#class divide

[serenata-your-neighborhood-lefty]

Weekly reminder that trillions of dollars have been stolen from the working class, and that we shouldn't put up with it anymore.

[leftistcrap]

“If you worked harder, you would earn more.”

People work 60 hours a week and more in physically exhausting jobs that don’t pay enough to make ends meet.

“Well yeah, but those are jobs anyone could do! If you worked smarter, you would earn more.”

A significant proportion of low-paying jobs utilize specialized skills.

“Okay, but if you spend a considerable amount of time and effort towards education and training and condemn yourself to debt, financial insecurity and constant wage labor for an indeterminate amount of time, you may end up among the top 49% of the US population that earns more than $50k a year!”

But if everyone who worked in a low-paying job did that, we’d be left with severe labor shortages in hundreds of essential occupations. Wouldn’t it be easier and better for everyone for them to join a union instead?

“But don’t you know how corrupt those nasty unions are! Unlike business owners, who always have the interests of their employees at heart and never ever even think about exploiting them for profit! PLEASE DON’T MAKE ME PAY MORE FOR LABOR!”

[artfilmfan]

Class Divide (Marc Levin, 2016)

[bisexualseraphim]

USAmericans will literally live in a trailer working 3 jobs for $7 an hour surviving off gas station food and still call themselves ‘middle class.’

Here in the UK if you’re middle class you’re probably a neurosurgeon with a stable-barn and a mansion big enough to have its own name. US middle class is our working class.

Not got owt to say about it, just really fuckin weird innit. I’ve had a few USAmericans describe me as middle class and I’m like mate… I make half of what you do lol

EDIT: I have since been corrected on this!!! Please stop reblogging this without checking the notes first, I was quite wrong!!!

[everydayanalysis]

Amazon Turk and Inevitable Capitalism

Amazon's most amoral move yet is just around the corner.

Amazon has been a household name for years and has long been a huge corporation, but in the last 12 months it has become synonymous with global capitalism in new ways. Criticisms of its tax 'scandal' are partly responsible, though these judgements were in fact slightly misplaced; it’s quite normal for globally trading companies to declare their profits where corporation tax is lower. John Lewis jumped at the chance to appear ethical by distancing themselves from the practice, but their claim had nothing to do with ethics and simply sought to advantage companies that only trade in the UK, such as themselves. Regardless of people's growing suspicions and reservations, Amazon continues to take over the online world, with its share prices having doubled in the last two years. It’s now the 8th most visited website and has more traffic than Twitter. The general public are used to Amazon, so they may be surprised to hear that its biggest move is yet to come. Amazon Turk, currently online in BETA form, has the potential to take Amazon's power to new levels and drastically affect the employment market.

  For those who haven't heard of it, Amazon Mechanical Turk is a new part of Amazon’s 'marketplace' (note the traditionalist language) except that instead of goods, the product is labour. The site calls itself 'crowdsourcing', which means that businesses or individuals (known as Requesters) can post jobs and offer financial rewards for their completion. Workers (known as Turkers) can then complete the tasks listed for the reward offered, almost exclusively from their own computer. In only being paid the value of the task they have completed (or less) the individual becomes a resource whose only value is its direct use-value for the greater system (circumventing minimum wage and time-based valuations of labour). The average wage of a mechanical Turker, if they work quickly, is about one dollar per hour, with most tasks paid only a few cents. It follows typical outsourcing trends but seems oddly honest about doing so: Requesters have to be in the US, where Turkers can be from anywhere. The idea is to get small people doing tasks for big companies as cheaply as possible, with no workers’ rights and no ethical responsibility, as long as that benefits the right economy.

There are at least three major effects of this system. Firstly, it turns the individual into a resource or raw-material waiting to be harvested for the use of the bigger and more important system and order (see our previous analysis). If people are only its raw materials, the system appears to run without being under anyone’s control. Secondly, it centralizes the power and the appearance of power, reducing the scope for alternative systems to develop by increasing dependency on the central system as the provider of work (in this case quite specifically the dependency of the rest of the world on the US). Thirdly, it moves the Amazon Corporation from the secondary (selling goods) to the tertiary (selling services) sector, potentially meaning that all people in the wage market (not just the buying/selling goods industry of Amazon proper) no longer have to see or speak to each other. This feeds back into the first point; if no one has to see the people involved the system appears not run by people; people are only used by a system which proceeds in its own direction. 

