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mostlysignssomeportents · 16 days

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Precaratize bosses

I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me SUNDAY (Apr 21) in TORINO, then Marin County (Apr 27), Winnipeg (May 2), Calgary (May 3), Vancouver (May 4), and beyond!

Combine Angelou's "When someone shows you who they are, believe them" with the truism that in politics, "every accusation is a confession" and you get: "Every time someone accuses you of a vice, they're showing you who they are and you should believe them."

Let's talk about some of those accusations. Remember the moral panic over the CARES Act covid stimulus checks? Hyperventilating mouthpieces for the ruling class were on every cable network, complaining that "no one wants to work anymore." The barely-submerged subtext was their belief that the only reason people show up for work is that they're afraid of losing everything – their homes, their kids, the groceries in their fridge.

This isn't a new development. Back when Clinton destroyed welfare, his justification was that "handouts" make workers lazy. The way to goad workers off their sofas (and the welfare rolls) and into jobs was to instill fear in them:

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/03/welfare-childhood/555119/

This is also the firm belief of tech bosses: for them, mass tech layoffs are great news, because they terrorize the workers you don't fire, so that they'll be "extremely hardcore" and put in as many extra hours as the company demands, without even requiring any extra pay in return:

https://fortune.com/2022/10/06/elon-musk-jason-calacanis-return-to-office-gentlemens-layoffs-twitter/

Now, there's an obvious answer to the problem of no one taking a job at the wage being offered: just increase the offer. Capitalists claim to understand this. Uber will tell you that surge pricing "incentivizes drivers" to take to the streets by offering them more money to drive during busy times:

https://www.uber.com/blog/austin/providing-rides-when-they-are-most-needed/

(Note that while Uber once handed the lion's share of surge price premiums to drivers, these days, Uber just keeps the money, because they've entered the enshittification stage where drivers are so scared of being blacklisted that Uber can push them around instead of dangling carrots.)

(Also note that this logic completely fails when it comes to other businesses, like Wendy's, who briefly promised surge-priced hamburgers during busy times, but without even the pretense that the surge premium would be used to pay additional workers to rush to the restaurant and increase the capacity:)

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2024/feb/27/wendys-dynamic-surge-pricing

So bosses knew how to address their worker shortage: higher wages. You know: supply and demand. For bosses, the issue wasn't supply, it was price. A worker who earns $10/hour but makes the company $20 profit every hour is splitting the surplus 50:50 with their employer. The employer has overheads (rent on the shop, inventory, advertising and administration) that they have to pay out of their end of that surplus. But workers also have overheads: commuting costs, child-care, a professional wardrobe, and other expenses the worker incurs just so they can make money for their boss.

There's no iron law of economics that says the worker/boss split should be 50/50. Depending on the bargaining power of workers and their bosses, that split can move around a lot. Think of McDonald's and Walmart workers who work for wildly profitable corporate empires, but are so badly paid that they have to rely on food stamps. The split there is more like 10/90, in the boss's favor.

The pandemic changed the bargaining power. Sure, workers got a small cushion from stimulus checks, but they also benefited from changes in the fundamentals of the labor market. For example, millions of boomers just noped out of their jobs, forever, unwilling to risk catching a fatal illness and furious to realize that their bosses viewed that as an acceptable risk.

Bosses' willingness to risk their workers' lives backfired in another way: killing hundreds of thousands of workers and permanently disabling millions more. Combine the boomer exodus with the workers who sickened or died, and there's just fewer workers to go around, and so now those workers enjoy more bargaining power. They can demand a better split: say, 75/25, in their favor.

Remember the 2015 American Airlines strike, where pilots and flight attendants got a raise? The eminently guillotineable Citibank analyst Kevin Crissey declared: "This is frustrating. Labor is being paid first again. Shareholders get leftovers":

https://www.thestreet.com/investing/american-airlines-flight-attendants-bash-citi-analyst-who-put-shareholders-before-workers-14134309

Now, obviously, the corporation doesn't want to offer a greater share of its surplus to its workforce, but it certainly can do so. The more it pays its workers, the less profitable it will be, but that's capitalism, right? Corporations try to become as profitable as they can be, but they can't just decree that their workers must work for whatever pay they want to offer (that's serfdom).

Companies also don't get to dictate that we must buy their goods at whatever price they set (the would be a planned economy, not a market economy). There's no law that says that when the cost of making something goes up, its price should go up, too. A business that spends $10 to make a widget you pay $15 for has a $5 margin to play with. If the business's costs go up to $11, they can still charge $15 and take $1 less in profits. Or they can raise the price to $15.50 and split the difference.

