• ComradeSharkfucker@lemmy.mlBanned from community
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    4 days ago

    Haha, it’s usually worse than that. Especially if you do manual labor and don’t have a union. Friend of mine was receiving 6% of the value of his labor after we calculated it.

    • MrVilliam@sh.itjust.works
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      4 days ago

      I wish I made 6% of the value of my labor. My power plant has $1M+ days sometimes and there’s only 30 of us running it. I make good money, but not $30k/day good. A couple months ago when we saw sustained deep freeze temperatures for like a week straight, we saw $5M+ days.

      We also work crazy hours for those situations. Last week I pulled 72, and the next couple weeks will be 84 hours. But at least they ordered pizza for us.

      • TigerAce@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        4 days ago

        When they make that much money, why don’t they hire another 30 or 60 people so everyone can have a normal 32h work week? Are the employee benefits really that good that it’s worth it? I hope they are much more than just pizza. Why would you let yourself be exploited by them, on such an insane level that you are willing to work almost triple work weeks? They are stealing your life while having the financial luxury to just hire more. Have you talked to your union? Work to live, don’t live to work mate.

        • MrVilliam@sh.itjust.works
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          4 days ago

          Lol there isn’t a union here and my coworkers are too brainwashed to understand that a union would benefit them.

          I would love for a Danish company to headhunt me and yank me over to Denmark. I don’t think that’s gonna happen though.

          • TigerAce@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            4 days ago

            In my country (the Netherlands) there is help for expats to settle. Getting a job, house, etc. There’s even a tax cut for expats if you have a specialized job. Denmark might have something similar, I’m not sure. Their language is a pain to learn though (not like my language is fun lol). But like the Dutch the Danish are very good with English, especially in cities. Getting a job while only speaking English is not a problem. Denmark is a beautiful and amazing country, with amazing people. But we have bitterballen.

          • TigerAce@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            4 days ago

            Europe. With benefits, decent holidays, no limited number of sick days, can’t get fired without a proper reason (or you can sue them with a high probability of getting compensation or getting your job back). In Sweden the standard work week is 32 hours. In the Netherlands 36 but many do 32. Here in NL we have extra holiday money and often a 13th month payout. Irregular shifts have bonuses and extra time off, and aren’t allowed to be too long shifts. Not that all jobs are decent, but at least the law protects employees and many employers want employees to stay, so they are treated properly. There are also tax cuts for the first job you have, it just doesn’t apply to other jobs if you have multiple. And you build up a pension if you’re not self employed. I’d like to see the minimum wage to be raised, and equal in the entire EU. So there’s definitely room for improvement. But compared to the US it’s heaven.

              • TigerAce@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                3 days ago

                It’s time you guys join the EU! For a while I’ve been wanting to visit your country, I’ve heard so many good stories.

                • WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today
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                  3 days ago

                  It’s a great country, so long as you are there for the forests, and mot the healthcare.

                  People treat foreigners really well here. There is no anti-black racism (since no sane person would move here, so no black people for some asshole to raise hate against).

                  If you happen to visit Jagodina, then you are welcome!

      • TwoTiredMice@feddit.dk
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        4 days ago

        My company had a year where they earned $500M after tax, which was equivalent to an earning of $3.5M per employee, and I got a bonus of $6000 which was the standard bonus for all employees weighted compared to their annual salary.

        That summer we had our yearly summer party in a tent on our parking lot…

      • ComradeSharkfucker@lemmy.mlBanned from community
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        4 days ago

        Sheesh, if that doesn’t radicalize someone idk what does. Granted in your case a lot of that value comes from the constant capital of the plant itself but still, it is likely you make less than 6% yeah. My friends was easy to calculate because constant capital was relatively negligable.

        • WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today
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          4 days ago

          Nope, just convinces you to start a business. If we all started a business somehow, we would ironically create the most equitable society, because everyone earns their exact surplus value. Unless they all work in each-other’s business…

    • Hacksaw@lemmy.ca
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      4 days ago

      That’s exactly it. Sure taxes take 40%, but capitalists take 100-1000% of your salary, and last I checked they don’t build roads and schools.

      • ComradeSharkfucker@lemmy.mlBanned from community
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        4 days ago

        Okay so I was gonna respond sooner but I was super baked and unable to answer this when I saw it last night.

        You should read Wage Labour and Capital by Marx for some added context, it is short.

        Basically the value of a commodity is calculate by c + v + s. c being constant capital (the value of the means of production that has been degraded to create the commodity, hard to calculate without good info), v is the amount of paid labor (variable capital), and s being surplus value is the unpaid labor.

        To calculate the value of your labor all you need to know is the constant capital used to produce whatever commodity you produce and the value of said commodity. By including your wage as v you can calculate the surplus value and then compare them to see what share of the value you produce you actually recieve.

        It gets harder when you aren’t directly producing commodities which my friend was.

        • Hacksaw@lemmy.ca
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          4 days ago

          I did the same using GDP. About 10 years ago the numbers were like this in Canada: the average income was $56k the average tax burden is $7k and the GDP per WORKER was $90k. It’s so funny to watch people complain about the $7k the hobby takes to build society when you ignore the $44k in profit you generate for the rich.

          The beauty of the stepped back approach is that because all wages are included and all economic output is captured you don’t need to solve for c, it’s included in wages and surplus value.

          The machinery of capital is built on a large pile of labor + stolen surplus value all the way down to the raw material. So it’s all captured with the above.

          • ComradeSharkfucker@lemmy.mlBanned from community
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            4 days ago

            Haha, you should try using the median income to adjust for outlier skewing. Also while it is true that constant capital becomes variable capital if you follow the production chain you should keep in mind that much of this production is done in the imperial periphery (and therefore not necessarily reflected in GDP per capita). Their exploitation is directly responsible for the purchasing power of our wages, in a way an hour of our labor purchases many many hours of theirs. If you are going to eliminate constant capital through the means suggested in your process, then you need to include the wages of workers of the periphery (often below the value of their labor power) in your average.

    • Saapas@piefed.zip
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      4 days ago

      Where I live construction is one of the things that’s heavily unionized. Well, local workers are. Foreign workers not so much

    • Maroon@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Sorry for my ignorance, but how do you calculate the “value” of one’s labour? Like how would you do this for a school teacher?

      Different schools have different pay grades, different subjects, etc.

      • Axolotl@feddit.it
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        4 days ago

        6% is not pretty good, it’s like if i make a cake and i can only eat 6% of it, dammit! i made it, lemme me eat at least half, then i can leave you whatever you want

        • ryannathans@aussie.zone
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          4 days ago

          Consider that many people in a business don’t provide any direct positive labor value, such as a business owner not doing any direct work that makes money

          • Axolotl@feddit.it
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            4 days ago

            Yep, that’s why i ask for half, the other half will be split between them; I’d actually want a higher number but sadly we are in capitalism