All these effects are ideological as well as economic, they control the way we perceive the economic market. They contribute to the way media language posits 'the economy' as the root of all other social issues, the way that the economy appears a ‘driving force’ taking us in a direction that we can do nothing about. Thus, all three effects connect up – we are left with a centralized system which appears to run itself in which people are taken up and put down by its power but are powerless to change this. This centre is made invisible so that those in control can pretend not to be, making out that they share a powerlessness with those the system abuses. The name Turk comes from the chess-set trick conducted by Hungarian nobleman Wolfgang von Kempelen which convinced people that he had built a machine that made decisions using artificial intelligence when in fact it contained a chess master. In other words, Amazon knows exactly what it’s doing; tricking people into believing that capitalism runs itself to avoid responsibility for their part it in.

This is how it will justify itself to criticism, as it did more legitimately with the tax scandal, by saying that these things are happening elsewhere anyway, that they are part of modernity and not Amazon's responsibility.  What we are left with is an inevitability of capitalism and an obscured and invisible system in which it appears that there is nowhere to lay to blame.

The language used in our media to discuss capitalism is divided between speaking about impending collapse and inevitable continuation.  What goes unnoticed here is the removal of a third language that has been in use, referring to capitalism’s own future. Žižek has famously said that ‘it's much easier to imagine the end of all life on earth than a much more modest radical change in capitalism.’ With Amazon Turk this could really be realized, talk about what we can do to affect capitalism’s future will disappear because a trick has been played in which the system appears to be something that happens regardless of human actions. It is this trick, embodied perfectly by Amazon Turk, which allows those implementing these practices to exacerbate class divide and prevent resistance without admitting that they are doing so.

Get ‘Why Are Animals Funny?’, the book of Everyday Analysis, here

[thebookofmuses]

Class Divide

Anya arrived at the castle for the coronation on behalf of her family. Everything had been put in order. Luckily, she had arranged for Dmitry to join them on the trip. He was only a kitchen boy, but she had worked hard to get him a position as her protector during her travels. She knew that she was engaged to be married, but perhaps she could convince her father that as the youngest of four daughters that she could marry for love. It will help if he is higher up in station somewhere to make it more possible. After all her things had been settled, she left her chambers to meet the queen.

“Wait! Your Highness!” Dmitry called with a cloak in his hand. “Y-You might need this. If you and Queen Mary walk outside, it will get very cold.”

She smiled adoringly out him. “How thoughtful of you. Thank you Dmitry.” She took the cloak from him, letting their hands touch for a moment longer than normal before separating. He turned back to his work, and she let out a sigh as she walked away from him. She jumped to see the Queen of Scots. “Oh, forgive me, Your Grace. I did not realize you were there.”

@fandomvariety​

[shreygoyal]

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While only 7% of students in the UK go to private school, 65 % of senior judges, 57% of the House of Lords, 53% of Diplomats, 44% of newspaper columnists, and 29% of MPs are all privately educated. They are the authorities.

—Ben Tippet, Split: Class Divides Uncovered (Source)

[puppygirldick]

Being trans is too often like: *comes out* oh wow I can't wait to experience all this change and bodily autonomy i see other people experiencing that would literally change/save my life 𝘸𝘰𝘸!"

Only to realize that this like everything else is mediated by capitalism and for the most part the mitigation you need is behind inaccessible pay-walls like $7500-15000 for surgical procedures and hundreds a month for hormones that are only covered in another state or country

People are being forced to compromise their safety and wellbeing to save for and have access to live affirming/saving medical care because they can't afford not to, people who don't have to pay for this are essentially winning the birth lottery.

These people just get to 𝘣𝘦 in a way that people who can't afford to don't there's no crisis because there was no price on self actualization it wasn't complicated everyone is likely just as excited to be their fullest selves and those who can't afford it can only share and traverse their experience of artificial scarcity

[coffeelovinggayidiot]

There's a LOT of good things (and thing I personally love) that came from the assassination on Brian Thompson, but I think one of the best (and a personal favorite) is that it brigde the devide between republicans and liberals, especially those from lower classes, and it forces the 1% to see (and hopefully engage in) the conversation on class divised

[tabloidsuckass-blog]

She looked up as the train passed, and I was almost near enough to catch her eye. She had a round pale face, the usual exhausted face of the slum girl who is twenty-five and looks forty, thanks to miscarriages and drudgery; and in it wore, for the second in which I saw it, the most desolate, hopeless expression I have ever seen. It struck me then that we are mistaken when we say that 'it isn't the same for them as it would be for us', and that people bred in the slums can imagine nothing but the slums. For what I saw in her face was not the ignorant suffering of an animal. She knew well enough what was happening to her - understood as well as I did how dreadful a destiny it was to be kneeling there in the bitter cold, on the slimy stones of a slum backyard, poking a stick up a foul drainpipe.

