FlowrenSick
Member
lol
“Housing is a right” demystifying buying the block & the immediate housing crisis
- Thread starter Race Jones
- Start date
FlowrenSick
Member
"Before Dan Price caused a media firestorm by establishing a $70,000 minimum wage at his Seattle company, Gravity Payments... before Hollywood agents, reality-show producers, and book publishers began throwing elbows for a piece of the hip, 31-year-old entrepreneur with the shoulder-length hair and Brad Pitt looks... before Rush Limbaugh called him a socialist and Harvard Business School professors asked to study his radical experiment in paying workers... an entry-level Gravity employee named Jason Haley got really pissed off at him.
It was late 2011. Haley was a 32-year-old phone tech earning about $35,000 a year, and he was in a sour mood. Price had noticed it, and when he spotted Haley outside on a smoking break, he approached. "Seems like something's bothering you," he said. "What's on your mind?"
"You're ripping me off," Haley told him.
Price was taken aback. Haley is shy, not prone to outbursts. "Your pay is based on market rates," Price said. "If you have different data, please let me know. I have no intention of ripping you off." The data doesn't matter, Haley responded: "I know your intentions are bad. You brag about how financially disciplined you are, but that just translates into me not making enough money to lead a decent life."
Price walked away, shocked and hurt. For three days, he groused about the encounter to family and friends. "I felt horrible," he says. "Like a victim." An entrepreneur since he was a teen, Price prided himself on treating employees well at Gravity, which he co-founded in 2004 with his brother Lucas Price. Three years before, as a 16-year-old high school kid, Dan Price saw bar owners being gouged by big financial firms every time they swiped a patron's credit card. By first outsourcing technology, and then building its own systems, Gravity offered lower prices and better service, and grew rapidly for four years -- until the Great Recession nearly wiped it out. Traumatized, Price kept a lid on wages even after the economy recovered -- to save the company, of course! Why can't employees see that? Yet the more people tried to cheer him up about his wage policy, the worse Price felt.
Finally, he realized why: Haley was right -- not only about being underpaid, but also about Price's intentions. "I was so scarred by the recession that I was proactively, and proudly, hurting my staff," he says. Thus began Price's transformation from classic entrepreneur to crusader against income inequality, set on fundamentally changing the way America does business. For three years after his face-off with Haley, Price handed out 20 percent annual raises. Profit growth continued to substantially outpace wage growth. This spring, he spent two weeks running the numbers and battling insomnia before making a dramatic announcement to his 120-member staff on April 13, inviting NBC News and The New York Times to cover it: Over the next three years, he will phase in a minimum wage of $70,000 at Gravity and immediately cut his own salary from $1.1 million to $70,000 to help fund it.
The reaction was tsunamic, with 500 million interactions on social media and NBC's video becoming the most shared in network history. Gravity was flooded with stories from ecstatic workers elsewhere who suddenly got raises from converted bosses who tossed them out like Scrooge after his epiphany -- even, in one case, at an apparel factory in Vietnam. Price was cheered at the Aspen Ideas Festival and got an offer from The Apprentice reality-show impresario Mark Burnett to be the new Donald Trump on a show called Billion Dollar Startup. Gravity was inundated with résumés -- 4,500 in the first week alone -- including one from a high-powered 52-year-old Yahoo executive named Tammi Kroll, who was so inspired by Price that she quit her job and in September went to work for Gravity at what she insisted would be an 80-85 percent pay cut. "I spent many years chasing the money," she says. "Now I'm looking for something fun and meaningful."
It was late 2011. Haley was a 32-year-old phone tech earning about $35,000 a year, and he was in a sour mood. Price had noticed it, and when he spotted Haley outside on a smoking break, he approached. "Seems like something's bothering you," he said. "What's on your mind?"
"You're ripping me off," Haley told him.
Price was taken aback. Haley is shy, not prone to outbursts. "Your pay is based on market rates," Price said. "If you have different data, please let me know. I have no intention of ripping you off." The data doesn't matter, Haley responded: "I know your intentions are bad. You brag about how financially disciplined you are, but that just translates into me not making enough money to lead a decent life."
Price walked away, shocked and hurt. For three days, he groused about the encounter to family and friends. "I felt horrible," he says. "Like a victim." An entrepreneur since he was a teen, Price prided himself on treating employees well at Gravity, which he co-founded in 2004 with his brother Lucas Price. Three years before, as a 16-year-old high school kid, Dan Price saw bar owners being gouged by big financial firms every time they swiped a patron's credit card. By first outsourcing technology, and then building its own systems, Gravity offered lower prices and better service, and grew rapidly for four years -- until the Great Recession nearly wiped it out. Traumatized, Price kept a lid on wages even after the economy recovered -- to save the company, of course! Why can't employees see that? Yet the more people tried to cheer him up about his wage policy, the worse Price felt.
