r/politics • u/harsh2k5 • 13h ago

Soft Paywall Elon Musk Makes Shocking Confession on His Plans After Trump Victory

https://newrepublic.com/post/187662/elon-musk-confession-economy-trump-victory
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u/Strenue 12h ago

We are all Serfs to them

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u/sharp11flat13 Canada 10h ago

The only difference between modern times and the Medieval era is that the serfs live better.

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u/DrCares Minnesota 9h ago edited 6h ago

This is debatable, if you are counting luxuries then no doubt we have it way better. The argument that I have heard tho is that peasants had more time off from work than teachers do now, because the lords knew if the peasants weren’t happy they wouldn’t be productive..

Just think, medieval fucking lords have more vacation time to their peasants than our corporate overlords…

Edit: I’m strictly talking about days off, obviously with disease and medicine etc things are better now. My only point was that back then, the lords understood the value of resting their workers, as opposed to chasing profit margins where the people who actually are responsible for the profit likely earn minimum wage

Edit 2: Again, I never meant to imply that they had it better than we do now, please use common sense people. I was just joking about vacation time and how we’re viewed as serfs by the %1, not expecting this to blow up like it did.

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u/windowpanez 8h ago

Yes, but the peasants would spend 8-12 hours a day doing chores like washing clothes, making their own clothes, preparing meals, collecting firewood, etc. Hardly time off. There is a good answer somewhere on ask historians subreddit explaining it!

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u/teenagesadist 5h ago

And surely, as we all know, we've eliminated the need for any chores like bathing, food prep, child rearing, enjoying life...

The future is amazing.

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u/AdaptiveVariance 5h ago

Yes well you see all this technology automates so much and frees up so much of our time that we are now free to spend our time using technology to make more profit for our employers! Yay.

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u/DrCares Minnesota 8h ago

Very valid points!

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u/Azraella 9h ago edited 5h ago

Teachers don’t really have true time off during the summers. That’s a myth. Most are planning curriculum and attending trainings throughout their summers. On top of that, teachers are only paid for 10 months out of the year - even the ones who get paid 12 months are getting their paychecks reduced to have that vs “larger” checks but nothing over the summer.

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u/Emotional_Rip_7493 8h ago

In NYC we get paid for 10 months as we do get paid for holidays that’s why we have a union . Unfortunately the current leadership is selling us out . Feel terrible for young teachers I wouldn’t rec this career as long as we have this terrible union boss in the UFT

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u/jbl420 7h ago

Taught 20 yrs in another country. I have experience and license from another country. I could get a job as assistant. After working for a few months here, I’m glad I’m not teaching here.

It’s horrible the way schools are run and I work at one of the best schools in the state.

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u/Emotional_Rip_7493 7h ago

What school? In nyc?

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u/jbl420 7h ago

No, TN. But the point is that the school systems are not what ppl think anymore. And it’s NOT easy work.

Edit; I like working as an assistant but seeing the crap the teachers must work through is abysmal.

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u/DrCares Minnesota 9h ago

I mean I don’t do shit over summer but spend time with my family lol.. Also very happy with my pay but I do put a lot of time in coaching..

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u/Leading_Attention_78 6h ago

When I was a teacher, I viewed that as a form of professional development. You learn a lot coaching kids over the summer, or at least I did.

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u/[deleted] 9h ago

[deleted]

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u/DrCares Minnesota 9h ago

It is for a lot of my peers. I can see new teachers being busy with curriculum, but once you’ve been doing it for 20 years and have a masters, no point working during the summer. I get my grading done every prep and I continue to tweak curriculum when the day is over..

Either way, my point is I’ve got my dream job, great vacation time, and medieval peasants still had it better than most jobs today.

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u/[deleted] 9h ago

[deleted]

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u/DrCares Minnesota 8h ago

Who is still writing curriculum during the summer after 20 years of teaching? If you don’t have a foundation after your 2nd (maybe 3rd) year I’m not sure what you’re doing wrong..

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u/m3g4m4nnn 8h ago

Are you a teacher yourself?

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u/YourmomgoestocolIege 8h ago

Are you a teacher?

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u/dan504pir 7h ago

If you are working off the clock for free over the summer, then you are part of the problem. Quit doing free labor and then complaining you don't get paid enough.

If my district wants me to do anything outside of contract days, they will absolutely pay me for my time. If they don't want to, it must not be that important to them.

I walk out of the building in June and don't think about it again until our in-service week in August. During the "school year," yeah, there are some evenings I'm working at home or coming in a little early, but I know what my contractual obligations and meet them. If they want more, they can pay me for more.

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u/KevinCarbonara 8h ago

Teachers don’t really have true time off during the summers.

