To think this is a problem with just Amazon is silly. This is every American corporation. The executives of every major corporation in this country treat themselves very very well on company dimes while their workers all languish in starvation wages. The only way to fight this is to raise the minimum wage to something that is livable for the average worker. The government needs to force these companies to behave. They will never and I mean abso-fucking-lutely never choose to treat their workers with respect and dignity by paying them a decent living wage.
And the politicians that are in all of their pockets will never ever go against their corporate masters. The only way to make them listen is to get every single American to acknowledge that this is something that is needed and then push their politicians to do it or threaten their jobs by voting for someone else. This goes for both Democrats and Republicans, not quite equally but there’s definitely a few Democrats that need to be replaced.
The only way to fight this is to raise the minimum wage to something that is livable for the average worker.
Then what do you do when only the Amazons and Walmarts of the world with the deepest pockets can afford that, and small business basically ceases to exist, as a result? People talk a lot about ‘if you can’t pay a livable wage you don’t deserve to be in business’, but the same people also complain about monopolies and lack of choice at the same time. How do you propose this be reconciled?
Also, no one’s ever going to be able to begin to enforce a “living wage”, even if they wanted to, until that wage is given a concrete definition–at the very least, a formula with variables to account for cost of living differences across the country. Until then, all this clamoring for a “living wage” is completely pointless.
Bentonville AR is being turned into a bicyclists haven. To the tune of Arkansas laws are making it that bicyclists don’t have to pay attention to traffic laws. That’s neat, wonder why… Ah. And while bicycling is one of the better things I guess billionaires can do, in the region buying bicycles are far beyond affordable anymore to a walmart wage because it’s gotten so over the top fancy, and the Waltons literally have a helicopter with a bike rack to fly out to the trails. My dad is irritated because of how often it shakes his house as it goes over.
Same city, Alice Walton had a really nice museum built in the area that was surely out of the good of her heart… Ah. Unless really local, one might not know of her nickname “Drunken Alice” where she has a history of dwi’s and wrecks, including one where someone was killed, yet somehow nothing seems to stick.
Yea… I’ve got a bit of an axe to grind with the Waltons having grown up in their personal playground, I agree with you to think this is a problem with just Amazon is ludicrous, and despite only living a state away it’s amazing to hear how people bitch about Amazon, it’s chokeholds, it’s problems, its wrecking of the country, and gives a full pass to Walmart. We live in an oligarchy.
Completely unrelated to my bitching about Walmart, but a perfect example of execs doing this nonsense and how I got in trouble because I can’t stop snarking: Worked for a medical testing facility, ran by a doctor. Said doctor buys himself a brand new shiny Lamborghini, then through the whole email has an announcement that for one day for 4 hours where any of the staff can get a picture with the Lambo and share on the company page. Now I met said doc once during training, but otherwise worked 3rd shift with two other people, he certainly never showed up when we had issues.
So when the day happened, it was one of those I commented it’s the first time I think I’m glad that 3rd shift gets ignored on any staff events. Think about it for a second, then ask the others “Who has the newest car?”, turns out was a Nissan Juke. So each of us go out and get a picture with the Juke, then sent the pictures in to where people were supposed to send in the pics with the Lambo. Turns out they got 4 pictures, the 3 with the Juke, and 1 with the Lambo. Got told by our manager said doc was pissed and to keep our heads down.
For those not upset and see the band “just playing a gig”, what would be a line that you personally would consider too far? Would you be ok with them doing a private show for Netanyahu and his cabinet? Would a private show for Trump and his Republican lackeys be ok? How about Nestle CEO and its board, but none of its workers? Would a private show for the Proud Boys be ok if they had a “dump truck full of cash”?
Seems like it’s just fanboyism and they can’t stand that a band they care about (or at least enjoy) has sold out to the absolute worst degree. People are right in that all bands sell out to a certain point (“All you know about me is what I’ve sold ya, dumb fuck/I sold out long before you’d ever even heard my name/I sold my soul to make a record, dipshit/And then you bought one” – Hooker with a Penis, Tool), but when you specifically accept a gig that is just some elitist executive party for a company that treats its employees like shit, you’ve gone too far.
Fuck the Foos. And stop making it political (“lol, liberals”) – bullshit, this is just rampant band fanboyism.
And stop making it political
It’s political because caring about people who aren’t rich is political.
The fact that you think it’s a certain side that does this is the only reason you think it’s political. And you’re wrong about it.
