Capitalism is a mess.
After a year's worth of news involving 7-Eleven Australia franchisees scamming their staff (Google News informs us: "About 562,000 results"), another new week brings us … another new 7-Eleven pay scandal! Surprise!
This time it was caught on video (as of writing this, not yet available from Youtube, but you can read the ABC News Online story and watch the video there). Mark Willacy (reporter) writes:
" 'My bosses say they can't afford to pay the government [legal] rate. That's why they ask us to give some of the money back,' said the worker 'Anna'. The ABC agreed to protect her identity."Come again?
"She said she hands back about $11 for every hour she works.
" 'The government pay is $25 per hour for casual staff. What I get is $14 per hour. Every week I pay (back), because they pay me every week,' she said".But how is that possible? At one hand, largely foreign 7-Eleven franchisees are made to sign impossibly onerous contracts with 7-Eleven: franchisees have no other choice but to mercilessly squeeze their workers (they, obviously, never heard they can't do that). Every single dollar they extort their staff, is one dollar they get to keep as profit. And, boy oh boy, do they excel at that!
At the other hand, many foreign workers (including 7-Eleven workers) are themselves somehow breaking the law: either because they are illegally in Australia or in breach of their visa conditions. Many put themselves in that situation.
Who wins, whether or not the shit hits the fan? Go ahead. Make a wild guess. How about 7-Eleven Australia's extremely rich Aussie owners? (Update: 23/11/2016. H/t to the Birdwatcher for the correction).
In truth, everybody wins:
- The Coalition government gets to hand their generous donors cheap labour, while making a show of punishing the "boat people", to appease the local racists.
- The pseudo-Left gets the chance to focus on high theory, philosophy, ontology, epistemology. Marxism? That's so yesterday. And, on top, they can display their moral outrage in public, denouncing indiscriminately anyone talking about this as racist (or at least as fellow traveler): you can't say that, because you'll be handing ammunition to the racists (too bad the racists themselves have no problem monopolising the discussion).
Nobody who is somebody needs to do anything. Everyone's a winner, baby. That's the truth.
Well, everyone except those workers and their local counterparts. You've gotta love capitalism.
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And speaking of racists: some brief profiles of high profile Alt-Right people. Opening is some young gay guy who is world-famous among the white nationalists for "criticising feminism, transgender people and Islam". Pink is the new brown?
And recently the Twitterverse was full of comments on this Singaporean-born of Vietnamese "boat people" heritage hottie (as in "Plaboy magazine hottie"), who just so happens to be neo-Nazi.
What next? Jewish neo-Nazis in Israel? Oh, crap!
But, hey, that's all the white working class' fault. Ask the pseudo-Left.
Capitalism is a mess.
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Speaking on SETI, Stephen Hawking says "if we find ET, don't talk to it": aliens, you know, might not be nice.
Me, I suspect it may be already too late to be concerned about aliens invading Earth. I think they're already here.
dr tad is gonna hate u for that m-pie. if i were u i'd make it clear au$$ie bo$$e$ are da winnah$. this is a sensitive matter.
ReplyDelete- the oo
You're probably right on all accounts, matie. Here, however, your warning, like Hawking's, is too late:
Deletedr tad is gonna hate u for that m-pie.
Oh, well. :-)
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I'll add some editing.