I wish the lower and middle classes would stop begrudging each other’s thousands and start focusing on the millions and billions being raked in by corporations and the rich.
I care what the gov't pays people, because that's my money.
That doesn't mean we should just ignore government employees and politicians banding together to fleece future taxpayers. More than one thing can be bad and can be fought against.
X: "start focusing on the millions and billions being raked in by corporations and the rich"
and
Y: "corporations don't pay employees a living wage and they end up on welfare"
https://www.worldhunger.org/report-walmart-workers-cost-taxp...
I guess the alternative is what? Get rid of Walmart jobs? Will people be better off then?
You’ve just been given an example that demonstrates the two are linked, with corporations underpaying their staff, subsidised by the government.
Do you have the same opposition to govt subsidies on underpaid private workers as to do for what you presumably consider to be overpaid public workers?
Note that Walmart is posting billions in net (not gross) profits, while the employees are using food stamps.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https:/...
Usually blaming big corps is a bit more effective than trying to untangle US democracy/politics (first past the post, healthcare/education costs skyrocketing, employment and health insurance too strongly entwined, race, religion and ideology takes the center stage not poverty, because path dependence of the affected groups).
What if you're an MAGA supporter, against tax cuts for the rich, in support of equal treatment of all ethnicities and religions, believe in additional rights and protections for police, pro life, pro gun-control, pro living wages and universal healthcare.
What is your democratic duty? Who do you vote for? Which candidate enables you to vote for everything that matters to you?
Every issue cannot simply be distilled down to which candidate you voted for. Especially if the issues you care about are unlikely to be handled properly by either candidate, if only because the executive branch doesn't wield unlimited power (thankfully), and the branches of government are no longer demonstrating any willingness to work together (unfortunately).
The issue remains systemic, and instead of targeting the individuals "for ignoring [their] democratic duties", the system itself would benefit from meaningful changes.
McDonalds used to do this, but they've backed off recently: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/03/27/mcdonalds...