Working in the US, I was salaried and they absolutely fucked employees from both ends on the deal. We weren’t paid hourly yet were expected to work a minimum number of hours, then were expected to work more hours without compensation as needed, and it was needed often. Every salaried employee I have met without interest in securing a promotion put in the absolute minimum amount of time and effort possible.

I worked as a consultant for years and yeah, exactly this, and more! One thing knowledge-based consultants do is reuse old work but bill clients for a flat rate instead of hourly. It’s less than paying for new work, but usually much more than the hourly cost if they were billed for just the time required to update the material.

I recycled old work constantly. For a well-paying, reasonable client, I’d sometimes only bill for the time required to update the work and comp the rest as a gift. Last minute, minor updates were free within reason.

Penny pinching, uncooperative clients paid full price and I’d bill the rush rate to the minute for last minute updates. On average, great clients paid less for work than the ones trying to strangle a deal out of me.

I wouldn’t recommend cannabis as a panacea for pain if the person has no prior experience with it. I have chronic pain and cannabis makes my pain much worse.

Tl;dr: Democrats are controlled opposition.

When they do have any leverage, they find plenty of reasons not to use it. The Republican party has put on a decades-long master class on being obstructionist little twats, yet most Democrats fail to learn and the few that have often seem more like pressure release valves than actual agents of change.