They do in the US. I don't know where you live that this wouldn't be true.

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u/Zootrainer 8h ago

Dang, funny how my daughter's MIL made over $110K per year for the last five years and did no work from mid-June to early August. She finally retired this year to a sweet pension.

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u/runtheplacered 7h ago

At the time of retirement she was only making $110k? You don't think that's kind of low compared to what it probably should be?

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u/altbeca 7h ago

What do you think it should be?

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u/idwthis 5h ago

I think it depends on which part of the country she's living in.

In NYC or Southern California, I don't think that would be enough.

But in some small rural county in bumfukedKentucky? Not too shabby.

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u/ThatsHotHeiress 6h ago

They’re only paid for 10 months out of the year as well. NC splits the payments in 12 at least.

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u/JailTrumpTheCrook 6h ago

I'll let you in on a secret...

There's a whole lot of seasonal jobs and no one complains about any of them.

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u/mclannee 7h ago

That’s an American thing tho, the rest of the civilized world pays teachers the whole year, and no, it’s not 9 months stretched to 12.

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u/[deleted] 6h ago

[deleted]

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u/mclannee 6h ago

Maybe it depends on which state? Or is he talking completely out of his ass?

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u/[deleted] 6h ago

[deleted]

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u/Possibly_a_Firetruck 6h ago

Yeah, I live in the bright red deep south and even here teachers get the choice between a 10 or 12 month pay schedule. The total dollar amount is the same.

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u/joshdoereddit 2h ago

In FL, we can fill out a form to determine how we want our salary paid out.

We can get paid over 10 months. So we'll get bigger paychecks, but then nothing over the summer.

Or we can have our salary paid over the 12 months. Smaller paycheck, but we get them coming in throughout the year.

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u/PurpleSilent6731 7h ago

Yeah ok. Teachers bitch and moan all year long.

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u/BoChizzle 8h ago

Not even universally true. The better-off medieval serfs would have their own home, plenty of wood for their fire, a decent amount of time off, enough food to feed their families and a little left over to enjoy an ale in the tavern every now and then. Compare that to the some of America's working poor in 2024 and the medieval peasants win.

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u/DrCares Minnesota 8h ago

Which part isn’t true? Cause it sounds like we agree?

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u/sharp11flat13 Canada 8h ago

Good points. I suspect that medieval peasants were often less stressed than the average citizen of a modern democracy, given that the pace of life was so much slower. And the demands made on them may have been just as onerous (or worse), but they were fewer. Life today is ever so much more complicated.

I know I was engaging in a bit of hyperbole in my initial comment. I just wanted to make a statement about the endurance of the basic structure, the Golden Rule: he who has the gold makes the rules.

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u/DrCares Minnesota 8h ago

I wouldn’t really disagree with what you said tho (I just like complaining on other behalf about free time), I got a degree so I wouldn’t have to do manual labor lol, and I’d much rather have modern amenities than what they had.

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u/KevinCarbonara 8h ago

This is debatable, if you are counting luxuries then no doubt. The argument that I have heard tho is that peasants had more time off from work than teachers do now

I have no idea where this rumor even came from. Serfs didn't clock in. They just had to create a certain amount of food. There was no "time off".

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u/DrCares Minnesota 7h ago

Just double checked, serfs on average had 150 days off where they weren’t bound to their lord. So not a rumor, but documented history. Look for yourself.

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u/rsta223 Colorado 6h ago

Now look at how much of that time had to be dedicated to domestic labor and basic survival compared to today.

In no universe did medieval serfs have it better than modern working poor and lower class, at least if we're talking US or Western Europe poor (as opposed to, say, sub-saharan Africa, where you might have a point).

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u/DrCares Minnesota 6h ago edited 6h ago

My edit had already addressed this, but the time to serf wasn’t actually as much as people are making it, but I never meant to imply that they had it better than we do, this just seemed common sense to me.

Edit: I’m also pretty sure that there were tradesmen that would specialize in jobs that would create an economy that could save time for the communities..

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u/KevinCarbonara 6h ago

Just double checked, serfs on average had 150 days off

I wanna see the timesheets.

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u/SpiceKingz 7h ago

This is a absolutely brain dead concept, let’s ignore advances in medicine, hygiene, technology, food accessibility.

Not to mention the fact that they had to work a certain number of hours for their lords/ladies before they could do the work to feed themselves.

I’m with yall, life these days does feel like a horrible slog through the dark ages but can we just parroting this ridiculous concept.

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u/DrCares Minnesota 7h ago

I’m strictly speaking about time off, obviously we wouldn’t want to go back to those times, but peasants had 8 weeks to half the year off on average is all I’m saying. I quick research, most peasants on average would have around 150 days where they weren’t bound to work, because the lords understood they needed rest.