I’m disappointed in Dave grohl
Tbf it’s not like grohl needs the cash is it
Eh, all he did was accept money to do exactly what he does: play a concert. Now if he canceled other concerts just for this, that would be a different story IMO. The Amazon execs would just buy a yacht or something instead if Dave declined.
Ah the ol’ “If I didn’t accept the money to do something unethical, then someone else would have done it.” argument.
Yeah, I can see how it could be seen that way. I’m thinking more along the lines of “Dave performs for money. Someone wants to pay a lot of money for a special performance, and it doesn’t affect any of his other shows so of course he would do it”. IMO what Dave did isn’t unethical, but I can see how it could be seen that way. But I also think if the article was “Amazon Execs bought a multi million dollar yacht after massive layoffs”, no one would be blaming the yacht manufacturer. Just the execs.
no one would be blaming the yacht manufacturer
I already don’t support yacht manufacturers. I own foo fighters albums. There is a massive difference in your example.
Here’s a better one: If the Amazon execs threw a private party, no one would be blaming the caterers.
Assuming they’re not already millionaires, correct.
The yacht was a bad example. What I’m getting at is that not hating something is not the same as supporting it. I don’t support Dave doing this, but I don’t hate him for doing it either.
Don’t give the Foo Fighters a pass for doing corporate gigs for these assholes either. They knew exactly what they were doing.
It is a musician’s business to know who they are performing for and why - and the more famous they are, the more it starts to matter. Grohl knows this.
The people on here who is excusing this with “capitalism bad except when people I like is doing it” arguments is just demonstrating how empty “liberal values” get when push comes to shove.
Not unlike all the excuses we’re seeing for genocide now that it’s Biden shipping the bombs over to Israel.
Have yet to see anybody ‘excusing’ it. Everybody’s just holding their noses and sticking with him because the alternative is convicted felon Trump.
Oh they straight up deny it’s happening. Nobody tries to say it’s a genocide and it’s okay, they just deny it or deflect to talking about Trump.
Trump is not a ‘deflection’ from Biden. Trump is the only alternative, and a much worse one for pretty much everybody on the planet, even if some don’t realise it.
It is absolutely a deflection when we want Biden to stop participating in Genocide, to instead bring up Trump.
That’s not what was stated before.
So we’re just skipping the part about the execs treating themselves to a concert after many years of union busting, horrid working conditions, innumerable other abuses, and excluding the workers. But we’re going to shit on the people they hired for a gig.
Coolcoolcoolcoolcool.
So we’re just skipping the part about the execs
No… we actually talk about Amazon’s shitfuckery a lot. Where have you been?
ffs dave
I wonder when “selling out” or being called a “sell out” stopped being a thing. It happened during my lifetime for sure. Now basically everyone everywhere you look in the music business not only is one, but the public seems to not even consider it an option to not sell out, and I think most people dream of being able to be a sell out themselves so much they pardon others preemptively and almost instinctively.
But like in this case, Dave Grohl is already a multimillionaire, does he really have to further prostitute himself for Amazon cash?
It fell victim to the “gig economy”, now it’s less “Selling out” and more “Get that bag”
If those dirty fucking workers had just worked harder they could have a Foo Fighters concert too.
Best I can do is a YouTube video with ads for dick pills.
You break your back for pennies while they get millions a second to eat sushi off of a porn star’s back.
Rookies. The real wealth gets to eat sushi off a porn star’s front!
The funny thing is that people always forget about old money - people who don’t know what work is or what actual money is. And who see billionaires as just mere peasants.
There is a lot of old money where I grew up, and it was funny hearing about Blackrock trying to buy their properties. They would offer these people ten times the value, but old money was just “but, that’s just a little bit more money in the money bin. I have a massive house and estate to look at the peasants. Why would I bother?”
And now imagine old money in Europe. For example, the British aristocracy owns at least 30% of land in England (that’s the official number, but Land Registry doesn’t have information about who owns 15% of land at all and it is most likely owned by aristocracy as well). And England has a leasehold system. So if Blackrock would come to a king or some lord to buy some of their land, the land would be sold to them easily as a long term lease, for like 100+ years. And then Blackrock would also pay yearly rent on top of that. Because you ain’t buying shit here, dirty peasant.
Another thing to keep in mind is that old money here have their wealth for over a thousand years. They’re not simply entrenched, they’re a part of the fabric of the country itself. They have all kinds of exceptions in the laws and regulations and exist above everyone else not only in social status, but also in economic and political status as well.
People can hate the rich as much as they want, but there’s a layer in the society which doesn’t care about the existence of the rich and the poor. And they are all related to each other through centuries of strategic marriages, so basically one incredibly large family spread across the whole of Europe.
