this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2026
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Work Reform
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A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.
Our Philosophies:
- All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
- Income inequality is the main cause of lower living standards.
- Workers must join together and fight back for what is rightfully theirs.
- We must not be divided and conquered. Workers gain the most when they focus on unifying issues.
Our Goals
- Higher wages for underpaid workers.
- Better worker representation, including but not limited to unions.
- Better and fewer working hours.
- Stimulating a massive wave of worker organizing in the United States and beyond.
- Organizing and supporting political causes and campaigns that put workers first.
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There's tons of examples if you actually care to look. Trash pickup is an easy example. I've lived in places where it was managed by the city and places where it was run by private companies. The city always showed up on time and never raised prices without justification.
Guess what the private companies did on a regular basis? And if you want to talk about efficiency let's consider whether or not it would be better to have four different companies running four sets of trucks on four overlapping routes through the city as opposed to one entity handling the whole thing. The only thing efficient about the private companies running things is the way the money is siphoned off to some rich asshole instead of being managed by accountable local officials.
If its so efficient why do trash companies exist? I live in a city that has municipal pickup and all my friends that own apartments/restaurants all have private business dumpsters because the city sucks at doing a simple job...
The government needs to stay in its lane and out of business.
If private companies are so efficient then why does the government exist?
Do you see why framing the question that way doesn't help you address the actual problem? I'm guessing you don't since you seem unwilling to consider the possibility that private ownership is not the ideal solution to every service problem. I don't think you need more than a cursory glance at the state of the US to throw that idea out the window but things must seem pretty good to you if you're still stuck in that mindset.
Not stuck in any "mindset". Been around the block a couple of times, not my first bbq, and every time any government gets involved they fuck it up and steal. Nope not on my watch.
And government exists as (and was intended) to hold the social contract we all have with each other together by the rule of law. Otherwise it entropy.
So has your 5 trash companies
whether your government only makes chaor or actually helps, depends a whole lot on the government and especially on the people in it. there are good governments, for example here in austria.
the issue is more, whether your government represents you and whether they care about you. that is something that depends on your local context.
so i can tell you from an example why private companies exist that do things that are typically done by public companies ... here in austria, there's a railway operator called WestBahn. They provide passenger trains on the route from vienna to innsbruck (roughly). That's the only route that they service. Why do they do it?
because it's one of the most provitable routes in all of austria. it has many, reliable passengers. servicing that route turns a profit. servicing many other routes, for example bus lines in some remote village, is still necessary, but obviously doesn't turn a profit as it has maybe 3 passengers at a time.
so, they pick the 1 route that's actually very profitable, only service that, and leave every other route to the state-owned alternative. that's what's happening.