cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/2258784
I’ve been looking through some US and EU labor data and I have started to wonder why don’t more of the working poor join local mutual aid groups instead of staying at their likely shitty jobs or relying on charities?
This is a study on the labour distribution in the US among the working poor
On table 4 it shows that there are about 5,812,000 people that are classified as working poor ( Its says number in thousands so I multiplied the number given by 1000) and that alot of those jobs are in essential services like making food or providing support to others.
Similar diversity is show in the EU as well
So if most of these people decided to stop working at their current job and instead bring that those skills to a mutual aid network wouldn’t they still get most of the resources they need because other specialists would be there to help them and also live a generally more happy life?
Also the reason why I am saying instead of charities is because charities become less effective the more people request from them because they have limited resources to share and also mainly supported by wealthy people that can unilaterally give and take away support.
Whilst mutual aid networks can take the diversity that more people joining the network gives them and use it to offer more services to other people in that community.
This seems like a no brainer so what am I missing?
Well, I live in the U.S. and I’ve never heard of mutual aid, nor have I ever heard anyone I know mention it. So it may be partly that folks like myself just don’t know about it.
Exactly. You are not alone!
I really don’t know what a mutual aid group is.
How do I find them?
What are some examples?
How would they help?
> So if most of these people decided to stop working at their current job and instead bring that those skills to a mutual aid network wouldn’t they still get most of the resources they need because other specialists would be there to help them and also live a generally more happy life?
We don’t live in small self sustaining villages though. That shear amount of manpower needs layers of managing (planning, distribution, logistics) to make it even remotely work. (Otherwise it would already “just happen” all by itself. But it doesn’t because it’s more complex than it looks). Those with the skill and wherewithal to fill those management type functions are not generally working poor in the first place because of the power (and compensation) those skills are able to obtain in the regular jobs market. So… a chicken and egg type problem.
Because people are generally unaware of what help there is for them out there.
At least for the US, I know it has to do with the American Individualism bs. Also, the car-centric nature of the US doesn’t help
Who leading this groups? One of the most famous, catholic church, that isn’t only charity but a government raise in Vatican with millions of budget. The church with this money why dont cover the needs? Because they operate even futher that basic human needs, they invest on build churchs and restorate the old ones. Why? Because they organization believe in God, souls, saint spirit, so their direction will be not focused on helping as you wish for. You can apply this example to all others organization by exchange god with others believes, mostly material, not always linked to moneys, sometimes leaders are full racists, everyone are blend by their believes.
The Catholic Church runs some hospitals too, does that mean we should give up on secular hospitals?
That’s actually a really good question. I suspect that many feel mutual aid groups are scamming for assistance when they don’t really need it. Personally, I’d rather provide direct assistance than go through a charity when I see what charities like Good Will pay their CEOs. It’s obscene.
