Democrats keep trying to increase minimum wage, read a fucking News source.
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.
Every service that is necessary for human survival should have a not-for-profit vendor.
When all it takes to stop them is the nonbinding opinion of an unelected advisor, are they really trying, though?
Have you tried voting harder this midterm?
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Maybe if Democratic legislators vote harder, the Republicans won’t be able to stop them!
It should be like one of those buttons you hit with a hammer at a fair. Higher up it goes, the more your vote counts!
Or a single House speaker that refuses to even bring it up for a vote. Or or a dipshit that brings it up for vote, then filibusters their own bill (coughMcConnellCough)
The obvious fact that Republicans are much worse doesn’t make it ok for the Democrats to not fight for the things the overwhelming majority of their voters want.
The parliamentarian’s word is law, baby.
If only people could eat Democrats’ excuses, no one would ever go hungry.
They just repealed right to work in Michigan, and Meijer employees presumably used that leverage to significantly improve wages and benefits.
Right to work is another BS right wing policy that needs to die. I put in less than two weeks notice, I’m an asshole; company drops me in an instant, business as usual.
“Right to work” as the name of an anti-labor policy sure has a dystopic newspeak feel.
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.”
Why are they trying, and not doing tho?
Republicans
Exactly. Two party system is a scam.
No, one of the two parties makes posts like this to make stupid people say “both sides” whilst said party passes laws to suppress black votes, discriminate against gay folk, and ban abortions.
Quit trying to “both sides”. It’s what stupid people say.
But I’m not saying that. I’m saying that a two-party system is stupid. And I’m saying that as a citizen of a country that has 9 political parties. edit: to make it clear, if I’d be an American, I’d definitely vote for Dems, no question about it.
Sure they do. Keep believing, any day now…
My home state of Oregon mandates a minimum wage of $13.20 in rural areas and $15.45 in the Portland metro area, and it adjusts to inflation. Oregon has been governed by Democrats for years. Thanks to these and other laws, I can go down to a McDonald’s and get a job that pays $16-17 an hour to start in my city. TriMet in Portland is always advertising a $28 starting wage for bus drivers (no CDL) up to $37 after three years. Rent in my city is $800-900 for a one-bedroom flat with excellent free public transit and fair bikeability. Fuel prices are reasonable. We have strong protections for tenants against abusive landlords. Strong anti-discrimination laws. Everyone has paid sick days. No regressive sales tax. Working-class people can afford a roof over their heads and decent food on the table.
Check out the neighbouring state minimum wages.
- Washington (Democratic government): $16.28
- California (Democratic government): $16.00
- Nevada (divided government): $12.00
- Idaho (Republican government): $7.25
But yeah, keep harping on about how both parties are the same and that Democrats don’t do more to help the working man.
My home state of Oregon mandates a minimum wage of $13.20 in rural areas and $15.45 in the Portland metro area, and it adjusts to inflation.
I was part of that! I was on a team that made a web site that visualized the effect on poverty levels on a county-by-county basis when the minimum wage was at different levels. It made the need for a split minimum wage obvious, since the minimum wage that is necessary for metro areas is inappropriate for rural areas. Rumor has it that the legislature used it in the decision making to some degree.
🫡
- Washington (Democratic government): $16.28
- California (Democratic government): $16.00
- Nevada (divided government): $12.00
- Idaho (Republican government): $7.25
Now factor in the cost of living in a “safe” area in those states with those wages. In 2024, it’s not enough.
I agree, clearly, the Democrats are the better option for anyone but the billionaire class. However, I agree more with OP: Democrats can do better and not be so corporatist neo-lib.
I think that’s why it’s important to encourage participation in the primary process. There are the neoliberals mixed in with the social democrats and actual socialists. We should be voting for and supporting the latter in the primaries if we want to influence the party in a leftward direction.
That’s actually better than I thought. People in other states are so used to the dysfunction that they literally don’t believe these things are possible.
Good news doesn’t spread as quickly as bad news and rage bait. “McDonald’s Workers Can Afford Flat on 1/3 of Income” isn’t a good headline but “Families Increasingly Priced Out By Red-Hot Housing Market” does.
“Look at how well the democrats allow the capitalists to treat me as they ensure they can continue to exploit my labour for their own profit uninterrupted!!11”
(seriously - start by looking at those companies profit margins for a tip of the iceberg idea of just how much they are making off of your labour before you do a happy dance over a couple of dollars more they’re willing to throw your way to keep you from demanding actual freedom)
But yeah, keep harping on about how represented you are in the sham they call electoral politics…
I think OP is just saying that democrats are better than Republicans. We have multiple parties in my country but people vote for tree ones that support capitalism and rich people. We also have people that support a politician that was found guilty of fraud.
Rich people have power so they can do what they want.
