this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2023
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Showerthoughts
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The power a government has over you, and the power your employer has over you, are totally different.
The government is legally authorized to separate you from your possessions, your freedom, and even your life in extremis. Your boss can't do any of that and if they try the government should stop them.
Some people believe democracy is what prevents the government from punishing you capriciously, or allowing corporations to just do whatever they want to you. So they are willing to die to defend it.
I would say traditional liberal ideals are closer to what they'd want to defend than democracy itself, and I don't 100% agree in either case, but I can see the point of view.
If you think your boss can just murder you I'm not sure what to tell you.
Take out a gun and shoot you on the factory floor, probably not. But deliberately and systematically violate safety regulations with impunity, expose workers to materials known to cause health issues and cover it up for decades, or just threaten you with loss of the income you need to survive? Employers do that all over the country, on a daily basis.
This is true. On the other hand, it is the government's job to uncover and persecute this. Obviously it could do a better job of it, but OSHA and the EPA actually do police employers for exactly these sorts of violations.
Yeah if departments like OSHA and the EPA didn't enforce safety laws and shit there would be a lot more industrial death videos on LiveLeak than there is now
not feasible when those same bosses lobby to keep those institutions toothless
Exactly.
I mean there's a history of employers actually killing employees for unionizing. It's not a secret.
My boss is slowly killing me. He claims 8 hours of my life every day, except weekends, and who knows how many I have left.
I don't think most people would consider this slowly killing you, except in the most metaphorical sense.
I will break far before I'm allowed to retire
there was just a work email put out where I work about how employees shouldn't be going to the bathroom super often and if they are in the bathroom they should only be doing bathroom things.
I can't report them for that but it is fucking extreme and dehumanizing. To be policed in the bathroom. Because company time is more important than bodily functions. Or whatever other reason someone might be in the bathroom.
I get this sucks but you can quit your job and walk away from your employer, theoretically.
If the government decides to separate you from your possessions, your freedom, or your life, you can't walk away from it and find a new government.
Your boss and your government are just totally different.
Yeah and be homeless.
And I don't participate in government shit unless I have to like taxes cause they'll come for me if I don't pay for them kind of thing.
I mean that's the difference right there, right? If you quit your job, you're homeless. If you don't pay taxes, you're arrested.
Homelessness is almost always illegal either directly or indirectly through loitering laws, hostile architecture, bans against begging etc.. Also, they almost always have zero protection from criminal behaviour directed at them (from either other citizens or the police themselves). Thinking there is legal room for being homeless is a pretty ignorant take no matter where you are from.
what? Depends on the numbers I think.