Watch: Billionaire CEO says unemployment 'has to jump' to put 'arrogant' workers in their place
Watch: Billionaire CEO says unemployment 'has to jump' to put 'arrogant' workers in their place
An aggrieved billionaire this week lamented that workers had grown lazy and "arrogant" during the coronavirus pandemic and that many of them needed to be made unemployed for the situation to improve.The Australian Financial Review reports that Tim Gurner, the founder and CEO of the Gurner Group, exp...
I remember when I was younger, having low unemployment was considered a good thing, universally desired it seemed. Only in late stage capitalism is it a requirement that we have people who can’t find a job so the working class doesn’t get too uppity.
Reactionary take in response to billionaires being put in their place by a working class that is gaining back the union culture of the 20th century and pro-labour fervour of the 19th, assisted by the technology of the 21st.
More people are supposed to not have jobs, but at the same time, not be collecting unemployment or public assistance. So basically… go panhandle, live in a tent city, go to prison, or I guess just die is their suggestion.
This effect was analysed in great detail by Marx in the 19th century, so it's not a characteristic of late stage capitalism, just of capitalism.
His term "Reserve army of labour" refers to the unemployed.
Taking them as a whole, the general movements of wages are exclusively regulated by the expansion and contraction of the industrial reserve army...
From Capital by Marx
This is where you realize that capitalists don't care about improving society, they just care about maximizing profit.
Full employment means full utilization of the productive forces of say society, but it also means there is a high demand for workers and a low supply thus the price of labour increases which is bad for business.
When an industry reaches a certain stage of development, capitalists make agreements with each other (economic cartels) effectively turning into monopolies and begin the cycle of destroying productive forces to increase profits. They reduce labour cost by doing massive layoffs, inflate the price of goods by decreasing production, etc... A very clear example of this is the oil cartel (OPEC), but it happens silently in every single sector.
Low unemployment is a good thing- to a certain percentage (3% i think?). Not 0%.
People are arguing saying we expect some people living it tents - no, we expect to have people unemployed for a short time while they swap jobs, or seasonal workers out of season, or new grads looking for their first role.
Someone should unemploy him, you know, to help his numbers.
Should be un something for sure.
Unemployment is a luxury that the rich can afford more of.
Fuck this cunt
In the face...
Repeatedly...
With a brick!
Or an anchor!
Unemployment has to jump 40 to 50 percent, in my view. We need to see some pain in the economy. We need to remind people that they work for the employer, not the other way around
What a fucking asshole! True "we need to show those uppity peasant who's boss" energy 🤬
Employee and employer work TOGETHER. I would love to meet this guy in person, real let them eat cake energy. Anyway, where's my guillotine sharpener.?
Employee and employer work TOGETHER
Sounds like commie talk to me. How long have you been a member of the Communist Party of America? /s
When we have nothing to lose, then we have no problem eating the billionaires.
If billionaires ruined the economy in such a way that 50 percent of people couldn’t afford to feed their families then I like to think that people would simply eat the billionaires.
But that’s wishful thinking and seeing how people interact in public and online makes me think that way too many people still think billionaires are awesome.
If billionaires ruined the economy in such a way that 50 percent of people couldn’t afford to feed their families
What do you mean "if"? They're well on the way already and it's getting worse, not better.
then I like to think that people would simply eat the billionaires.
Problem with that is that owning everything also includes bodyguards and even de facto private armies.
way too many people still think billionaires are awesome.
Unfortunately you're absolutely right.
i think this guys face should meet a crowbar
That's a weird way to spell guillotine
Guillotine was the bourgeoisie tool to separate the head from their necks. The current ruling class is the modern iteration of that bourgeoisie. I think that the wall and a Kalashnikov would be much more representative of the tools of the proletariat.
It looks like it already has
well since he failed to learn from it maybe they should repeat the lesson.
I hope this isn't a bannable comment, but someone needs to bring out the fucking guillotine for these fucks.
What is it with property developers and being brainless dicks?
People having been throwing shit on plots of land since the beginning of time. It probably scratches that sweet spot of little thought and a lot of money that most people seem to be after.
“passive income!” when they talk to each other, but tons of hard work when described to anyone else.
Property developers have been activelly helped by governments and central banks for at least 2 decades who have done all sorts of things to rig the housing markets to always go up, even though to owner-occupiers higher prices are almost never a good thing (sure, the house is worth more, but if you try and cash it in by moving, any other house you buy or rent is also more expensive, so you gain nothing from your home having a higher valuation).
A guy his age has spent his entire life getting the message from top politicians and bankers that his economic activities are more important than just about all others and get rewarded no matter what (it really is a "no skill needed, just lots of starting money" domain), so it's only natural if he behaves accordingly.
