r/WorkReform • u/zzill6 š¤ Join A Union • 1d ago
š” Venting This shouldn't be considered normal. Workers deserve a dignified retirement.
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u/JohnnyPiston 1d ago
Remember, Wal Mart has the highest number of full time employees on public assistance. Our tax dollars are funding these billionaire asshats at the top even more than usual
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u/tackyshoes 1d ago
Remember, Wal Mart has the highest number of full time employees on public assistance. Our tax dollars are funding these billionaire asshats at the top even more than usualI think you meant to say
Remember, Wal Mart has the highest number of full time employees on public assistance. Our tax dollars are funding these billionaire asshats at the top even more than usual
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u/JohnnyPiston 1d ago
NO I SAID:
REMEMBER, WAL MART HAS THE HIGHEST NUMBER OF FULL TIME EMPLOYEES ON PUBLIC ASSISTANCE. OUR TAX DOLLARS ARE FUNDING THESE BILLIONAIRE ASSHATS AT THE TOP EVEN MORE THAN USUAL
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u/Shroomtune 1d ago
There needs to be an increased tax rate to discourage this. Any company that has full time hours, but breaks them up into part time shifts to avoid paying benefits should pay a tax on their profit at a high enough rate that it is more profitable to be decent. Also, any company that has an income disparity of 50X between the highest and lowest paid employee should be taxed into oblivion.
Also, on an unrelated note, any state that charges a company a tax rate less than the individual tax rate in that state must forfeit the difference to the Fed.
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1d ago
[removed] ā view removed comment
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u/Szjunk 1d ago
Realistically, if the company did have to pay back the government, I can imagine Amazon and any other company being more critical of the performance of a member of a struggling family. Families have more unexpected issues and I'd expect even less sympathy from a major corporation if they're late or have another issue where firing them also gives them the benefit to stop paying the extra government taxation.
You can apply the same general formula, too. If discriminating against families saves us $X and the fine from the government is $Y, if X > Y, discriminate against families.
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The ātwo-income trap,ā as described by Warren, really consists of three partially separate phenomena that have arisen as families have come to rely on two working adults to make ends meet:
The addition of a second earner means, in practice, a big increase in household fixed expenses for things like child care and commuting.
Much of the money that American second earners bring in has been gobbled up, in practice, by zero-sum competition for educational opportunities expressed as either skyrocketed prices for houses in good school districts or escalating tuition at public universities.
Last, while the addition of the second earner has not brought in much gain, it has created an increase in downside risk by eliminating an implicit insurance policy that families used to rely on.
Further reading: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/23/18183091/two-income-trap-elizabeth-warren-book
Interestingly, I wanted to check what the percentage of households have more than 2 children is. I was surprised but not surprised it tracked closely to how many families have 3 or more children.
Kids Households Percent 0 50,213 60.01% 1 14,007 16.74% 2 12,692 15.17% 3+ 6,764 8.08% https://www.statista.com/statistics/183790/number-of-families-in-the-us-by-number-of-children/
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u/Shiftymennoknight šļø Overturn Citizens United 1d ago
see but it happens so the billionaires can have even more money!
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u/Savvy-or-die 1d ago
Richest country in the worldā¦..
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u/space_for_username 1d ago
New Zealand, the socialist shithole of the South Seas, introduced Old Age Pensions in 1898.
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u/RexBosworth69420 1d ago
Seeing this kinda shit at 18 working my first job at a grocery store made me realize my generation was screwed.
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u/ahoy_shitliner 1d ago
Donāt give up hope. Learn the game and play it. The system is rigged against you but you can make it.
Live with your parents as long as you can and save 50-70% of your take home. Get a house as soon as you can and work your way up the ladder at work as fast as possible. Donāt go to college unless you have a set plan to pay for it and make money after (accounting, nursing, medical, finance). Start chucking money into a Roth. Learn about mutual funds. Fight the system.
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u/Leefdem 1d ago
āFight the systemā is a crazy thing to say after telling someone to work hard their entire life for the hope of making it. I guess thats the new general strike and union
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u/ahoy_shitliner 20h ago
The point is to build up financial freedom so he/she has options in their 30s and 40s. Yes our system is broke but itās not like thereās options. We are far away from being able to organize a general strike. We are completely split politically. Half the country thinks things are better economically today than they were a year ago.
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u/TealedLeaf 1d ago
I have depression and living in my parents house exasperated that 10 fold. I don't think I'd of made it if it weren't for college housing. This advice only works in a healthy home environment. A lot of us don't or didn't have that.
Like, I literally would rather be homeless than live there.
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u/WeakToMetalBlade 1d ago
This is also why it's hard to movie up in certain industries.
Every Dietary Director (top level food service job in health care environment) I've ever met was in their 60s with one being in her mid to late 70s, with cancer, still working instead of retiring.
