@thatcosmonaut yeah the columnist recommends talking to an employment lawyer but also said that there are some states where it’s legal as long as it doesn’t bring you under minimum wage because we live in a hellscape

@thatcosmonaut @pbandkate yeah, explicitly illegal in MA, but that's state law, not federal, so.... 🤷😣

@thatcosmonaut the fact that employees are made to pay these fines IN CASH and not payroll deductions makes it hella sketchy too

@thatcosmonaut @pbandkate the fact that they’re paying in cash makes me think they know it’s illegal and don’t want a paper trail

@goodleftyfundies @thatcosmonaut @pbandkate Yep. It's like landlords who insist on cash and refuse other forms of payment so that you don't have any paper trail when they raise your rent every other month.

@KitsuneAlicia @thatcosmonaut @pbandkate this reminded me of something I wanted to look into... that the various forms money takes always ends up harming people whether it’s cash or credit or checking: need a checking account with a bank to cash a paycheck ( there’s a minimum balance and fines), but then when you need a paper trail with your landlord insists on cash

@goodleftyfundies @thatcosmonaut @pbandkate Then there's legal issues people like myself face with using a name that's different from your legal name unless you pay the government hundreds of dollars to change it.

Even then, you're also responsible for changing all the government paperwork in other areas too.

@goodleftyfundies @thatcosmonaut @pbandkate In the end, a "preferred name" field on forms is nothing more than a workaround to shift the blame onto the small businesses and the workforce when the capitalists in government refuse to do their own jobs.

@KitsuneAlicia @thatcosmonaut @pbandkate
I guess I’d say the usual Marxist thing about this: this isn’t the system malfunctioning; this is the system functioning as intended. Money is tied with the formation of nation-states and is used to marginalize the marginalized groups that nation-states create. Like money is a way for governments exclude people from ‘normal life’

@goodleftyfundies @thatcosmonaut @pbandkate And my usual reply: Abolish currency. It's an unnecessary standard that will inevitably be used to needlessly hurt someone.

@KitsuneAlicia @thatcosmonaut @pbandkate yes!!

@KitsuneAlicia @thatcosmonaut @pbandkate
An interesting example of this I read recently in saidiya hartmans book lose your mother is that Europeans paid African slavers in cowrie shells and then refused to take that as payment... meaning African money and wealth from the slave trade became worthless while European and USA capitalism was built on that same money from slavery

@moth and it’s this poor person’s first professional job and they think this is NORMAL and DESERVED

@ponfarr i know I know, top to bottom the whole thing is so upsetting

@pbandkate like the law is a nightmare without at doubt,, but also people dont know what few rights and protections they have and they're so hard to enforce and it makes me so sad.

@baronnarcveldt yeah the columnist was like “people have unionized over less”

@baronnarcveldt @pbandkate Hell, *Ferengi* have unionized over less.

@goodleftyfundies @pbandkate Let me start by saying I share your outrage. This is bullshit. Now let me tell a funny story. I live in London. Commuter trains are a force of nature. They arrive when they want to arrive and you arrive at work subject to their whims. We never schedule meetings before 9:30am, 9:00 if you're being a stickler. People simply can't get in that early. It isn't done. 1/x

@goodleftyfundies @pbandkate So some Americans come over to teach a class at my (American company) office in London. They set the agenda to start at 8:00am. That's absurd. I suck it up and take the 6:40am train and get to the office on time for the class. We get started a bit late, like 8:15. Around 9:15 about half the class shuffles in, mumbles something about trains and sits down. We all shrug and keep going. 2/x

@goodleftyfundies @pbandkate At lunch I overhear one of the instrutors talking to the other. He's completely flabbergasted that people would just come in an hour late, mumble "trains" and everyone would just shrug like that's OK. The thing is, it IS OK in London. Sometimes the trains are just fucked and there's nothing you can do. We shrug. Life goes on. When I tell this story to Londoners they laugh. Because they get it. Americans do not get it. 3/3

@paco @pbandkate
I feel like only people who commute to work by car could think like this... I bet all the Americans who were complaining drive to work usually. Cars and ‘personal responsibility’ feel very codependent

@scribblefrog i know i know

@pbandkate @scribblefrog it's bad