Ah, America.

[pyat]

Currently occupying two foreign nations, dealing with ongoing violence in both, with a worrisome economy, a major port city still crippled by natural disaster, more than 1 in 100 adults currently in prison, tax rolls supporting a defense budget larger than that all the other nations of the world combined, spending more per capita of state money on healthcare than any other nation yet no socialized healthcare and a declining life expectancy, serious questions about the conduct of the military and CIA, the perpetrator of 9/11 basically forgotten, and there's an election in a few months.

And of course, the most important topics in that election are gay marriage and abortion.

Comments

[relee.livejournal.com]

Around here (Sarnia) most local work blatantly and constantly breaks labour laws. They all came to the realization that if the government tries to stop them, the jobs will disappear, and the people will loose the support of steady work. Because of that, nobody reports it, or talks about it much.

It disgusts me, but also makes me uncomfortable because I don't dare try to stop it. I have the support of my family and don't really 'need' a job, so I can make all the fuss I want. But other people, they have to support their kids and/or nurse their heavy debts. I can't kick that support out from under them.

It may be worse in the states, but it's not great here. :/

[zenten.livejournal.com]

If your rights, personally, are violated, what would happen if you went to the labour board?

[relee.livejournal.com]

I'm not really sure, to be honest. There was never a lot of education about that; and I tend to be one of the more educated people.

There's a lot of scare tactics involved. If they ask you to take sudden unpaid overtime, you can't say 'No' or they might can you. Fears of things like that spread through rumors, they never really 'say' it, but the fact that they do ask for unreasonable things like that leaves people afraid to stand up for themselves.

In the worst case, if you make a fuss, then you'll be branded as a troublemaker and be unable to get a job anywhere. Nobody wants someone who is going to complain and bring the government down on them.

That's illegal, I'm lead to understand, but so are a lot of things. In the worst case, some manager somewhere is canned and replaced with someone exactly the same. Maybe that's not entirely the truth since these things are spread in rumors, but that's what people believe.