But when businesses don't face competition, they can make you eat their increased costs. Take Verizon. They made $79b in profit last year, and also just imposed a $4/month service charge on their mobile customers due to "rising operational costs":

https://www.reddit.com/r/LateStageCapitalism/comments/1c53c4p/79bn_in_profits_last_year_but_you_need_an_extra/

Now, Verizon is very possibly lying about these rising costs. Excuseflation is rampant and rising, as one CEO told his investors, when the news is full of inflation-talk, "it’s an opportunity to increase the prices without getting a whole bunch of complaining from the customers":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/11/price-over-volume/#pepsi-pricing-power

But even stipulating that Verizon is telling the truth about these "rising costs," why should we eat those costs? There's $79b worth of surplus between Verizon's operating costs and its gross revenue. Why not take it out of Verizon's bottom line?

For 40 years, neoliberal economists have emphasized our role as "consumers" (as though consumers weren't also workers!). This let them play us off against one-another: "Sure, you don't want the person who rings up your groceries to get evicted because they can't pay their rent, but do you care about it enough to pay an extra nickel for these eggs?"

But again, there's no obvious reason why you should pay that extra nickel. If you have the buying power to hold prices down, and workers have the labor power to keep wages up, then the business has to absorb that nickel. We can have a world where workers can pay their rent and you can afford your groceries.

So how do we get bosses to agree to take less so we can have more? They've told us how: for bosses, the thing that motivates workers to show up for shitty jobs is fear – fear of losing their homes, fear of going hungry.

When your boss says, "If you don't want to do this job for minimum wage, there's someone else who will," they're telling you that the way to get a raise out of them is to engineer things so that you can say, "If you don't want to pay me a living wage for this job, there's someone else who will."

Their accusation – that you only give someone else a fair shake when you're afraid of losing out – is a confession: to get them to give you a fair shake, we have to make them afraid. They're showing us who they are, and we should believe them.

In her Daily Show appearance, FTC chair Lina Khan quipped that monopolies are too big to care:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaDTiWaYfcM

Philosophers of capitalism are forever praising its ability to transform greed into public benefit. As Adam Smith put it, "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest." The desire to make as much money as possible, on its own, doesn't produce our dinner, but when the butcher, the brewer and the baker are afraid that you will take your labor or your wallet elsewhere, they pay more and charge less.

Capitalists don't want market economies, where they have to compete with one another, eroding their margins and profits – they want a planned economy, like Amazon, where Party Secretary Bezos and his commissars tell merchants what they can sell and tell us what we must pay:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/01/managerial-discretion/#junk-fees

Capitalists don't want free labor, where they have to compete with rival capitalists to bid on their workers' labor – they want noncompetes, bondage fees, and "training repayment agreement provisions" (TRAPs) that force their workers to stay in dead-end jobs rather than shopping for a better wage:

\https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/04/its-a-trap/#a-little-on-the-nose

Capitalists hate capitalism, because capitalism only works if the capitalists are in a constant state of terror inspired by the knowledge that tomorrow, someone smarter could come along and open a better business, poaching their customers and workers, and putting the capitalist on the breadline.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/18/in-extremis-veritas/#the-winnah

Being in a constant precarious state makes people lose their minds, and capitalists know it. That's why they work so hard to precaratize the rest of us, saddling us with health debt, education debt, housing debt, stagnating wages and rising prices. It's not just because that makes them more money in the short term from our interest payments and penalties. It's because it de-risks their lives: monopolies and cartels can pass on any extra costs to consumers, who'll eat shit and take it:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/02/its-the-economy-stupid/#overinflated

A workforce that goes to bed every night worrying about making the rent is a workforce that put in unpaid overtime and thank you for it.

Capitalists hate capitalism. You know who didn't hate capitalism? Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels. The first chapter of The Communist Manifesto is just these two guys totally geeking out about how much cool stuff we get when capitalists are afraid and therefore productive:

https://pluralistic.net/SpectreHaunting

But when capitalists escape their fears, the alchemical reaction that converts greed to prosperity fizzles, leaving nothing behind but greed and its handmaiden, enshittification. Google search is in the toilet, getting worse every year, but rather than taking reduced margins and spending more fighting spam, the company did a $80b stock-buyback and fired 12,000 skilled technologists, rather than using that 80 bil to pay their wages for the next twenty-seven years:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/21/im-feeling-unlucky/#not-up-to-the-task

Monopoly apologists like to argue that monopolists can rake in the giant profits necessary to fund big, ambitious projects the produce better products at lower prices and make us all better off. But even if monopolists can spend their monopoly windfalls on big, ambitious projects, they don't. Why would they?

