• UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      The collapse is inevitable.

      The Vanderbilts and Rockerfellers and JP Morgans weren’t the ones bankrupted by the Great Depression. Elon Musk will not be the protagonist of the next Steinbeck novel. The “collapse” will just be further economic consolidation, until the people being squeezed are willing to resist their own exploitation as a collective unit.

      If the stock market loses 90% of its value tomorrow, all that changes is valuation. The physical capital remains in the hands of the plutocrats as does the command over the bulk of human labor. And the pain we feel will be the consequence of policies they impose, not any real shortfall of goods or dearth of professional services.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      Texas Can’t Keep Up with Surge in Workers’ Wage Theft Complaints

      Research by Round and her colleagues found that TWC ordered $99 million in wages ordered due across over 57,000 cases between 2010 and 2020, but 80 percent of those wages had yet to be recovered as of 2024. The TWC told the Dallas Morning News in 2023 that it could not verify Rutgers’ findings since it lacked access to the methodology.

      “Collections is a difficult problem. It’s like collecting against any debt. If the money’s not there, the money’s not there,” Round said. TWC’s current enforcement and deterrent tools vary. Penalties of up to $1,000 can be imposed on bad-faith employers, the agency can order the employer’s bank to freeze funds and turn them over, or it can file a lawsuit against the employer. A lien is also attached to an employer’s property after a final determination of owed wages, which could force employers to pay back owed wages if they try to sell the property. There are currently more than 11,000 active liens totaling over $127 million, according to state data.

      The number of investigators, however, is dwindling. As of earlier this year, there were just 611, the lowest point in decades nationwide, according to Rutgers University researchers. As of May 2025, there were only 68 federal investigators assigned in Texas—one for every 232,000 workers. A review of federal data shows that the total wages federal investigators ordered to be paid back in Texas is the lowest it’s been in 21 years at $7.5 million in the 2025 fiscal year, compared to tens of millions in prior years.

  • nonentity@sh.itjust.works
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    7 days ago

    Financial obesity is an existential threat to any society that tolerates it, and needs to cease being celebrated, rewarded, and positioned as an aspirational goal.

    Corporations are the only ‘persons’ which should be subjected to capital punishment, but billionaires should be euthanised through taxation.

    • OldChicoAle@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      So glad I went to college and grad school to get a job at a biotech, helping produce life saving drugs, just to barely live paycheck to paycheck with 5 digit credit card debt.

      The amount of times I think about suicide is too high for my liking. Honestly why do people even have kids anymore. Fuck this place.

      • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        That’s why I dropped out. Sophomore year, I was calling a bunch of places to get an internship, and the answer was always the same… “We only do unpaid internships, and you pretty much need a master’s in your field to get in.” I dropped shortly after that and saved myself from spending another 20 grand on a STEM degree that would get me less per hour than a pizza delivery driver.

        • OldChicoAle@lemmy.world
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          7 days ago

          It’s wild. Entry level positions at my job now make twice as much as when I had those positions. Like why go for a promotion if doing less will let you take home almost as much

  • itisileclerk@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    History is full of former evil empires. USA is number one on that list. It is The most evil society ever build and the world would be bettet without.