Money

I think I want to talk a bit about money, until we reach post-scarcity or drastically change our political priorities money is still going to be pretty important for the foreseeable future but it is probably the one most effective tool in existence for marginalizing vast swathes of the population, including and specifically, but not limited to, anyone who isn't white. By that I mean racism and the economy are virtually inextricably intertwined, if Bernie Sanders campaign failed for a reason under his control it was failing to get that message across, you can't fix one without fixing the other, and economic control essentially equals total control.

This post isn't about that necessarily, not entirely, but it's related, what is on my mind is how reluctant we are to talk about it, we hesitate to ask how much things cost, or how much someone makes at work, even how much debt they have, as if it is somehow shameful for us to be concerned about the details of money at all.

Ignoring it doesn't make the problem go away, and not talking about it just makes one think that the problem, if any, is limited to themselves. I fully advocate talking about money, from coworkers telling each other how much they make, to folks giving details of their mortgages out. On a basic level getting used to talking about money is the first step to learning about how it works, specifically how it works to oppress you, but it's also good information to have for anyone, if you know what your coworkers are making, you can get an idea of what you should be making, if you know what other people are getting as far as home loans, then you know when you are being arbitrarily screwed and can(hopefully) take steps. In finance, as in all things, ignorance only serves the powerful, this is one reason why unions are important, for example: At my job I am the highest paid hourly employee, making 13.50/hour not counting tips, and by a good couple dollar an hour margin too, I haven't had any raises, and don't really expect to, so even when I was brought on I was the highest paid employee, do you see the problem here? When I was brought on I was also the newest employee, there were a couple other people in my position already, one of whom had been with the company for like five years and they were making significantly less than me. Now I have a pretty good resume for this kind of job these days, but that still doesn't cover it. A union would have (hopefully) worked to set wage standards for all level of employment as well as advocating for raises, but without that backup, every employee is forced to fend for themselves, with no knowledge, against a management that knows everything.

In my coworkers case she found out how much I made eventually and made a stink about it, she got a raise but still makes a fair bit less than me, the gap has closed a little bit at least though. But she shouldn't have had to, and she should even now be in a better position. More open communication about money would have given her some of the knowledge she needed to advocate for herself earlier.

I have been actively encouraging my coworkers to talk about money, it helps that most of them like me and are young enough to be influenced still so I am hoping it will help them later on, we talk about our comparative wages, tactics for requesting raises, how unfair it is that we have to rely on our incredibly arbitrary customer base for a reliable income(well, not me, but I have the advantage of better base pay and lower expenses than many) I encourage them to actively find better jobs, and to use that as leverage when they can.

It's a small thing, but you do the small thing when you can't do the big one yet.