The problem is, we need caps on profit margins on necessities, and to stop the making of things we need for basic survival investment opportunities.

But that would be difficult to get done. So they go for the low hanging fruit of wages, which never permanently solve anything because they’ll just keep raising prices under this scamflation cycle we’ve been in since COVID.

When all it takes to stop them is the nonbinding opinion of an unelected advisor, are they really trying, though?

They just repealed right to work in Michigan, and Meijer employees presumably used that leverage to significantly improve wages and benefits.

When will they finally increase it to something plausible, and then appoint some department to review and increase it in line with inflation every year according to XYZ rules.

Seems silly to need acts of congress to increase it every time.

*Pretending to try

Important distinction. Its an old tried and true election year chestnut they trot out every few years to hoodwink a few idiots. They refuse to use power when they have it, and cry about being unable to do anything when they dont.

inb4 - That they havent packed the court to unfuck Roe negates any point you may conceivably be contriving in the moment you read this. So save your breath.

Minimum wage is not the same thing as a living wage. The minimum wage should be a living wage, but it isn't.

See: NY. We just got our minimum wage increase and it's 15-16/hr depending on where you are in NY... That's what we were fighting for more than ten goddamn years ago. $15-$16/hr is an absolute joke on Long Island and NYC. I finally managed to claw my way up to 60k/year and as a single guy the thought of homeownership on long Island is as fantastical and far-fetched as a unicorn, forget about 15/hr... You can't even rent most illegal apartments at that income alone.

The conversation needs to be about what constitutes a living wage and how to calculate it at a given time for each area not just blanket minimum wage increases to specific numbers that sound nice to chant like "fight for fifteen."

Minimum wage and living wage are two very different things. Most Democrats absolutely do not support a living wage, and don't try to lie to us about how they do.

Why are they trying, and not doing tho?

Sure they do. Keep believing, any day now...

That may have been the point of the original comic, but given the caption, I think OP's point wasn't that both sides are bad, but was that a two party system is inherently biased towards corporate capture.

That’s the problem with this “both sides” take. Yes, there is no true leftist party in the US. They’re both corporatists. The Republicans are undeniably much worse, though. Anti-union, anti other labor rights, oppose every kind of social safety net, want to privatize (loot) and profit from public assets, are thoroughly in favor of racist classist policies of every type imaginable. Some democrats are too, but ALL republicans are like that.

We do get it. It's obvious. It's so obvious that the only people still supporting FPTP are in favor of it; they don't give a crap about selling us out to fascists.

And the "not fascists" angle worked a lot better when they weren't aiding a genocide.

And while that’s a choice between the lesser of two evils, it’s not a difficult one.

There's other choices. Moderates and Biden could choose to compromise with leftists and progressives any time. But all signs point to them preferring to lose to fascists a second time.

Corporations pay evil fascists to be evil fascist so you could choose "lesser evil"

Germany is as close to full employment as it gets.

I wonder what they do in 21st century when everything is mechanized and automated like never before.

How about spending some of your time and energy telling moderates they can either compromise with leftists and progressives or lose to fascists a second time?

It's not really propaganda when it's true, at least not in the negative sense of "false manipulative information." If it wasn't true we'd already have it. Republicans don't have complete control everywhere, and there are states where Democrats have complete control and they don't do it because corporations have complete control over most Democrats.

"We" have like a handful of actual progressives in the entirety of our government, state or otherwise.

🚫 Both sides are equally bad.

✔️ Both sides are bad, but not remotely equally so.

I've just started blocking these people

When it comes to the Federal minimum wage, they are equally bad, as is the point of the comic.

Then spend some of that energy telling moderates to start compromising with leftists and progressives if they don't want to lose to fascists a second time.

Lol, my primary choices 2024:

Biden

Democrats completely gave up on local elections in a purple county because it's in a red state.

If every person on Lemmy was a US citizen that voted for a single third party, it still would not make a difference.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/STAR_voting

STAR voting allows you to say "I refuse to vote for this candidate at all," which certain implementations of RCV do not. It can and has ended up with candidates no one wanted winning in Australia, and other places that have implemented RCV

None of these things will pass so long as moderates would rather lose to fascists than compromise with leftists and progressives.