PS: Also, given that people keep reelecting the politicians who keep sacrificing the whole Economy (and keep selecting central bankers who do the same) to serve his interests and those of others in the same domain as her is, he probably thinks most people are morons. Worse, he's probably right.
We should indeed have more unemployed people, since we should strive to a world where nobody has to work anymore.
Implement Universal Basic Income.
Or we could just get rid of money and everyone gets what they need? Like, money is just something we made up.
Good luck getting anyone means to give up something without getting something.
I'm pretty sure if you got rid of money people would immediately reinvent it.
I hate cleaning and I pay someone to do it for me. What am I going to do? Barter?
The problem isn't money it's lack of worker protections and consolidation of power.
Welcome to North Korea!
UBI with capitalist relations of production is simply not sustainable.
Where would UBI come from if nobody is working?
Automated production.
It is easier to see the extinction of humanity than the end of capitalism. But if we cannot imagine the end of capitalism we will see the extinction of humanity.
Eventually, though (as Sophie From Mars speculates) the population will be reduced to where the USD and EU are meaningless, and the remaining bands act more like mutual aid.
The question is if humanity has been reduced by then to tens of millions, or thousands.
UBI in imperialist countries comes from the global south people labour.
This is the original "stop eating smashed avocado on toast" guy.
This guy need to improve the planet by being a lot less alive.
About 100% less should do the trick.
I live in his city and I will not hesitate to tip my $6.50 latte over his narcissistic noggin, should the opportunity arise.
Unemployment needs to jump 40-50%??? Is this guy seriously that utterly disconnected with reality? In Aus it’s never hit more than 12% in the last 4 decades, the economy would just collapse if unemployment got that high. It only got to 32% during the Great Depression in the US.
That's the difference between percentage and percentage points. If the unemployment rate were 5% then a 50% increase would make it 7.5%
An increase of 50 percentage points would make it 55%
utterly disconnected with reality
is there another way to accumulate that amount of wealth?
having said that, if unemployment is 10% and he thinks it needs to jump (and not to be 50%) then unemployment would be at 15%
If unemployment is 10%, then the actual amount of people who aren't employed anywhere is 50%. Because the laborforce participation rate is only 60% of the population.
I was baffled by that comment. Did he mean 40-50% higher or 40-50%. Huge difference.
If I understand his business correctly, that amount of unemployment would cause him to fail
His wording means it should increase 40-50%. Not that it should be 40-50%.
Do you know what percentages are?
"We need to see unemployment rise," he argued. "Unemployment has to jump 40 to 50 percent, in my view. We need to see some pain in the economy. We need to remind people that they work for the employer, not the other way around... There's been a systemic change where the employees feel that the employer is extremely lucky to have them, as opposed to the other way around."
You love to see it.
Also, lots of comments about guillotines here. We might get some concern trolls about that, but at the very least, it sure is a problem when a billionaire like Tim feels like he can say something so outrageous without any consequences.
Funny thing that we witnessed in Iran: Violence is not the answer until the very hour it is.
Law enforcement in Georgia are attacking mutual aid stations. They're recognizing and harassing the non-violent methods we would affect change.
And the billionaires are telling us they'd have us starve if we refuse to live as bonded servants.
This is how civil wars start.
People become violent when they no options for anything. The Syrian Civil War is a prefect example of this, in the lead up the civil war, there was economic polices that benefited a select few people, intense drought that drove food prices up for the common people, and a lack of way to show anger in a healthy democratic way (strikes, protests, etc.), lead to a lot of anger. The anger eventually exploded causing a civil war.
Right now, we all have a cost of living crisis ongoing, lack of political leadership to resolve these issues, and growing wealth inequality. The next global recession is going to have lot of angry people, who's only options are going to be die a slow death or do something and maybe die a slow death.
When it happens remember to direct your anger at the right groups of people, political leaders who championed the status quo for corporations and billionaires, talking heads who tell us to be "grateful", and corporations and billionaires focused on wealth hoarding. These people got us into this mess and will gladly leave all of us to sink if it means they get to keep their dirty hands on power.
When you vote, you are exercising political authority, you're using force. And force, my friends, is violence. The supreme authority from which all other authorities are derived.
--Robert A. Heinlein
I hope he loses everything he has, and if he doesn't, I hope people steal what's left.
Any consequences! Exactly that. I'm sick of this rich man culture of fuck you I got mine. There needs to be a systematic change where the rich feel that they are extremely lucky to be allowed to horde so much and keep there heads. They've grown lazy and arrogant. Consequences for your selfish actions!
