Gralin
Super Moderator
- Moderator
- #926
Yeah meritocracy is made up, great excuse for those that benefit to maintain their privilege thoughI don't agree with this idea that we've been living in a meritocracy up until the current diversity push. We've had 'jobs for the boys' for a long time, where who you know matters more than what you know in a lot of industries. That's why you end up with organisations that look homogenous, because they keep employing staff like look like the rest of the organisation.
we used to refuse to hire women for certain jobs at my work based on "physical requirements and safety" even though we had guys that were middle aged, short and with heart problems in those roles who physically had problems doing some of the work
they were seen as fine by the managers who were hiring
at that point we had no women in management and no women in technical roles, only admin
we've got multiple women in the teams now in all sorts of roles and the company got there by setting targets which certainly pissed of a few blokes that felt they missed out on a job because of it, they'll never believe they got beaten by a better candidate if that person isn't a guy
and that is the rub isn't it, that for some they see it as worse for them so therefore bad overallIf the pendulum has swung too far the other way (and I'm not sure I agree that it has in reality, much as certain sources will tell you it has) then that doesn't mean what came before was better. If you were white and male it just meant you were the one most likely to benefit from it.
like the guys above that whinge about a woman getting a job they wanted
yeah and they're trying to make it so people have less choice by buying up all the housing in towns so they can do things like discount rent for employees as justification for paying them lessThis hasn't really been accurate for decades, and won't change anytime soon. Amazon is noted for having horrendous working conditions yet tens of thousands of people work there because they don't really have any other choice.
this is true for less and less of us every year unfortunately with the rise of casual workAustralia enjoys some of the best working conditions on the planet because of regulation and oversight. This means you get ~ 4 weeks a year of annual leave. This means you get sick leave. This means employers have to maintain the equipment they ask you to use. This means being paid a living wage.
its why there have been pushes to change laws to fix that loophole but companies put a lot of time and money into staying ahead of that stuff where they can't block the legislation to begin with
its the solution to everything from the perspective of those that will profit mostThe idea that the free market is the solution to everything isn't reality. It has some positives, but plenty of negatives. The regulation is intended to limit the negatives whilst still encouraging the positives.
yep and they constantly try and push for that to come hereWhy?
If there was some kind of global regulation that meant every worker in the world enjoyed the same minimum standards as Australian workers do, would that be a bad thing?
Sure fast fashion might disappear if they can't make your t-shirts in sweatshops, but again, would that be a bad thing? The world certainly did OK for a long time without any of those things.
The bolded is a big problem. No requirement for minimum wages or working conditions (that blasted red tape) means businesses overseas exploit the hell out of desperate people, who never really get to enjoy any kind of reasonable standard of living for their labour.
US has terrible working conditions, I work for a US based company and the announcement they send out globally about changes to work conditions with the little asterix about *based on local laws and regulations has me very happy to be here, though we're not the best
EU is generally much better for workers rights than here but we're still above many places