Work All Day, Barely Survive: We’re Being Squeezed and There’s a Reason
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We work most days,
sometimes all
profits up and wages fall
feeling weak with painful feet
times like this, we’re getting’ squeezed
the bosses though, live comfortably
By Ricardito
Rent’s outta control! To be honest everything is crazy expensive. Living in South Florida (or anywhere), is getting so hard you can work full-time and still barely get by. Not to mention all the other costs to live. How many people do you know can even live on their wages alone? To avoid the burdens of rent, many in South Florida are staying longer with their families or with roommates.
We’re told by capitalist “news” and other media that this or that policy/treaty/decision “creates jobs”, but what kind of jobs are these? How much are these jobs actually paying? Who’s making all the money? Who/s doing all the work? Funny how those who work longer and harder always make less
US workers work longer than most workers in industrialized countries with less vacation time and smaller “benefits” packages – if any! There has been a constant attack on the US workers. This is true around the world, in the international economy. Here, in what politicians and corporate reporters tout as “the free world”, workers and laborers are attacked on every front in every aspect of our lives. Of course, when we’re divided by skin color, ethnicity, gender, etc, it’s easier to get away with the assaults. If we blame workers fleeing terrible violence and low wages in Mexico for example for “stealing our jobs”, then it’s easier to hide the fact that capitalist trade deals like NAFTA devastate farmers and workers on both sides of the border.
These trade deals are made by capitalist politicians for their economic interests directly against the workers on both sides of the border. And yet, it is the workers who are screwed in both countries. It should be noted these deals have been made and continued under every president, Democrat and Republican. With all their differences, they have no problem with uniting against us. Their circus of blaming each other is all we get on the news they own and control as they hide the economic reality we face daily and manipulate it to serve their agenda; the agenda of the immense minority of capitalists against the masses of people.
Look around at the food prices and high rise luxury living and office spaces that keep growing. Workers Struggle doesn’t see these fancy quarters of the rich as “development” that benefits us: the working masses of South Florida. We see the buildings that those who build can’t afford to live in as a sickening reminder of the immense disparity. All this construction is bringing more instability and gloom to our lives, as they block our sun and convert our community “public” spaces to private grounds with billions of dollars worth of metal and glass in which only they can afford.
For us, the price or rent and cost of living is agonizing. Our decisions are not whether to take the yacht or private jet out today. Our decisions are do we buy food today and take out money for rent, or eat less and face possible eviction. We pay car insurance to billion dollar companies who pay their employees the same shitty pay we get, buy gas from trillion dollar companies doing the same. We pay taxes yet aren’t guaranteed a roof over our heads. They get bail outs when they take our money and engage in risky market gambling. They may lose millions of our dollars but it’s ok for them. You know why? It’s NOT their money anyway, not until they pocket it all!
So What?
Just because we are on the receiving end of such robbery and treachery doesn’t mean we gotta like it. Just because this is the way things are today, doesn’t mean they must be this way tomorrow. Everything that we have that’s in our interests came from us coming together and fighting for it! Think of all the shrinking rights we have:
days off, vacation time, health care (if we can even afford it), child labor laws, 8 hour days
None of them were graciously given to us! We fought for them all!
We don’t have to agree on everything, but we can agree on certain things we should have. We can change the reality we face today, but only if we organize! There’s no other way! Our lives get harder each year. Not because it’s just life, or because there is scarcities in food, homes, cars, etc. Things get worse because as we work more, capitalists are making record profits! Each capitalist makes MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year! Those millions grow as we lose our jobs, our hours or wages are cut, and retirements slashed. We’re forced into an “Affordable health” market and can’t afford the doctor visits.
They’ve erased our collective class history & identity to deny its power, but the future’s ours!
Why? Because WE CAN come together and make the changes we need, we always have. History won’t forgive us if we don’t organize! The world is run by a minority class of people, so why can’t it be run by the majority? Workers can have the power to make a better world, so let’s unite to fight for what’s rightfully ours anyway!
The question is:
How much longer will see let them get away with their crimes against us and nature?