Isn’t California full of homeless people?
Have you ever been to California actually? Yes the situation is bad but not everywhere is California is like that.
That’s waaaay more complicated than just minimum wage. $16 isn’t even a living wage here in L.A. where we’ve got lots of homelessness.
We ought to employ Land Value Taxation to fund the basic necessities for survival, and the remainder should go towards a UBI.
For what it’s worth, the minimum wage in LA will rise to $17.28 in July of this year. I get that’s still not very high by LA standards, but I stress that progress is better than stagnation.
Yes, and that’s because the progressive and left-wing of the Democratic Party is losing a power struggle against the centrists and neoliberals. If you want to change that, be sure to vote in the party primary elections and to encourage everyone you know to do the same.
California is full of … people.
There’s an $18 minimum wage in Denver, for instance. Republicans sure as hell didn’t vote for that.
- puts fingers in ears and starts screaming “lalalala…”
puts fingers in ears and starts screaming “lalalala…”
Lmfao, no you -
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/10/14/liberalism-and-fascism-partners-in-crime/
https://libcom.org/article/capitalist-democracy-illusion-choice
Having fun in fantasyland?
Yeah, subby. We get it. “Both sides are bad.” But one side is boring corporatists who don’t give a crap and the other side is 100% concentrated evil fascists, authoritarians and religious nutjobs. And while that’s a choice between the lesser of two evils, it’s not a difficult one.
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.
aiding a genocide
As opposed to the alternative who is in rabid support of multiple genocides…? You are SO smart and totally know what you are talking about.
Nobody here is disputing that the Republicans are fascists.
Corporations pay evil fascists to be evil fascist so you could choose “lesser evil”
Sounds in no way like qanon level dipshittery
Sounds like average election candidates in Russia.
- Stalinist
- Member of LDPR
- “Let’s calm down” member of United Russia
- Noname(if lucky)
UR always makes themselves to look like lesser evil. “Look at these clowns”, “old thief is fed up, new one will be hungry and steal more”, “look how experienced we are”. If they don’t have 1, 2 or 4th, they will make their own janitor to run against them, so they will look like “lesser evil”.
Btw janitor won.
I’m just here to watch the complete and total dumpster fire in the comments.
Oh look, more both sides trash slapped on top of someone else’s work. Lazy fucks can’t even propagandize properly.
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.
Let’s break that shit up!
Approval voting and proportional representation! So long as we have single-seat elections using choose-one voting, we’ll be stuck with two parties.
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.
This is incorrect and lazy.
bOtH fUcKiNg SiDeS is an attitude that can suck my wang
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.
Really? Are democrats opposed to changing that, or just not prioritizing it because it can get complicated and there are a million other concerns?
It’s the first part. The vast majority of Democrats are “moderate” and “corporate captured.”
It’s not a “both sides are equally bad in all respects.” It’s “both sides will not give us a change of law to enable a living wage be the standard.” It’s only speaking to that one aspect.
It might also be a complicated topic, but you don’t solve a complicated topic by never starting on it.
Criticism of the comic aside, two party system is still definitely undesirable. I believe it is a side effect of first past the post voting. What we really should implement is ranked choice voting. It gets rid of the dumb “voting third party is voting for [opposite party]” argument by letting you vote for who you want guilt-free and falling back on your lower-ranked votes if #1 wasn’t popular enough.
But you know, this will always meet resistance because politicians would lose their jobs for implementing this.
There are two sides, but you can alter that a bit if you get your asses to the primaries.
We all agree with this premise and mostly that the FPTP system is a large contributing factor to the TPS saying how it has based on seeing how places that don’t have a TPS appear to do so because the have different voting systems like different iterations of ranked choice voting.
What I am wondering is what ‘we’ think the best way to implement voting would be?
Socialism 2024
Same comic, just change the little guy to “Socialism 2024” and the two big guys to “DNC & Biden”
You have the power to change the world brother.
I definitely don’t, but together we have some semblance of power.
The democrats seem more… ribbed in this drawing.
Dare I say… Democracy is a scam.
The democrats have been trying to raise minimum wage for idk 15 years now, they just haven’t been given a functional enough majority to make it happen at the national level, though they have absolutely done so at the state level. I think your complaint might be misdirected, and could better apply to the fundamental structure of our bicameral legislature, and especially at the filibuster rule that is getting increasingly unpopular with senators themselves. When the filibuster is gone sometime in the next 6 years I expect, you will see a noticeably more functional senate.
I am thoroughly confused as to why this comment is getting downvotes. It corrects the misinterpretation of the poster in a polite and civilized manner, while bringing forth interesting discussion as to what the future may hold and possible solutions to our country’s predicament.
Unfortunately I think a lot of people find it easier to feel nihilistic than recognize that there is a path forward
