
          3 years ago

          it's because the capitalists can't outsource everything. the maintenance of the homes they own and the infrastructure they use, the people who raise their children, cook their meals, clean their laundry, bring them treats, rub their backs, who guard them while they sleep... none of that can be sent elsewhere.

          that's why they are freaking out. because they can't do shit for themselves. and if the price of labor goes up, the calculus of their fiefs might shrink.

  • RNAi [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    3 years ago

    One Billion Bumholes!

    • Matty Glesias
  • bort_simp_son [she/her]
    ·
    edit-2
    3 years ago

    Corporate media is gonna go full Handmaid’s Tale in the face of plummeting birthrates.

    “A tax penalty for not having children is brilliant, actually.”

    “Without One Billion Americans, WW3 could be stickier than expected.”

    “Why aren’t Zoomers having sex in their doomsday bunkers??”

    “Were reproductive rights a mistake? President Harris thinks so.”

    • cawsby [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      What they won't do is pay for childcare, parental leave, food, or housing.

    • PlantsRstillCool [des/pair]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      a tax penalty for not having children

      Wow I'd never thought of that but now that you mention it I can easily see that becoming a thing in about 10 years.

      Like i can already see their logic. Having kids supports the state, so if you won't have kids then you need to pay more.

      A couple of years of some light demonization in the media of childless couples by choice and i can see this being an easy sell to the demographics of Americans that they let vote

      • meme_monster [none/use name]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        Between incels, female dating strategy, and cohabitation, nobody's getting married anymore so it wouldn't work.

  • twitter [any]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Pls babies???

    No housing, no childcare, no family planning, no stability. ONLY BABIES :only-throw:

  • RedArmor [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    There is literally millions of people looking for jobs. Fuck I am looking for a new one but nothing will pay enough for me to apply.

    • Catherine_Steward [she/her]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I've been applying to shitty jobs with shitty bosses for shitty pay, even they won't hire me. "Labor shortage" my fucking ass.

    • star_wraith [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I actually think capital would genuinely be good with Yglesias' One Billion Americans idea. They need to continuously show not only profit, but increasing profit, or the system collapses. Since we know that the rate of profit tends to fall, this is a contradiction that capital must continuously fight. Most of the easy gains from technology have been absorbed and the global south is already highly exploited. They'll have to resort to either slavery or importing people into the imperial core to boost sales and profits.

      • bigboopballs [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        They’ll have to resort to either slavery or importing people into the imperial core to boost sales and profits.

        well, they're doing both, and I'm sure they'll dial it up until we go full Nazi Germany repeat

    • Three_Magpies [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      millions being disabled by a pandemic has something to do with it?

      Are long Covid cases in the millions? I hadn’t heard that anywhere

      • TheCaconym [any]
        ·
        3 years ago

        It's around one third of people that got COVID, regardless of the severity of their symptoms (though many do get better eventually after a few months). If we're talking people that actually had to be hospitalized, it's much higher - around 70%.

      • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Well if the USA is already approaching a million deaths, and getting serious long COVID is more likely than dying, well...

    • elpaso [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      I used to be an engineer at Whirlpool.

      They pay their assembly line workers $17 an hour at their only union plant in the US. It's 30 miles from any major city and the midwestern winters make the two lane roads icy. There are only two of those roads in, both two lanes with trucks on them frequently, and shift change can have thousands of cars on the road. I have seen a mind boggling amount of accidents out there.

      It's also a terrible place to work for other reasons as well. This guy being a good example.

    • ElGosso [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      It's amazing how well that meme dovetails with the liberal "have more babies" shit. Almost lathe-of-heaven vibes.