(no subject)

[labellementeuse]

must vent must vent must vent



oh my god, we just had a shit-hurling fight with one of my flatmates and her boyfriend and... arg. They kept saying stuff like "but you can't just give lazy people money" and then I'd say "but you can't call them lazy people and ARGH, you guys may know heaps about economics but you obviously don't know shit about the social sciences" and then they'd say "stop changing the subject." And, I'm sorry, but if you're making an argument and one of your key premises is flawed, then defeating your argument involves pointing out that flawed premise as opposed to responding to your flawed argument. Nnnngh. Some sample dialogue:

"Four weeks' holiday makes it too hard for small businesses."
(Erm, so people shouldn't have fair working conditions because it's too hard for small businesses to sustain? Not the workers' problem, sorry, since plenty of small businesses obviously *do* manage it.)

"But it's better to let rich people get richer because it gets spread around!"
(Hello, it's called the trickle down effect and it does not work, take a look at america, redistribution is necessary.)

and and and I can't keep talking about this because I'll have an aneurysm and get too pissed off (I already shouted a LOT.) So I'm stopping but nnnnnnnnngh, Mr Darwin, the stupid people are breeding and taking over the planet! And the worst bit is, they have a bit of economic theory under their belt so they think they know everything about it, these engineering students! You know what commerce and economics are taught by rich people. Take some sociology and then talk to me.

Comments

[sixth-light.livejournal.com]

These are people who don't work, right? Or they'd realise how important that stuff is for the poor bastards (i.e., us) on minimum wage.

Or maybe they just are that stupid. *shrugs*

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Not sure - Mark might work, I don't know. But they're both civil engineering students and I looked at them and I said, I don't know where you come from but I know where you're going and you're not going to be labourers and you're not going to clean toilets and you're not going to work in a shop that's open 365 days in a year, so how can you say what's right or wrong for workers? (And pretty sure neither of them exactly come from Morningside.) And he was all, but my dad only takes 3 weeks holiday (yeah, but your dad doesn't work in a shop) and she said, but it's hard for small businesses and I said, my dad runs a small business and votes labour so suck it, bitch! Except a little more tactfully.

[sixth-light.livejournal.com]

My dad doesn't take a lot of holidays either. But there is a HUGE difference between being in charge of your own business and well-off, and knowing that you can take a holiday whenever it's convenient for you, and earning less than the average wage and having kids and having to ask for your annual leave months in advance and then sometimes not getting it because they need you to work over the school holidays anyway. Yeah, it can be tough for small businesses, but it's generally less tough than being a minimum wage slave. I somehow don't think my dad would swap his problems for the problems of someone working at the supermarket who gets four weeks guaranteed annual leave!