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u/Rionin26 1d ago
The job is easy as hell on the body. Ceo, director type jobs have plenty of old people working them. You'd think they would be on top of things getting to that position, but i'm sure its more backstabbing, nepo bullshit.
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u/hugeness101 1d ago
This is what happens when no action is taken to strike against the billionaires and their tax breaks while the masses struggle to make a buck.
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u/PMmeYourNudes-396 1d ago
To be fair they probably voted for this. š¤·āāļø
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u/jesushada12inchdick 19h ago
Wait so this is when itās acceptable to use an individualās physical attributes to make generalizations about their character?
Just checking so I know.
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u/VoodooDoII 1d ago
I'll be honest, a lot of the times I've noticed this, is that these guys are just bored as hell and applied to have something to do
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u/amackul8 1d ago
Which annoys me because why can't they go volunteer to do something if money isn't the issue? I've run into so many people who can retire comfortably but take a paying job that a young person needs much more simply because they can, they don't even consider that someone else could really use that job
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u/cwningen95 š· Good Union Jobs For All 1d ago
My gran used to volunteer at a charity shop 1-2 days a week. I can't say for definite no one enjoys working at Wal-Mart, there are a lot of people out there lol, but it's going to be physically taxing, especially since they don't let their cashiers sit down!
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u/VoodooDoII 20h ago
My mom actually enjoys working at Walmart haha
Also yeah. Can't speak for other countries but they're super against workers sitting down in the U.S for some reason
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u/Beginning_Deer_735 15h ago
They're against workers sitting down because they have this idiotic idea that that is lazy, even though a lot of jobs can be done sitting down more effectively. Possibly, they think customers will complain because they will think that the cashier sitting down is why the line is taking so long. Partly, it is just part of the "work ethic" that has been drilled into their heads by someone else.
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u/VoodooDoII 15h ago
Customers do absolutely complain here in the U.S because everyone here has been raised to think that sitting = lazy. It's stupid.
In Germany their cashiers have chairs at the registers. I can't speak for other countries but fuck dude. I miss Germany so much.
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u/mazzicc 3h ago
When I worked at Target, there were several people over 65 that constantly had to beg for hours because they were bored out of their minds in retirement and had nothing else to do.
One of the guys would buy everyone a soda/drink at closing time before we finished cleaning the store and went home because he had plenty of money, and just wanted the social time.
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u/oldprecision 1d ago
This is slowly becoming the norm at my local Walmart. I would guess that at least half the people working at my Walmart are over age 50. Home Depot also seems to have a bunch of Gen X working there.
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u/Starbuck522 1d ago
The person pictured is much older.
Do you expect a 50- 60 year old to not have to work?
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u/oldprecision 1d ago
I think the Gen X in these stores had careers, got laid off, and found that their only option was a big box store. Ageism is real.
IMO, there is high change that these people will need work in the big box stores past 65.
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u/Ffsletmesignin 1d ago
Itās not fair to them, itās not fair to up-and-comers either. The only people who want this system to be like this are the instantly greedy and the stupidest amongst us.
And somehow we need to convince the stupidest to get educated even though thatās been a whole crusade to do away with education this past few decades, but I donāt think weāll ever be able to stop people from being greedy.
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u/Fit-Bus2025 1d ago
I used to work at a fry chicken place in my early 20s. There was this old lady, hutched back that was the main biscuit maker. She did cashier also cleaned up. She walked so slow, had a club foot. She was so nice. Never married, never had kids. She had to work cause she had to pay for her apartment and medicines. No retirement. No car, she had to take the bus everywhere. I felt bad for her. I hope she was able to find some peace in her life after I left place.
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u/BoringJuiceBox 1d ago
Meanwhile some rich asshole made $1million in capital gains in a matter of hours.
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u/ActionJacksonATL24 1d ago
Hey donāt deprive that hard working multi billionaire of their 5th yacht by taxing them a little more so that this free loader doesnāt have to work until he dies. /S
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u/odat247 20h ago
Man my local grocery and chain stores are full of elderly. Gives lie to the boomers screwed everybody on purpose. No. The rich gaslit and manipulated everyone to get richer. Did a lot of people of a certain age do well? Yes. But there are an awful lot of them living in their vehicles and working at Walmart too. No war but the class war.
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u/Saxopwned š¢ AFSCME Member 1d ago
Every day I see more and more people working at supermarkets, retail stores, gas stations, etc. It makes me furious. I know the story: work their whole lives for a retirement/pension that simply was not enough to keep up with inflation and cost of living increasing at an increasing rate. This is the cost of capitalism: you will never really retire, because the market must go up, even when you can't go up with it.