Finally, he realized why: Haley was right -- not only about being underpaid, but also about Price's intentions. "I was so scarred by the recession that I was proactively, and proudly, hurting my staff," he says. Thus began Price's transformation from classic entrepreneur to crusader against income inequality, set on fundamentally changing the way America does business. For three years after his face-off with Haley, Price handed out 20 percent annual raises. Profit growth continued to substantially outpace wage growth. This spring, he spent two weeks running the numbers and battling insomnia before making a dramatic announcement to his 120-member staff on April 13, inviting NBC News and The New York Times to cover it: Over the next three years, he will phase in a minimum wage of $70,000 at Gravity and immediately cut his own salary from $1.1 million to $70,000 to help fund it.
The reaction was tsunamic, with 500 million interactions on social media and NBC's video becoming the most shared in network history. Gravity was flooded with stories from ecstatic workers elsewhere who suddenly got raises from converted bosses who tossed them out like Scrooge after his epiphany -- even, in one case, at an apparel factory in Vietnam. Price was cheered at the Aspen Ideas Festival and got an offer from The Apprentice reality-show impresario Mark Burnett to be the new Donald Trump on a show called Billion Dollar Startup. Gravity was inundated with résumés -- 4,500 in the first week alone -- including one from a high-powered 52-year-old Yahoo executive named Tammi Kroll, who was so inspired by Price that she quit her job and in September went to work for Gravity at what she insisted would be an 80-85 percent pay cut. "I spent many years chasing the money," she says. "Now I'm looking for something fun and meaningful."
SeaSnake
OG
Lol please my nigga you was trying to be funny? You act like miggas don’t know your MO and tell your homie he ignored like he asked
SeaSnake
OG
Bruh I got you on ignore didn’t you ask for this why you responding to me yella ho
SeaSnake
OG
That’s also false never said everyone is out to get me but you are anti gay openly bruh
Dwayne
Not Like Us
SeaSnake
OG
Bobjones
Active Member
I get the whole '"upgrade skills, leave and find a new job if ur not happy with ur treatment/wage" thing since it's doable for some people with enough time and effort. If you're capable but unwilling to put the work in, who's to blame but yourself?
But are we really gonna sit here and act like everyone working these jobs is some bummy ass person with zero ambition?
Let's get real. There are millions of full and part-time students working these jobs. Millions of low skilled immigrants, including foreign/temp workers. Millions of workers from disenfranchised backgrounds whose upbringing stunted their upward mobility. The common denominator among these groups is varying degrees of desperation, or simply having few options (lack of opportunity). These companies exploit this reality.
There comes a point where the "do better" argument is used so wholesale and matter of factly that it resolves into nothing but privileged delusion.
But are we really gonna sit here and act like everyone working these jobs is some bummy ass person with zero ambition?
Let's get real. There are millions of full and part-time students working these jobs. Millions of low skilled immigrants, including foreign/temp workers. Millions of workers from disenfranchised backgrounds whose upbringing stunted their upward mobility. The common denominator among these groups is varying degrees of desperation, or simply having few options (lack of opportunity). These companies exploit this reality.
There comes a point where the "do better" argument is used so wholesale and matter of factly that it resolves into nothing but privileged delusion.
DOS_patos
Unverified Legion of Trill member
Whites Asians and Jews don’t seem to share this idea or division.
Crazy huh.
unskilled is bigger than skilled. Why not set yourself apart from a teenager going for the same job?
Or dare I say it...practice group economics with respect to each position
Your privileged delusion is a crazy statement. While your taking shots at people, maybe try to see what these privileged black people see.
Instead of demystifying housing ownership, how about we demystify white superiority. When you get to a certain point you begin to see dumb ass white people with powerful and respected networks. These people have social capitol to back the financial goals.
But I said they dumb or not as qualified.
now if I see that and tell one of ours to go for it, more than not I’m met with resistance. How many times does someone lay out a path before they get tired? Y’all don’t think black people want to see more black grow or get more? For goodness sakes, one dude is saying he don’t want to be financially stable. He never cares to be rich. This ain’t about money is everything but what you can do with financial excess.
That speaks volumes. Why wouldn’t I want to build a life so my family don’t have to work at the shitty jobs I complain about? Being rich can change the trajectory of your lineage and family.
Or is that someone else’s job?
It’s quite a few things going on here. This thread can go many more pages.
But are y’all ready to listen or are we still going to look at those that know different as part of the problem with oversimplified ideas of growth?