The guillotine building industry has to jump to put these corporate dirtbags in their place
Stock market needs to go down to put arrogant Billionaire in their place.
that hurts a lot more people than just billionaires
The ruling class has clearly shown that the economy and the stock market are not as interconnected as they have been in the past. The markets are terribly inflated, it NEEDS to go down, or the eventual crash is going to be 1920's bad.
We should put arrogant CEOs in their place.
Preferably in front of a firing squad or in a guillotine.
Can we bring out the guillotines already? Serious.
Rich people are loosing the fear of workers that was deeply ingrained in their DNA by the french. They should be afraid again. Maybe pinata economy is the most logic way to go.
The "left" is anti-violence and law-abiding. Our primary act is bringing out old phrases like, "eat the rich."
We're not even hearing of acts of vandalism or sabotage, but we want them to be scared.
Right now, if they don't get their way, unquestioning and at cheap rates, they are oppressed.
This is where we are. I agree, they need checked. Unions are getting stronger again (at last). But that's all I'm seeing. I hope I'm missing something.
i hate these greedflation causing piece of shits. complete and total arrogance. admiral klancy said it best
Unemployed Aussies should show up at his house.
Arrogant billionaire complains about having to operate in a free market. Oh the irony...
Billionaire has to jump....
Off a cliff
A few Putin jumps of our billionaires is the only way anything's going to change.
Lol. I actually read the article and it's Tim fucking Gurner.
I've got friends who work as consultants for his projects and it's more of a "do as I say" relationship. He buys up properties and then turns them into "luxury" apartments or hotels for his rich mates.
He's part of our affordable housing crisis.
And he goes on to make this statement. Good grief.
Pierre
Get the guillotineThese retarded rich fucks don't really understand that the only reason society is not killing them yet is because many people have a shitty job which can at least feed them. You take that away and motherfucker hungry people will revolt.
I really do think it's time to break out the guillotines.
as we know... good billionaire is dead billionaire
But if you consider the counter-argument, maybe arrogant billionaires need to be reminded again that the deal by which they wouldn't be dragged out of their homes and beaten senseless in front of their families was that they'd pay a living wage and deal with unions and submit to antitrust regulations
Another parasite sucking up all of our resources for itself.
On the plus side, people on both sides of the aisle hate this dude.
We should seize all his shit
If everyone was unemployed then maybe we'd have the time and desperation to do so >:)
That’s what “arrogant” means: not desperate enough. Not sure he knows what fully desperate is though.
Some CEOs deserve to be fired... out of a cannon... at a brick wall... covered in large spikes.
Let's eat him first.
Ok, lets start by labelling CEO's who don't do shit as "unemployed".
Next is every billionaire that don't pay the taxes they are owed.
The cruelty is the point.
I'm putting in a proportional amount of effort for my pay compared to what my CEO does for his pay. Seems fair to me.
High time for Pinata Economy.
They realize 40% of the population isn't employed, right?
And I say in order to fix things he should jump off a cliff. Maybe he should try my idea since it only hurts one person instead of millions.
Guy's a fucking moron, Australia could not survive such high unemployment - nor could any modern economy.
Damn look like that dudes forehead had to jump to get away from his rat face.
I hope this entitled cunt has to pay for sex for the rest of his life/
I mean, I have talked with a number of people who know that there are people they work with that are little more than "warm bodies" and get by doing as little as possible while dumping everything they can on someone else. They stay employed because "at least they do something" and there is no one else to do it. Before I get a "low pay" response, these are working professionals and paid accordingly.
It is also a well know economics trend (Phillips curve) that states as unemployed falls, inflation rises. Most countries are underemployed, and it is driving inflation.
Unless he is saying all workers are arrogant and entitled, in which case fuck him.
I would argue that "these working professionals" are not paid accordingly. If you're expecting more of them, pay more. Top talent tends to go where the money is.
If you're wondering where the money should come from, see: out of touch billionaires.
I don't want to go into too much detail, but 1.5 times the countries median wage - not minimum, not living, 1.5 times the countries average income - should be enough to get people to be able to answer a phone and respond to basic emails in a timely matter (like, 24 hours) when people's lives and financial security are on the line.
This isn't a top-talent argument - its acting with a basic sense of actually doing work while you are being paid.
Unless he is saying all workers are arrogant and entitled, in which case fuck him.
That’s a bingo!
If management can't do better than place "warm bodies", I'd say management is overpaid.
Based on the other person im "talking" with maybe management should be paid more to attract the right managers, and maybe management isn't paid enough to do more than the bare basics.
I mean, what's the difference? Both are people paid to do a job, yet change the job title and all of a sudden someone not doing a job shouldn't be paid so much.
Are there shit managers - absolutely. But don't act like employees not doing that they are paid to is acceptable either.