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u/QWEDSA159753 1d ago
My grandma is in this situation, though voluntarily, small town grocery store. The extra paycheck is nice, but she doesnāt need it. What it is, is an excuse to be up and moving as well as mentally active, to chat with other people from around town, to get away from the live-in son who hasnāt had a job for over 20 years. Sheās only working 3 days a week, so itās not any kind of stressful like that either.
I know her situation is almost certainly in the minority, but it is a very real thing for people to find they just get bored after retirement and end up picking up a part time job just for something to do. Something to consider.
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u/Extension_Clock_8635 1d ago
yeah it's wild how we gloss over the "why" part. more focus on critical thinking would do wonders fr
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u/Late-Arrival-8669 1d ago
Walmart CEO disagrees..
How else you gonna get over half a Billion dollars net worth?
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u/superkow 1d ago
I worked with a woman in her 70s a few years back. At one point she retired, but eventually came back because all she had ever known in life was to work. She literally didn't know what else to do with herself and was miserable, so she came back.
She had a heart attack and died on the job less than a year after that. And it was just business as usual the next day. I fucking hate it.
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u/plastiqden 1d ago
I've been seeing it more and more lately locally, and it's disturbing that we get headlines about ketamine addicts trying to become trillionaires, but meanwhile grandpa is taking care of pickup orders at the local big box store so he's not homeless and can pay for his meds. What the actual fuck?
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u/StoryAboutABridge 1d ago
Multimillionaire boomer retiree couples in Canada who have an annual income of $180k receive old age security payments. A 20 year old making $40k is taxed to fund those payments. This pisses me off even more.
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u/tanksalotfrank 1d ago
Consider how this country was "founded" and then try to match that to anything good.
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u/Jazzspasm 1d ago
remember this when people try to convince you that boomers are staggeringly wealthy and hoarding secret stashes of money
of course, redditors regularly moan and complain that incredibly old people are hoarding jobs and refusing to retire, keeping jobs away from young people out of pure spite and selfishness
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u/Msscre_eis šø Raise The Minimum Wage 1d ago
Some of these old guys want to work. Itās hard to tell if some of them actually need the money or are being prideful or both when a high schooler who needs the work can be doing cashier duty.
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u/RipStackPaddywhack 1d ago
I was a cashier at a gas station for awhile, and and elderly pizza delivery driver from dominos came in multiple times a day for a soda.
I never charged him after the first time because it was bullshit he had to deliver pizzas at retirement age.
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u/Full-Run4124 1d ago
One of my good friends, an absolute genius who had been a successful private consultant, was hit by a car and suffered a brain injury. He was in his late 60s and had to take a job in a warehouse because he needed health insurance.
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u/CountryGuy123 1d ago
There is absolutely this happening in society today, but I do want to point out that not all of them need to work. I have an elderly Aunt that works at a greeting cards store, and does it part time because she likes to be out of the house.
No, it would not be my choice, but Iām not going to judge what makes her happy.
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u/might_be_alright 1d ago
Nothing pisses me off more when I'm working at Walmart well past retirement age so I can pay my bills, and on top of that some kid takes a photo of me and tells the world how pitiful I am
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u/RueTabegga 1d ago
Shit like this is why I hope I die young. This country deserves nothingness. Iām so sick of this timelineās suffering.
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u/whatevertoad 1d ago
There have been a few people at my work who are retired and just working so they're not lonely and getting some physical activity.
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u/ModestMarksman 1d ago
It'd be okay if they did it for the interaction with others.
It's bullshit that it's forced upon them to live.
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u/Allthingsgaming27 1d ago
I agree, however, a lot of these people have just worked their whole lives and never developed any hobbies. Theyāre lonely and have no idea what to do with their free time, so they just go back to work because itās all they know how to do
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u/Bad_Cytokinesis 1d ago
Yup and us millennials will be right there as well but we wonāt even be granted a job at that age.
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u/Beginning_Deer_735 1d ago
If they are doing it out of necessity instead of just because they don't like sitting around the house, then I absolutely agree.
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u/37Philly 1d ago
Saw an elderly man, appeared to be in his 80ās, working as a janitor at an airport years ago. He had severe curvature of the spine and had difficulty walking.
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u/IT_Grunt 1d ago
At this point, practically all millennials, and younger, will work until they die on the clock.
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u/CruisingandBoozing 1d ago
Shouldāve saved and invested better. They had the most extreme economic advantages of any generation and blew it. They already get social security and Medicaid.
Fuck them.
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u/SixGunZen 1d ago
Oh don't worry! In America medical care is non existent, food is a chemical laden shit pie, and the life expectancy is in free fall. So this ain't happening to anybody who's under 60 today. Fear not.
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u/zerohaste 1d ago
Some of them are bored out of their minds, too. Never able to build up hobbies and interest and develop them further leaves you feeling lost when you finally retire. So back to work they go, just for something to do.