George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier

[wingletblackbird]

The Nature of Ballroom Dancing

Prompt: Dance

Anakin has had to learn many things at the Temple, and while he has often felt ostracised, or frustrated, or out-of-place, he has loved it: It’s such a thrill, and Anakin has always been full of questions. Besides, getting an education was something he could only have dreamed of on Tatooine. Anakin has learned the standard things like math, science, and language studies. He’s also studied history, and politics, and military strategy. He’s enjoyed all of it, (even if language studies was one of the strangest and weirdest things to him. He speaks the wrong dialect of Huttese? Huh?) Still, one of the most truly ridiculous things he’s ever had to learn is “rich people dancing.” Well, technically, it’s called “ballroom dancing,” but Anakin thinks “rich people dancing,” or “ twirling around a fancy room stupidly” works just as well.

Seriously though, only rich people would dance like that. After all, only rich people, (and very silly ones he thinks), would build an entire room just to dance. You could totally use your credits for something better, like, I dunno, freeing slaves! Obi-Wan had explained that the purpose of the dance was to talk to your partner, and get to know them in an appropriate, chaperoned setting. The dance had developed as a means of meeting potential mates, and of forming ties, and political connections in a safe environment, rather than just going to war. This way words were used rather than weapons. It was an example of “civility.” Ballroom dancing, apparently, (Anakin is deeply skeptical of all of this), is a part of proper diplomacy. The way Anakin sees it though, if you’ve got something to say, and want to be allies, then just say it. You don’t need a fancy ballroom to do it in.

That’s when Obi-Wan had gotten cynical. First, the ballroom is fancy, which shows that the person hosting the ball is wealthy, powerful, and influential. He or she is making a statement. It takes money to go to war, and if you can prove you’ve got enough, it’s a form of protection. People won’t risk going up against you. Secondly, if you only talk to one group of people, the others might think you’re conspiring. This is called “secret diplomacy.” It makes other groups nervous. It’s caused wars before. Therefore, (that’s a high-class Coruscanti-Obi-Wan-Word), the whole ballroom setting serves a purpose. It gets everyone together. Anakin supposes that kinda makes sense, except that it’s really stupid people would go to war like that, (but people are stupid as a rule so…), and you can still show off your wealth if you spend it to free slaves. Of course, then you wouldn’t have the money, although you might have loyal citizens who would look up to you… In any case, it’s really all just a way for rich people to show off, and not do anything good with their money. At least, that’s what Anakin thinks. It’s a stupid system. The good politicians have to play the game, and most of them aren’t good anyway, so they keep it going. It’s all bantha poodoo. Obi-Wan thinks so too, even if he’s too posh to say it. Anakin figures he’ll just have to say it for him.

[personal-blog243]

Don’t get me wrong I know plenty of working class and lower class people who like Trump, but there is definitely something to be said about a class of “rich whites who THINK they are poor” and how that class of people specifically is arguably more likely to support the far right.

Trump literally has rallies for people who own BOATS which are definitely a luxury status symbol 🙄. And I bet they spend those rallies talking about how they supposedly “can’t afford a gallon of gas”. 🙄

[fanfiction-artist-prototype]

If anyone ever wants to tell you that there’s no such thing as a class divide, at this point in the time in the UK people are struggling to feed and house themselves working full time jobs (multiple in some cases) and at the moment there are councils having to consider scrapping free food packages for disadvantage/impoverished children because there isn’t enough money and I have heard the words “Yeah, I know I’ve gone abroad twice this summer but I don’t feel like I’ve done anything you know?” from someone who considers themselves my friend.

Everyone I know has spent the summer picking up jobs, picking up extra hours and everything they can to help their families keep afloat because we’re all either in poverty or low income baring the one upper class girl who decided she needed poor friends for people to believe she was a true socialist.

The only people who don’t think there’s a class divide are the people too rich to see it.

[docleonidas]

Part 3: Anger

Galon sat in the back of the transport, rubbing the side of his head as his Pnil partner carefully strapped the four cocoons into specially designed carriers, leaving each suspended and held snugly.