SeaSnake
OG
No not at all and bruh really you don’t ever debate here what are you talking about. I know exactly how that nigga get down on these topics idk why you got this beef with me all of a sudden man. Am I against stocks and bonds in your mind. Stick to that and looking at anal fetishes
SeaSnake
OG
Again all you think is this is about the man giving you more and not a workers actual rights to be treated fairly dog and you literally not addressing it because you’re deflecting with something I didn’t say. I’m not saying Jeff Bezos gotta wrote a check to the poor. But for y’all to act like a person who goes to work should find a new job instead of trying to change shit is beyond me. Just be real and say it you don’t think the system can be changed nor would you care to do idk why you keep asking me questions expecting different you never been this vocal before
SeaSnake
OG
So
I need to run for office but all these people feeling the same way haven’t run for office but you tell me it’s like y’all tho k I’m the only migga who feels this way
SeaSnake
OG
To these folks everybody bit the rich is lazy abd ok to be exploited that what they been saying whole thread. The company can’t be held to a standard but the individual should be. It’s pointless
FlowrenSick
Member
it's nearly amazing to see and read what people think of this.
Walmart Nike the Gap Calvin Klein etc. made KAJILLIONS exploiting Chinese labor. initially American society was appalled but soon enough they just fell in line with the characteristics of vultures. this is the thing I'm addressing. when the wealthy take on these cannibalistic roles and frame them as good natured and good ole hustle spirit. NO! they get overwhelmed by the forbidden poison in wealth which is power and in wanting more and they take these narcissistic measures and the people looking up to them, with so much admiration and respect, feed those egos.
we wanna be like Mike syndrome. Kobe!!! when they take that shot.
everything is in the drive and when there needs to be a little more they apply steel toes and spikes on their boots for better traction when stepping on people. I don't know how so many don't see this common practice of fucking over society by imitating the cognitive distortions of cruel aggression by those who thrive for more. the audacity to hire/buy off individuals in power positions such as lawyers, judges, police and military and seal it all with the stranglehold on media. all that just to keep the reactionary at a distance. you know you are basically working resistance in their favor by challenging persons such as myself with all of the "maintain the program" rhetoric. maybe if they'd showed what a Chinese worker has to do with his paycheck back when everyone was in an uproar about the American company exploits that took place in the 80's. yep! Companies exploited to maintain their wealth and all we talk about is hustlin'?
we're layed out on a floor plan of human failure. some MIGHT get through but we gotta stop propping those menial numbers up as examples when there's millions of people out here making the Exploiters shit happen.
because many of us may not be as fortunate as others in our limits, we're all still seen as undesirables. ask Disneyland about that. (another story)
Walmart Nike the Gap Calvin Klein etc. made KAJILLIONS exploiting Chinese labor. initially American society was appalled but soon enough they just fell in line with the characteristics of vultures. this is the thing I'm addressing. when the wealthy take on these cannibalistic roles and frame them as good natured and good ole hustle spirit. NO! they get overwhelmed by the forbidden poison in wealth which is power and in wanting more and they take these narcissistic measures and the people looking up to them, with so much admiration and respect, feed those egos.
we wanna be like Mike syndrome. Kobe!!! when they take that shot.
everything is in the drive and when there needs to be a little more they apply steel toes and spikes on their boots for better traction when stepping on people. I don't know how so many don't see this common practice of fucking over society by imitating the cognitive distortions of cruel aggression by those who thrive for more. the audacity to hire/buy off individuals in power positions such as lawyers, judges, police and military and seal it all with the stranglehold on media. all that just to keep the reactionary at a distance. you know you are basically working resistance in their favor by challenging persons such as myself with all of the "maintain the program" rhetoric. maybe if they'd showed what a Chinese worker has to do with his paycheck back when everyone was in an uproar about the American company exploits that took place in the 80's. yep! Companies exploited to maintain their wealth and all we talk about is hustlin'?
we're layed out on a floor plan of human failure. some MIGHT get through but we gotta stop propping those menial numbers up as examples when there's millions of people out here making the Exploiters shit happen.
because many of us may not be as fortunate as others in our limits, we're all still seen as undesirables. ask Disneyland about that. (another story)
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FlowrenSick
Member
absent all thought processing.
SeaSnake
OG
Bruh where did I say I don’t want to be financially stable you know you reading something else and it’s almost insulting at this point. I want to know how you put that together. If I made 50k a year doing a job I like and provides for my family that’s not ambitious enough? Is a person less than because they didn’t go get three streams of income? That way of thinking. I didn’t say throw away money but I see I have to explain in full detail.
Bobjones
Active Member
Dos, I agree with u fully. It's just that those expectations aren't always applicable across the board to ppl who r struggling. It's just a matter of different circumstances which call for different approaches. The dog eat dog, individualist brand of capitalism works wonders for some but stifles others. It can be argued it stifles others at the gain and fortune of the privileged, in other words, there's a dependency on a low class so the system perpetuates poverty. All I'm trying to say is that opportunity is like deck of cards, some r dealt a shit hand in life. Sometimes u can claw ur way back into the game, but it's a lot harder.