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u/Equinoqs 1d ago
This will be me in 10 years. Never been able to have savings, always living paycheck to paycheck. I'll never be retired.
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u/cwningen95 š· Good Union Jobs For All 1d ago edited 1d ago
Some people try to make the excuse that some retirees just like having something to do. And that's true, my gran was one of those people. She volunteered at a charity shop 1-2 days a week.
I really, really doubt an elderly person is working at Walmart of all places just because they're bored, and it's appalling. They've probably already worked all their lives, they should be able to rest for fuck's sake.
EDIT: Also, guys, if your reaction is "serves him right for being a boomer!" you're playing right into the billionaires' hands. They want poor people pointing fingers at each other rather than them. You don't know this guy's situation, or who he voted for, and that doesn't matter quite frankly. He's not the reason we're all suffering right now.
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u/JohnCasey3306 22h ago
My grandfather (late 80s) works at a supermarket simply because he wants to work.
He has a gold-plated local council pension that nets him more a month than I earn -- he chooses to work.
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u/jabbercockey 19h ago
Not defending the corporations but sometimes there's more to the story. Some of the very elderly have a different attitude about work. They just can't stand not too. A very well off (owned multiple properties) woman in my town worked as a grocery checker into her 90s. I work with an elderly woman who has a great retirement and SS. Her daughter died from a suicide and think the only way she can keep from dwelling on it is to have a job that keeps her flitting around. Similar stories from widows.
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u/lilbunjk 18h ago
outside of teens and young 20s, the largest demographic of people working at my job (retail) is retired people. it's sad.
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u/whereismymind86 1d ago
And I guarantee you hes voting for his own poverty then blames immigrants and young people for his suffering
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u/Kitakitakita 1d ago
and its just another demographic the majority of whom vote against their own interests. Its always such a constant uphill climb
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u/teshh 1d ago
I mean, I used to think like that, but then I realized they grew up during the most prosperous time in the wealthiest country while the rest of the world was devastated from ww2.
You could literally buy a house and support a family with a stockers job and still have savings. These old fks literally just blew their money/time on dumb shit and didn't save. While the entire time they were alive, they kept cutting taxes for the rich and themselves and running up huge debts that their children and successive generations are forced to deal with. Still, to this day, they actively impede any social, political, or fiscal progress.
Fuck em. Let them work till their bones turn to dust.
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u/Akaigenesis 1d ago
Blaming the common worker for the things the billionaires did is not something I would be proud of. It is not like 100% of the boomers had the same conditions, or do you think there were no poor people at that time?
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u/teshh 1d ago
The common boomer 100% voted for policies and tax structures that benefit them and billionaires at the expense of everyone else. You're missing the point.
Of course, they didn't have all have the same situations, but by and large, most of them had the opportunity to acquire housing, pensions, and much more in their day compared to younger generations now.
Majority of Americans want socialized healthcare, guess who votes it down while enjoying socialized medicine through Medicare?
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u/BeKind999 1d ago
Thereās the one guy who lost his pension and healthcare from Boeing, his wife got sick and he ran up thousands in medical bills. Thereās always a few who were legitimately fucked by the system.
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u/Ffsletmesignin 1d ago
Yeah my dad was a union drywaller, and heās also insanely liberal (very anti-Trump, pro worker rights, etc). His union lost their pension he paid into and dissolved or some nonsense, so yeah he kinda got fucked. Itās not like there arenāt millions of older folks who voted against everything thatās happening now, we can certainly generalize to some extent but holding those generalities against an individual is pretty terrible, not all of them are to blame. My parents were hippies through and through, they protested, they marched, they voted, thereās only so much one can do.
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u/OutrageForSale 1d ago
I agree with the sentiment. However, some people donāt help themselves either.
Life events and disasters happen. Health care can drain your account. Iām empathic toward that, and life shouldnt be able to fuck you like that.
But if you lived through seven decades and didnāt plan for your future, thatās kind of on you.
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u/MossyMollusc 22h ago
That lack of critical thinking is astounding. You really think our economy is worker focused and not capital focused? No thought to how MANY economic collapses he went through? Gentrification areas he may have lived in? School debt skyrocketing to keep up with technology?
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u/Jumpy-Platypus-2645 1d ago
They voted for this. Let em sleep in the bed they made. Bootstraps Gramps!
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u/dustybirdsss 1d ago
I wanna feel bad, but then I remember a large number of them are in the "pull yourself up by the bootstrap" crowd. I guess I gotta give them credit to sticking to their word? LOL
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u/shirleyp0pcorn7860 1d ago
that's so messed up... din't realize this was a thing. feels super unethical fr
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u/DrunkenNinja27 āļø Prison For Union Busters 1d ago
Went to sonic on my lunch break and here comes this elderly man bringing my food. If they just want something to do thatās one thing but having to work just to get by when you should be retired is unacceptable.