Isn't that reasonably good money though? Don't worry about your 401k or pension or something. Young(-ish) people's pensions will be plundered by governments before they get anything anyway, so you're not any worse off in that regard.
Why can't you move to a better place then? Is it genuinely impossible, or are you just uncomfortable with the idea?I make around $55,000 a year but I receive no benefits, no 401k, no future.
What really pisses me off is the "company" I work for is based in a place where they wouldn't dare treat their employees like that. But they can here. Because we're used to it. Because we're desperate. Just like me.
Where would I move to? Germany? I'm not trying to be argumentative but that's just unfeasible. I'm stuck in the States and here and now it's all about the bottom line. More with less. Squeezing every last dime and productivity out of your employees only to lay them all off if it pleases the shareholders. I'm youngish and they take full advantage of that. They know everyone else is operating the same way so I really have nowhere else to go. Shit I'm lucky to have found the job I have. Somewhere around Reagan I think we lost the balance of power between employee and employer and now it's reached almost indentured servitude proportions. Social security? I know I'll probably never see that and if I do people can't live on that now. I'm almost 30. I need to start putting a retirement plan together like 5 years ago and they just, don't, give a shit. There's no real loyalty anymore.
Well, with your envy-inducing native-English-language privilege you can just waltz over to an Asian country of your choosing, and pretend to teach English for ~15h/week for a (usually) considerably above average salary (by local standards). It makes no sense that you can do that, just because of an accident of birth, without any skills whatsoever, but hey.. the world we live in makes very little sense. Moving is not a problem. I've moved out of Finland twice now, but without that privilege. I'm almost 40 and have no pension saved up. That doesn't really matter because again, we're not any worse off than others, because others are going to lose their pensions when governments plunder them. We'll all just have to work longer, or run a successful business to be able to retire earlier. You can move out if you just have the will to make it happen. Don't hate "corporations" for employing you. The fact that you're working somewhere shows that you find it preferrable to any other options you perceived you had. Now you have a new one. Go "teach" while you still can.
Hating corporations for the conditions under which they employ people really is the smaller issue here. My disgust has way more to do with the way in which they manipulate the actual options, the political framework surrounding the options and (throuh corporate media) our perception of our options. Simply saying "Move to asia, teach english" makes one hell of an assumption about someone's circumstances and responsibilities. Assuming they are indeed able to do so, it may actually be a decent idea. If someone is considering a language teaching position, just be ultra-paranoid about whom you sign up with and the terms of employment. There are very shady teaching agencies and people looking for that easy gig do get screwed over badly. Depending on your choice of nation and your fluency in their language, actually enforcing any terms of your contract may be a far different process from what you're used to, too. Don't, under any circumstances whatsoever, let anyone have your passport.Don't hate "corporations" for employing you. The fact that you're working somewhere shows that you find it preferrable to any other options you perceived you had.
Corporations don't "manipulate political frameworks". Our rulers do. Exactly. So how about not shaming me about "assumptions"? I don't know him or his exact circumstances, but he does have that option, and he sounds like he's in an overly negative mindset. With a $55k per year income, he's not really poor. The rest of your message is not really relevant to our discussion, so I won't comment further.the political framework surrounding the options and (throuh corporate media) our perception of our options
Assuming they are indeed able to do so, it may actually be a decent idea.
Why do you take this as an attempt at "shaming" you? Why would I want to do that? Distinguishing between corporate rulers and political rulers is becoming increasingly hard nowadays. They certainly visit the same Bilderberg meetings (among many, many others) and it's not exactly uncommon for people to switch back and forth between the two sectors. And no, I still don't believe that simply removing the political sector from the equation will lead to an improvement of the situation.
What situation is that, and how would you improve it?And no, I still don't believe that simply removing the political sector from the equation will lead to an improvement of the situation.