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Antiwork

The reason workers are having trouble getting what they deserve

Is because too many workers imagine themselves as future owners. I realized this when I spoke with a casual friend of mine who is in the Coast Guard. He was opposing worker protections like paid time off, paid sick time, required justifications for firing, and so on. His reason for opposing these things was because 'he' wanted to be able to hire and fire as he liked and that 'if anyone didn't like what he was offering, well they should just go somewhere else'. But he does not have a business. He's full time Coast Guard, he has no plans on starting a business and no skills that would let him start one. When he leaves the CG he'll be a regular employee. But because he imagines 'himself' running things, he's imagining things that serve him better in that scenario. After speaking with countless other conservative opponents of reforming the…


Is because too many workers imagine themselves as future owners. I realized this when I spoke with a casual friend of mine who is in the Coast Guard. He was opposing worker protections like paid time off, paid sick time, required justifications for firing, and so on. His reason for opposing these things was because 'he' wanted to be able to hire and fire as he liked and that 'if anyone didn't like what he was offering, well they should just go somewhere else'.

But he does not have a business. He's full time Coast Guard, he has no plans on starting a business and no skills that would let him start one. When he leaves the CG he'll be a regular employee.

But because he imagines 'himself' running things, he's imagining things that serve him better in that scenario.

After speaking with countless other conservative opponents of reforming the labor market, I've noticed a constant trend of this exact thing, people with no ability to run a business, and no business of their own, and no near term plans to start one, arguing for things that they would want as the owner of a business. Forgetting or ignoring or being oblivious to how that hurts them and others.

As long as every day average workers imagine themselves as the owners they will never be, it will be impossible to impose meaningful fixes on a broken system.

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