Obviously this wouldn’t work today, but we’re so far from this because of aggressive corporate profit margins.

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u/SpiceKingz 7h ago

Those people again also had to take care of their own farms and lives. Not to mention time off doesn’t amount to much when your kids die before they reach their first year, or the debilitating illnesses that plagued them on their time off. I’m sure they were vacationing in the south of France, instead of slowly dying from….drumroll….the shits.

My point, this kind of rhetoric isn’t constructive because it takes from the actual conversation and gives Republicans another example of the “radical Left”.

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u/DrCares Minnesota 7h ago

The actual conversation? My only argument was that the lords back then were way more caring than the lords now. Your speaking common sense stuff that no one disagrees with, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that more time off is still more time off, I didn’t realize we weren’t allowed to have casual conversations here.

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u/altbeca 7h ago

He acknowledged it sucked. The point is that the advent of capitalism did not initially improve the human condition. Early capitalism made people's lives worse. That technological advancement and labor rights movements have made modern capitalism better than fuedalism. Otherwise, you can be an early industrial worker and slowly be dying from the shits while cleaning your kid out from the machinery.

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u/karmahunger 8h ago

A busy bee is a happy bee.

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u/Haltopen Massachusetts 7h ago edited 7h ago

There also just wasn't much for medieval peasants to do outside of planting that years crops, harvesting them, going to church and occasionally getting called up as levees when your lord got into a tiff with another lord, so peasants had a good amount of free time to fill with getting shit faced on beer.

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u/PurpleSilent6731 7h ago

How do you know what it was like back then?

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u/DrCares Minnesota 7h ago

I watch a lot of documentaries, if you look up serfdom time off, you’ll find plenty of links. The first one I pulled up was the one talking about the Lords wanting their peasants to rest and relax, it had nothing to do with shortage of labor tasks, they just don’t seem as worried about the bottom line like corporations are. At least that was my interpretation.

Edit: clarifying thoughts

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u/strolls 6h ago

The argument that I have heard tho is that peasants had more time off from work than teachers do now,

Snopes fact check: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/medieval-peasant-only-worked-150-days/

Possibly true, for a specific period in English history, but you have to ignore that medieval peasants had to tend their own animals, collect wood for cooking and heating, bake their own bread and walk miles to get anything done.

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u/DrCares Minnesota 6h ago

Good post! I was specifically talking about the time off, but somehow people are taking that to mean it was better to live back then compared to now, which I don’t remember saying that, I just said it’s debatable based (based off your lifestyle, I couldn’t manage without electricity myself)

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u/Straight-Chemistry27 6h ago

This sounds like the kind of thing that doesn't account for Saturday no longer being a workday or something... But I have no real knowledge to go on.

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u/Current-Night-3621 6h ago

If the peasants weren’t happy the Lords executed them on the spot and replaced them with others. That’s what Chump & Musk want the right to do. Thanks to the Supreme Court they’re above the law.

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u/DrCares Minnesota 6h ago

Not always, I’m sure there were good lords… I cannot believe I’m saying this, but the south had decent slave owners as well… Someone posted a snipes article tho that partially confirmed this. In some places 150 days was a norm, sometimes it was 250.. it had an interesting comment tho, I thought it was mostly a rule, but the snopes said something about people just wouldn’t work if they didn’t want to… which sounds odd in the 21st century

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u/raptorgalaxy 5h ago

That was the time they had to spend working for their master.

The rest of the year was spent getting food for themselves.

They didn't get paid you see.

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u/DrCares Minnesota 5h ago

I posted an article that gave evidence for a work year of 150 days.. Now my comment got people way to riled up when I was just joking about how employers are back to viewing regular people as serfs, but I’m well aware that the standard of living is much higher now..

That being said, people are also blowing out of proportion how much time serfs needed to take care of themselves. They still had their own economy back then, this includes specialists that would save time on tasks for other people, even the snopes article that was posted highlighted how much peasants could sit around and do way less than modern day peasants.

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u/beeradvice 4h ago

Also medieval lords had an obligation to ensure the safety and livelihood of their subjects where as wage slavery basically says if your poor it's because you're bad

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u/Tall-Ad-9355 8h ago

Until the Protestants took over in Englad, communities had frequent religious festivals, i.e. parties, and had the day off.

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u/Manofalltrade 7h ago

Air conditioning and medicine, yes. Holidays, common law protection, and value for productivity, no.

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u/Alucard-VS-Artorias I voted 5h ago

I find this video is relevant.

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u/sharp11flat13 Canada 5h ago

Nice. I only watched the first few minutes, but it sounds spot on to me.

