Comment on 996 isn't about productivity, it's about keeping workers' living expenses low
psx_crab@lemmy.zip 4 days ago
No, it’s about keeping worker locked down and denied them the time to rest or find another job. I work 51 hours a week and most people in my line of work tend to stay in line because they’re too tired physically and mentally to look for another job.
As we like to joke, all the money we earn we give it to doctor.
MangoCats@feddit.it 3 days ago
Well, really, it’s wage slavery. Work is all you have, and the pay you get is not enough to give you any freedom from the work.
As you say, you don’t have enough time / energy to go look for another job - such places also intimidate the workforce and arbitrarily fire workers who might signal that they are looking for another job (such firing probably being a favor in the long run, but not if you starve to death in the meantime…)
Ben & Jerry had it right with a 5:1 ratio. No person in a company’s time is “worth” more than 5x the value of another person’s time. Some incentive to develop skills, advance in your role, recognition of better performance, sure. At 5x, that should be enough to recognize your investment in yourself and your skills and your commitment to the company vs some guy who just shows up to push a broom. It wasn’t so out of line with “reality” when they did it in the 1980s, but today it just doesn’t work - the US is stratifying into classes/castes like the ones India is trying to abolish, just without explicit labels. The US system is based on how many digits are in your annual income figure: 4, 5, 6, 7, more?
UBI would go a long way toward rectifying all of this. Let business do what they will, provide every citizen with enough money to live, instead of 0 + whatever they can squeeze out of the bureacrazy by “demonstrating need.” If “illegals” can earn enough to live better here than elsewhere without any UBI, let them - if they get into financial trouble, give them assistance getting back to where they came from - otherwise: live and let live. At the very least, businesses would have to improve working conditions - otherwise the workers would just stay home until they find a better deal elsewhere. I can tell you from experience in the disabled community: people want work, they want to get out and have their value to society acknowledged with a paycheck - they also like to be able to buy shiny things. The current welfare system is a big bureaucratic stick hanging over their head threatening to beat them with benefit cancellation if they do get out and earn a little money.