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Comment by syzarian | Hacker News Reader

Republicans never seem to pass up an opportunity to shit on employees. I can’t think of a single piece of legislation they’ve supported in the past 20 years to advance the lives/working conditions of workers.

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Did Democrats also just shit on railroad employees?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_United_States_railroad_la...

I wonder if the generalized statement is that politicians with investments and beholden to lobbyists never pass up opportunities (but i don't disagree with your sentiment).

Well, loosely speaking:

Democrats sometimes shit on employees but do support some measures to help workers. Republicans never support measures to help workers.

The republicans do support measures to help workers if it helps the employer find more workers.

It's a capitalist/socialist mantra to get everyone working and punish those who don't work.

The act of working is not what helps people live a better life. The act of working in humane conditions for human wages and benefits does. Paraphrasing Mencken: A Republican is someone with the haunting fear that a poor person somewhere is benefiting “unjustly”.

It is projection 100%. After all they are the Gaslight Obstruct and Project party.

I doubt any policies are fundamentally for better working conditions. The models of capitalism and socialism do not support this.

OSHA was set up to ensure better working conditions. Regulations regarding wage theft, mandatory paid time off, limit to the number of hours one can work in a week, etc. are all made for better working conditions. You appear to be know very little about the history of labor laws and their purpose.

I feel like they did but TBF they wouldn't have had the votes without some unpleasant compromises, and some compromise was better than no agreement at all.

And the good news is they were only a few votes short, which means the dems in general were on labor's side.

Let's hope (and I say this as an employer) we get further advancements in workers' rights soon. Things are way out of whack.

It's arguable we would be in a better place if democrats didn't compromise and take that deal. Maybe our economy coming to a screeching halt for a bit is what it takes to show idiots that we should be supporting workers who make our insane GDP possible, instead of barely keeping up the status quo that does not benefit those rail workers.

Making the economy come to a screeching halt is what the debt ceiling morons want to do. There would be tons of collateral damage with either case, most of which would fall on the poorest people the most (e.g. sudden spike in food or fuel costs)

Yes

Yes, both US parties are right wing.

The only difference today is that the Democrats might feign alliance with unions on occasion.

We're getting into U.S. politics here, but it's kind of a meme...

https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/2233325-the-simpsons

I have not seen that one. It’s funny. Thanks for sharing it!

I'm interested in why the signs say "inside"

Those conventions are held indoors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMRmuyy9f_w&t=30s

Yeah, but you don't typically need to explain that on a sign.

That is funny though under Biden the dems did manage to pass some significant bills in 2022. But that's worth noticing only because the meme is so on point.

There's another possibility other than sheer malevolence here, which is that the smarter folks in the GOP recognize that telework presents a threat to their gerrymandering strategies. Republicans do best when non-GOP voters are packed into urban areas. Teleworking means that you can keep your fancy city job but move out to the country, where you are going to start purpling areas that the Republicans would prefer remained red.

To be clear, I'm sure that for most Republicans, it really is about contempt for ordinary workers. But I do believe that WFH is going to have a measurable impact on the political landscape, and not one in favor of the GOP.

I dunno, looks a lot like good cop-bad cop tag team to me.

They both do harm to the American worker by supporting different aspects of corporate interests. In the end they are both unfriendly to the American worker. Bona fide support to the American worker by the Dems ended some time back in the 80's when they saw the windfall Repubs were getting from corporate. I know it hangs on like a cheap suit that the Dems are unequivocally in support of labor as Bernie used to be in the 80s but it isn't so any more.

Yes, both are “bad” but one party is much worse. I don’t vote since in my view neither party supports workers but I’m not under a delusion that both are equally bad.

Personally, I think things must get much worse in America before things can get better.

Is that why only Democrat led states have higher minimum wages, non compete bans, paid parental leave, pay transparency, higher unemployment benefits, and other worker friendly policies?

I cannot remember the last time a Republican led state passed worker friendly legislation.

That's the "good cop" play. In the meantime, things that would have allowed wages and salaries to keep up with inflation, have been ignored in favor of international trade agreements, outsourcing and importation of cheap labor. It's not that the above have no place in an economy, they do, but they need to be measured and they need to ensure the benefit is to the American worker, not American corps or foreign labor. Give me Bernie Sanders of the 1980s, I'll take the deal.

Efficiency and productivity raise standards of living. There are no perpetual motion machines or free lunches.

Nominally this is what is being aimed for. Only nominally though as others have pointed out. In reality probably mostly politically motivated pandering and punishment like most partisan activity.

I don’t know if you use “efficiency” and “productivity” in the economic sense but I don’t think this is correct. There are examples where efficiency and productivity have degraded standards of living and there examples where it has enhanced standards of living.

The distribution of resources is grossly unfair and that some get to “enjoy life” whilst a great many others toil in unfair conditions is a great injustice.

Yep life is grossly unfair. Bureaucratic self preserving orgs don't appear to be doing that much to help. Maybe strong AI will do it who knows.

In answer to your question "what have Republicans ever done to help the working man?" the answer is "Kept what little wealth they have from being taken in taxation and squandered with little to show for it". But they haven't done that great of a job on this either. But nominally they claim to be trying.

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