#corporate greed is constantly on my mind these days bc of the shit my employer is doing

[renee-mariposa]

So I'm reading Utopia For Realists

This book feels very frustrating to read because he talks about social phenomena, wonders aloud about them, then puts forth his conclusions - and it feels like he's missing a huge piece of the social phenomenon, and as a result, I'm wondering if his conclusion is flawed. And it's infuriating!

Most recent example I've read so far: he talks about the history of the Reduced Hours Work Week (4 day work week, 15-hour work week, etc), noting the rise in popularity of the idea in the twentieth century, then the sudden halt of progress in making the idea reality, noting that women entered the workforce in the 80s (attributing it solely to "the feminist revolution") and workers in the Netherlands ("the nation with the shortest workweek in the world" he claims) being expected to be on-call more and more in the 2000s. He presents these things without any context or commentary, as if they were just an incidental finding in 'our modern life'. Like, 'gosh, everyone wanted a shorter work week but then women entered the workforce and now everyone is just required to work more hours! Crazy stuff, huh?'

Along with this, it really feels like he's looking at populations in a country as one unified whole, wealth-wise. So, for example, he makes claims several times to the tune of, 'the US is several times as wealthy [today, in 2014] as in XYZ time." So he goes on to ask aloud, 'how are Americans so wealthy and yet so overworked and stressed?'

And like. It feels like there's this huge elephant in the room he's missing: why is he not addressing the presence of and effect of stagnant wages and skyrocketing rent/grocery/daycare/medical costs when talking about these social problems he's addressing? Why is he not addressing Regan's empowering of corporations to be as greedy as possible i mean the effect of Trickle Down Economics on the US economy? Why is he not addressing the fact that 1% of Americans hold, what, 99% of the wealth in the USA? Why isn't he addressing the decline of unions? Why does he make it sound like 'the people' loved these ideas then turned away from them, when it was more likely 'the people' have always loved these ideas and it's corporations who hated them and gained enough power to stamp the ideas out? I know that the term 'enshittification' didn't exist when this book was published but I can feel the absence of the idea like a cardboard cutout in almost every argument he makes. Has the US econonomic situation really gotten so much exponentially worse in the last decade that these problems are only clearly visible now vs 2014???? I read his book and all I can think is, the problem is unchecked corporate greed, the problem is corporations being allowed to grind people up for profit, the problem is the government being allowed to treat the poor as less than human because "people can only be poor if they're bad people, and bad people don't deserve any help".

Like. I can accept that I am probably not the target audience for this book. I already believe that laziness does not exist, and if we give people UBI and more leisure time people will be happier, healthier, and more 'productive' (i.e. do the things they actually want to do). I already believe whole-heartedly that to improve the health of the population, poverty must be alleviated, and to alleviate poverty, you just gotta give people enough money to live on with no strings attached. I am convinced that we need to crack down on corporate greed, but I'm absolutely overwhelmed with how much legal power corporations have in the USA. I feel utterly defeated by how my corporate employer treats the entirety of their workforce (cutting the budget at my hospital while the CEO of the head corporation makes 395 times the median wage of non-C-suite employees), how much bitching and moaning and furious lobbying they'd do if they had to comply with a four-day workweek or even a four- or six-hour workday for all employees. And if that got passed into law they'd find a way to make an exemption for nurses, so nurses would have to keep working 12- and 14-hour days. Mega corporations - unchecked corporate greed - monopolies - are a fucking tumor on the human race, but shrinking them would fundamentally alter our economy as we know it.

I guess this book is frustrating to read because it feels like he's trying to convince regular people that these ideas are good. Which is admirable! If I would've read this book in 2014 it would've blown my mind. Convincing people that helping the poor helps everyone is very admirable! And I suppose if enough regular people become convinced of these ideas, then there will be more power on our legislature to actually implement them. It's just frustrating to me that he's utterly ignoring the presence and effect of corporate greed. And he's not necessarily addressing the people who have the power to get the ball rolling on these changes.