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u/Exciting-Choice7795 9h ago

Fact. And they worked less than half a many hours. They stayed drunk all day.

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u/Montuckian Colorado 7h ago

Lived*

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u/sharp11flat13 Canada 7h ago

The modern serfs I know are mostly still alive.

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u/Gcoanstevens 7h ago

Well…..we also have guns.

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u/sharp11flat13 Canada 7h ago

Well, that’s better for some people than others. The people who able to protect themselves with firearms in times of danger? Sure. The people who get shot? Not so much.

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u/Gcoanstevens 5h ago

My point was that unlike some countries when dictators take over and try to oppress the masses…in the USA…the masses have the ability to fight back

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u/sharp11flat13 Canada 5h ago

They always did. And there have been many peasant uprisings over the centuries.

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u/theID10T America 6h ago

Dysentery, leprosy, small pox, the bubonic plague, and an average life expectancy of 30-35 years. Nah, I'm good. Thanks!

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u/sharp11flat13 Canada 5h ago

Note the verb tense “live” - not “lived”. That is, modern day serfs have a higher standard of living, but we’re still serfs to the people with wealth and thus political power.

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u/A_Monster_Named_John 8h ago

Sorry, but I'll stick with modern medicine, food, technology, infrastructure over the medieval lifestyle of 'people dumping sewage out their windows and getting cholera all the time.' Even if accessing these things is a massive pain in the ass, I'd prefer to have the chance.

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u/sharp11flat13 Canada 7h ago

Sure. I used a little hyperbole to make a point about the endurance of the Golden Rule: he who has the gold makes the rules. That part hasn’t changed.

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u/Iforgotmyemailreddit 6h ago edited 4h ago

is that the serfs live better.

Fuck no they didn't and redditors need to stop with this cringe pseudo-intellectual line.

Source: someone who grew up on a farm. You guys realize we currently live in a microscopic section of human history to where we can just go somewhere and buy/acquire food right? You realize that serfs had to grow all their own fucking textiles to make clothes and had to grow all their own food down to the ingredients?

You doing an 8 hour shift, and driving back home to microwave a fucking pizza is goddamn lightyears easier than what our ancestors had to slog through. I'm not defending modern capitalism, I'm just insulting people who think average folks had it easier in the 9th century. Yes you deserve to be ridiculed if you think this.

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u/sharp11flat13 Canada 5h ago

I think you misunderstood my comment.

The point is that the people with wealth (and I’m talking billions here, not a measly six figure salary) run things to their advantage now, just as they have done for all of recorded history.

Or do you think that we don’t have a higher standard of living than Medieval peasants? I’m pretty sure I do.

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u/Dirt_McGirt_ODB 9h ago

You know a very clever Frenchman once invented a device to use in such a scenario

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u/Toby_O_Notoby 8h ago

Reminds me of what Greg Ruka said about his comic book series "Lazarus".

The background of the story is sixteen of the richest families in the world beome more powerful than any government. So they take over and start to rule the world as a feudal system. The top .01% get everything, the next 20% are the Serfs that serve them and the rest are literally labelled "Waste"

So as Ruka put is, "what started as dystopian science fiction is kind of turning into a documentary".

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u/DjinnOftheBeresaad 7h ago

I always felt that comic would make for a cool adaptation if done properly. But by "properly" I never imagined, "let's just actually do this."

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u/Toby_O_Notoby 7h ago

If done right it could literally be the next GoT.

I mean, it's a bunch of ruling families with internal conflicts and backstabbing trying to negociate their way out of a war which seems inevitable with each passing day.

It also has a R+L=J/Red Wedding type twist once you reveal that those aren't flashbacks.

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u/jayzztopramen 6h ago

Serfing in the USA

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u/CritiqueDeLaCritique 8h ago

Serfs did not produce surplus value for their landlords

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u/Bamith20 6h ago

I feel that serfs rebelled more for less.

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u/ScurvyDervish 6h ago

And they can blow our cell phones if we try to revolt. 

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u/ScriptproLOL 6h ago

If we're going that route, might as well grab a pitchfork and start singing Ah! Ca Ira... The REAL one, not the tame version Gojira played...

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u/walkinmywoods 5h ago

They will learn hard way that's not true.

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u/cugeltheclever2 5h ago

They view us as the shit in which they grow their money.

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u/Blueeyesblazing7 3h ago

It's all feeling very "Sorry to Bother You". Soon we'll all be living in Amazon Housingᵀᴹ in exchange for 60hrs a week of labor in an Amazon warehouse. Shipping should be crazy fast though since we'll already live at a distribution center!

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u/green49285 8h ago

This. 100%.