No one should have to “earn” the right to have food, shelter, healthcare, freedom to pursue self actualization, etc. None of us asked to exist. However, it’s not debatable that those things aren’t free. They require work. As a social species, we have an unwritten contract to provide for each other and contribute to the group. The assumption is that we’re mostly doing so in fair and balanced ways. Obviously that’s been a badly wrong assumption, and humans have been willing to fuck over anyone and everyone to perpetually seek more for themselves.
But imagine someone who decides to be completely self sufficient. They build their home and run a farm and provide everything they need to live all by themselves. It’s work. But that work provides a living. The time spent working covers all costs of living.
Therefore, if I give my time to work for someone else, it’s clear what the cost of that time is: a god damn living wage. Because that’s literally what it’s worth. There is no defensible argument otherwise. My life cannot be sold for less than what it takes to exist. That is literally slavery. Before anyone attacks me for calling it that, there are degrees of slavery. Obviously the slavery that existed pre 1800s in America was many degrees worse. But assaulting someone by punching them isn’t NOT assault just because you didn’t repeatedly stab them. This isn’t NOT slavery just because there are far worse examples of slavery. I repeat: being forced to work for less than it costs to exist is slavery.
A living wage is the starting point. The absolute bare minimum that my time alone is worth. Now, if I use that time to add value to your company, the price goes up. This is how we absolutely have to collectively flip the script. We are selling a product: time out of our lives to perform labor for someone else. We’ve been selling it FAR below value. Most are forced to do so but we have to figure out how to change that. Maybe this sub is a start. It’s getting harder and harder to organize, and the oligarchs absolutely will try to squash any means we do have of organizing.
I don’t know how to make the solution happen, but that’s the solution: set the price of labor and never sell it for less.