I've been browsing the leftist subs for months now, this sub, /r/LateStageCapitalism, /r/lostgeneration. What has started to grind my gears is that whenever people talk about actionable advice you can take – you all sound like Milton Friedman and Ayn Rand in here.
“If your raise is lower than inflation, you effectively got a pay cut”.
“What do I do”?
“Start job hunting and change jobs”.
“Grind leetcode and get a programming job”
These are right-wing answers. These are “pull up your bootstraps” answers. These are answers that every libertarian right wing economist would point to and say “Ah, see, capitalism works! Even the hippies on the left are realizing that the best way to survive is to simply adapt to the system”.
The classic left wing answers would be to organize, collectively fight, strike, take solidarity with other groups, direct action, and fucking force them to give you what you're worth. Make society bend to give you the compensation and life you know you deserve.
The “free market” solution is to structure your time in your personal life to maximize the amount of shareholder value you can provide a company. And then politely smile in a job interview, tell them what they want to hear, and become part of the rotten system.
I'm actually shocked that the most left wing mainstream communities on Reddit are this watered down. If this is all we can come up with as a solution – “Just be a good worker within the system and hope you don't get a medical emergency!”, then we've already lost. The false consciousness has affected us all. This sub is just for minor venting as we all lead our lives as good little capitalists. Not for actually sharing ideas about how we can having small local victories that grow.