If you're Google, you can either spend tens of billions on R&D to keep up with spam and SEO scumbags, or you can spend less money buying the default search spot on every platform, so no one ever tries another search engine and switches:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/04/teach-me-how-to-shruggie/#kagi

Compared to its monopoly earnings, the tech sector's R&D spending is infinitesimal:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/11/nor-glom-of-nit/#capitalists-hate-competition

How do we get capitalists to work harder to make their workers and customers better off? Capitalists tell us how, every day. We need to make them afraid.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/19/make-them-afraid/#fear-is-their-mind-killer

Image: Vlad Lazarenko (modified) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wall_Street_Sign_%281-9%29.jpg CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

#pluralistic #petard #precarity #cares act #stimulus #market discipline #competition #too big to care #antitrust #labor #trustbusting #consumer welfare #every accusation is a confession

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feathersandfoxtails · 2 years

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Student loan payments refund

STUDENT LOAN HAVERS: Did you know that under the CARES act you can have any payments made after 3/13/20 refunded? This will cause your loan to go back up to that amount, but if anyone is getting their loan forgiven and has less than $10K or you're like me and were trying to pay down your loans during the 0% interest period and then got it forgiven finally for PSLF?

Just was on the phone with FedLoan and they have processed my refund. I may have cried a bit about this. Hopefully this information helps someone else out there!

My friend found this out from TikTok! It was a very very tiny sentence tucked away on my loan provider's webpage, so it's hidden away. But call and ask for it!!!

#student loans #refund #cares act #us student loans #student loan forgiveness #student loan refund #pandemic #pslf #public student loan forgiveness

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bitchesgetriches · 2 years

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What is forbearance?

The word “forbearance” is fancy, old-fashioned, and deeply foreboding: the Hill House of financial terminology.

But it’s a pretty simple concept. “Forbearance” is a temporary postponement of repayment on a loan. Basically, whoever lent you money-a bank, a credit card company, the gubern’mint-has pressed pause on your payments so you have time to get your shit together.

You can request student loan forbearance at any time, but lenders are much more likely to agree to it if you’re facing a significant hardship: you lost your job, you got very sick, you watched Darren Aronofsky’s Mother! from start to finish, and so on and so forth.

Under normal circumstances, the terms of every forbearance agreement are unique. Twelve months is a fairly standard timeframe. You could make no payments, or smaller payments-it all depends on what kind of agreement you make with your lender.

How is that different from deferment?

You may have heard of something called “deferment.” When I was a baby bitch, I was told that deferment and forbearance are different, and that deferment is always better. The reason: deferred loans did not accrue interest, but forborne loans did-a distinction I’ll explain more clearly below.

Anyway, that is OLD, BAD ADVICE! Don’t follow it. Here’s why.

In actual practice, not every lender uses the same language to describe the same terms! Just because your lender’s website uses the word “deferment” instead of the word “forbearance,” it does not automatically mean you’re getting a better deal. You must always check the terms for yourself and ask for a clarification if you’re not sure. That’s why I encourage you to assume that deferment and forbearance mean the same thing.

The better, more precise version of that advice is: a postponed loan agreement is a much better deal for you if the loan‘s interest is also paused.

Ask the Bitches: “The Government Put Student Loans in Forbearance. Can I Stop Paying—or Is It a Trap?”

#forbearance #student loans #deferment #CARES Act

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chevyboy21 · 2 years

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Established by the CARES Act, it is a refundable tax credit – a grant, not a loan – that you can claim for your business. The ERC is available to both small and mid-sized businesses. It is based on qualified wages and healthcare paid to employees.

Up to $26,000 per employeeAvailable for 2020 and the first 3 quarters of 2021Qualify with decreased revenue or COVID eventNo limit on fundingERC is a refundable tax credit

#erc #employees #business #grant #cares act

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wausaupilot · 3 months

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Nearly 40 people in Wisconsin have been charged with defrauding COVID funds

See the list of people and their charges here. A public hotline is available for reporting fraud.