Unlike Avrin, the female Dre'en who was currently climbing into the driver's seat, Galon was the more logical of the two, a planner compared to her unhidden emotional side. His species, the Vrith, were all similar in that regard, with few, if any emotions visible at a time.

His symbiote, R'ylith, sat heavily, his large form making the transport rock before Avrin started the vehicle, causing it to wobble as it hovered off the ground, before building speed and turning towards the place they called home.

The journey was short, the compound just on the outskirts of the town, and the transport was relatively quick. Avrin swiftly pulled up to the gated entrance as two guards approached the vehicle.

Both guards were Arizome, bug type people with chitenous bodies and multiple legs. Easily a good 9ft tall, they were chosen as guards for the Pnil sector due to the fact their species could not be bonded with, Pnil eggs never seemed to hatch near them, so they were seen as safe around the symbiotes.

One of them leaned down to peer in the window, holding an electronic pad, which Avrin looked at and nodded, before stepping out of the vehicle and standing to the side. She and Jyren swiftly separated, standing apart from the transport as the Arizome used a scanner, a virtual grid encompassing the Dre'en. As soon as a green light lit on the screen, it proceeded to do the same to Jyren.

Galon sat, still strapped into his seat as the rear door was opened, the smaller Arizome chittering a few words Galon could not understand before holding a pad up in it's hand. The words INSPECTION, REMAIN STILL FOR SCANNING flashed over it as R'ylith nodded, though Galon could tell he wasn't happy.

Thankfully, the scans were quick, and another set of words flashed onscreen. TRIP NOT APPROVED. WHAT CARGO? MUST SCAN.

Galon sighed. "We had an unplanned Gifting." He stated, tilting his head. "We will comply with scanning". The bug like alien tilted it's head, running a scanner over each cocoon. Two flashed green lights, two flashed red.

VRITH MALE, SCAN ERROR, ONE LIFE FORM, THREE LIFE FORMS. UNABLE TO CONFIRM CORRECT DUE TO MOVEMENT. The Arizome looked at him accusingly. Galon looked questioningly back. "There are hatchling inside. I cannot make them stay still for you."

The Arizome clacked its antenna together, a symbol of annoyance. WILL BE REPORTING 8 LIFE FORMS CARGO. it typed in what seemed to be a huff, quickly backing out of the enclosed space. R'ylith grunted, getting up to close the doors. "Should have translator implants, is hard to understand." The symbiote complained, checking the cocoons had not been disturbed.

Before Galon could reply, Avrin got in the front, audibly swearing as Jyren tried to calm her down. "Something we should know about?" R'lith asked before Galon could stop him, causing Avrin to turn back in anger.

"They sold them already. " Avrin said, her face turning almost burgundy as R'lith leaned back. "The sold Zay and Ter'ce like....furniture for some Krelling rich mahimo. (Rough translation, fucking rich asshole)." Avrin angrily secured herself in her seat as the two Arizome made motions for her to move already. She glared at them as the vehicle glided forwards deeper into the complex. "They didn't even give us time to say goodbye." She huffed.

Galon waited a moment. "I know we have to do things like this to pay compensation to the families of the Gifting, and to help cover the costs of the hatchlings growing up, but it still feels wrong." He said calmly. "Even with all our colony jobs, we can barely maintain the complex"

Avrin said nothing, seething as she drove the transport up to the Doc's place to get the new hatchlings registered.

[urbangeographies]

CLASS DIVIDE:  Growing up with class and race in NYC

“Class Divide,” a new HBO documentary directed by Marc Levin, follows two groups of young people in NYC’s gentrifying West Chelsea neighborhood. On one hand are the kids who live in public housing. On the other are the young students at Avenues, an elite private school across the street. The two groups inhabit the same physical space, but the social distance is enormous. The Atlantic City Lab’s Tanvi Misra caught up with the filmmaker for an interview about this provocative project. 

Source:  Atlantic City Lab (3 Oct. 2016)

[junkieito]

For ages, the rich and their sycophants have written in praise of “honest toil", have praised the simple life, have professed a religion which teaches that the poor are much more likely to go to heaven than the rich, and in general have tried to make manual workers believe that there is some special nobility about altering the position of matter in space, just as men tried to make women believe that they derived some special nobility from their sexual enslavement.

Bertrand Russell, In Praise of Idleness and Other Essays