Voting reform is absolutely the key… which is why neither entrenched party will do it, of course.

I'm so glad to see more people around here realizing this.

Can't remember which South American country did it, might have been Venezuela, but at least one of them has an official app. You register to vote on your 18th birthday, and get daily notifications about the various proposals at each level of government that applies to your address. They also created a team to boil the proposals down into plain language. You vote personally and the government has to, in theory, listen to the will of the people.

Of course that system will still be susceptible to propaganda, as evidenced by the fact that whatever country did it, still has some serious issues.

In the German system (or any other multiparty system), voters can effectively punish a political party without wasting their vote, because there is a lot of overlap between the parties.

If you don't like the current coalition but are a left-leaning person, you can vote for Die Linke. You might not agree with all of their positions but you at least can agree with some of them. Even if that is not palatable if you previously voted SDP you can switch your vote to Green or vice versa to punish the specific officeholders representing your constituency. If you voted for the FDP last time, maybe try Union next time. There are many ways to do this, and overall I think it makes the parties themselves more accountable to the voters because voters defecting their party list votes can drastically change the makeup of the Bundestag.

Similarly, right-leaning UK voters are punishing the Conservative Party by threatening to or actually voting for Reform candidates. Scots can punish the SNP by voting Labour.

You can't do this in the US. In the USA, the only recourse the voters have over the parties is to vote out undesirable candidates through primary elections so that the party cannot nominate them. This works alright, sometimes, but it is not an effective way to punish party leadership for bad decisions, and many primaries are uncompetitive anyway.

Same comic, just change the little guy to "Socialism 2024" and the two big guys to "DNC & Biden"

It's just shallow and disappointing.

Your idea of what politics is about has to be bigger than shitposting and trolling.

Go find one of the millions of times this has been explained already.

We definitely don't have a two party system. Trump came in and invented a whole new party just like that. We have republicans, democrats and trumpers.

Teachers are very educated and yet have very low wages. The problem is not that workers are not skilled enough, it is that system isn't giving them their fair share. All the profit goes to the rich, while poor are getting poorer.

Not sure what you have against minimum wage, it works well in other countries (I'm from the Netherlands). Obviously it doesn't solve everything by itself, but it's definitely a valuable part of a range of measures to treat people fairly. It's a fantasy that everyone can be educated to a level above minimum wage.

You need to learn a skill that leads to a living wage. Demanding politicians to directly do that

This is a perfect example of traditional neoliberal rhetoric, attributing success solely to individual effort and downplaying structural obstacles. It operates under the assumption that everyone has equal opportunities for success, which is simply not the case. This ideology perpetuates the existence of a low-wage sector for those who may not have had access to the same educational opportunities, such as migrants, single parents, and others facing systemic barriers. The American Dream, often touted as a symbol of success through hard work, is a myth perpetuated by neoliberalism. It is important not to buy into the narrative that one's circumstances are solely their own fault. Statistics show that social mobility is much lower in the US compared to many European countries, which further disproves the idea that hard work alone guarantees success.

But don’t demand stupid things like minimum wage

Wow. Let’s come back to reality for a moment.

There are millions out there that cannot afford to make themselves employable. They work long hours, possibly two jobs, plus a hustle just to not make enough for ends to meet. How do they go back to school? Learn a trade?

I am one of them, except I haven’t found my hustle yet. I work 40+ hours each week, but I take home so little. I was able to make rent two days ago, for last months rent. I have to hold off on a one of my meds, because paying rent took precedent over everything else, again. People like me don’t give a shit about programs that cannot help us in the short term. We already know our long term: work until we die, with nothing to show for it.

We could turn down the heat, so that the frogs might be able to escape their boiling fate? No, let’s design a better pot that won’t boil the frogs. The ones in there now won’t make it, but their progeny will also likely…not make it.

You ought to check yourself before you call what can be a major relief for millions, stupid. Seriously.

This is actually pure bullshit, by the way! Minimum wage is proven to be beneficial.

The solution is UBI.

Sure, it is my fault that even though there is enough food and most of the farming is automated, I still need to work for it because I don't own the land. We shouldn't ask them to fix it for us, they never will. We need to take control of the land that feeds us.