By Hina Suzuki, THE BADGER PROJECT During the pandemic, the federal government distributed a massive $4.2 trillion to local governments, businesses and people. Some of those funds were stolen, and one estimate puts the amount in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Now, the government is trying to reclaim at least some of those stolen funds and prosecute the thieves. In August 2023, the U.S.…

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#CARES ACT #COVID fraud #The Badger Project #US DOJ

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vander-12 · 8 months

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2020 and 2021 ERC Program Differences

If you’re familiar with the Employee Retention Credit (ERC), which was signed in March 2020 as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), you’ve probably noticed some significant changes in the program since its inception. Three additional important acts have been passed that amended the CARES Act of 2020: Relief Act of 2021 American Rescue Plan Act of…

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#American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 #CARES Act #Employee Retention Credit #ERC #Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA)#Relief Act of 2021

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luckkythirt33n · 19 days

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8 AND A HALF MONTHS TILL GINGER GENDER TWINK AND ACTING CHOICES BIMBO ARE BACK

The second I see a GOS3 BTS photo I'm going to simply pass away, stimming won't be enough I will simply explode out of this skin prison-

#i dont care if theyre not talking im going to DIE #good omens #crowley #aziracrow #aziraphale #ineffable husbands #david tennant #ineffable idiots #ineffable brainrot #crowley x aziraphale #michael sheen #neil gaiman #david tennant is highly flammable #and will be cast into the flames again #nature is healing #good omens season 3 #ginger gender twink #acting choices bimbo

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goldenagecompanionsblog · 10 months

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Dos and Don'ts of Post Operative Care

Golden Age Companions introduces their Post Operative Care services. We specializes in giving expert support and help to persons recovering from surgery. Our competent cares are trained in medication management, wound care, mobility assistance, and emotional support, ensuring that their clients have a seamless and comfortable recovery process. Golden Age Companions seeks to improve the whole healing experience for people in need of post-surgery help by focusing on compassionate care.

#cares #cares act #surgery

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bitchesgetriches · 2 years

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What about the CARES Act?

In response to the coronavirus pandemic, federal student loans have been placed in automatic forbearance. No interest will be charged to lenders during this time. And now y’all have the tools you need to understand that in almost all situations, this is a fantastic deal.

Please note that this only applies to federal loans owned by the Department of Education. If your loans are private, you’ll have to talk to your private student loan lender. Each one will have their own policies and criteria around forbearance.

If you had a more unconventional federal loan (for example, one with work study requirements), check out this FAQ. If you’re not sure if your loan is covered, ask your student loan servicer by going to StudentAid.gov or calling 1-800-4-FED-AID (TTY: 1-800-730-8913).

And if the federal government extends the program, keep taking advantage of it. If the interest rate‘s nil, don’t pay that bill!

What if I want to keep making a loan payment every month?

You can if you want to! The government will continue to process payments, so there’s nothing stopping you.

However, I would not recommend making payments on federally forborne loans unless you have a great reason for doing so. There’s really no benefit to making payments on such a loan during this time, as opposed to, say, saving the money up and making one big lump payment at the end of forbearance. And there are lots of great ways to reinvest it in better areas.

Start or grow your emergency fund. That’ll give you more cushion if you lose your job or get sick. And once you’re out of the woods, you can still use what you saved during forbearance to pay off the loan.

Eliminate credit carddebt. It almost certainly has a higher interest rate (and thus is more expensive to you in the long run) than your federal student loans.

Direct the funds toward private student loandebt that is not forborne. Odds are good their interest rate is also worse than the federal loans.

Shop locally. If you’re rock solid and you really don’t think you need any of those things, I’d rather you kept the money circulating in your community than sending it back to the federal government. Think of the non-chain stores you want to stay afloat, and buy something from them. Leave huge tips for patio servers and delivery drivers. Become a patron of artists you like. (LIEK US.) Any of those actions would better fulfill the spirit of the CARES Act: to keep the economy moving.

So many markets are unstable right now: jobs, housing, health, supplies… You’ve got six months of borrowed time thanks to student loan forbearance. Use them wisely!

Ask the Bitches: “The Government Put Student Loans in Forbearance. Can I Stop Paying—or Is It a Trap?”

#forbearance #student loans #CARES Act

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markmaupin-realestate · 11 months

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youtube

CARES Act, It Is a Refundable Tax Credit – a Grant, Not a Loan – You ca...

#youtube #Refundable Tax Credit #Not a Loan #CARES Act

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palipunk · 5 months

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There is a specific brand of tumblr user who says they’re pro Palestine but is entirely focused on how Palestinians act, resist, talk, and think - nothing about actually supporting Palestinian liberation - fixated on us like we’re unruly children and talking down to us and how we should “actually” stop our own genocide. Stop amplifying these people. I do not care about their backhanded “solidarity”.

#they care about us only in an abstract manner but once they actually talk to us they back out or ridicule us #I’m tired of people who have never cared about Palestinians acting like they know us better than ourselves #palestine

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