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I'm not sure where you get your "European-style" ideas from. Anglo-style fungibility of labour hasn't found any solutions before why would it suddenly start?

I'm not sure where you get your "European-style" ideas from. Anglo-style fungibility of labour hasn't found any solutions before why would it suddenly start? Weekends, pensions, paid sick leave, holidays, healthcare for all are all things that have come out of the union movement. You're not forced to join a union and well paid jobs almost never have unions. Unions are for those that don't have your bargaining position. And there's a difference between "I wasn't born rich" and making it and "I'm born into a deprived circumstances."

vinceguidry 11y ago
Like I said, it's all or nothing. Once you turn the ship, the whole economy moves that way. It's not something we should do lightly. The union movement was a response to a particular time frame where the world was rapidly industrializing and the nature of work was very different than it is today. Factories used to lock the doors during the workday so workers couldn't sneak out. That period of time is over. > Unions are for those that don't have your bargaining position. This is not true at all. There are player's unions for each of the major sports. In Hollywood, entrance into your profession's union is a key marker of status and increases your earning potential, so long as you do it right. The medical field has professional organizations that act as unions. There are unions for each of the construction fields as well as a substantial non-unionized sector. Both sectors cater to different parts of the market. In all fields and sectors in which collective bargaining is a thing, innovation is stifled. Professions remain static, decade after decade, the union doing its damndest best to keep the status quo. > And there's a difference between "I wasn't born rich" and making it and "I'm born into a deprived circumstances." I was 1 step away from what they call "poor white trash." My mom's parents struggled a lot, and though my father's father had a stable union job with the railroad, my father was an alcoholic. My mom threw him out when I was around 3 or 4 and we were the very definition of poor. My mom has told me numerous stories of the ugliness of the people and the near-desperation in which we lived most of the time. I don't remember much of it because my mom managed to escape the hell of southern Louisiana by marrying a Marine. Soon after, he got posted to various other parts of the country, and south Louisiana was ancient history. I was born into the so-called 'working poor'. We didn't stay that way. Hell, south Louisiana didn't stay that way, it's a lot different now. It wasn't cushy union jobs that did it, it was the willingness to be mobile and to take advantage of the economic opportunities that being in the most powerful nation of the world afforded us.

vinceguidry 11y ago

Like I said, it's all or nothing. Once you turn the ship, the whole economy moves that way. It's not something we should do lightly. The union movement was a response to a particular time frame where the world was rapidly industrializing and the nature of work was very different than it is today. Factories used to lock the doors during the workday so workers couldn't sneak out. That period of time is over. > Unions are for those that don't have your bargaining position. This is not true at all. There are player's unions for each of the major sports. In Hollywood, entrance into your profession's union is a key marker of status and increases your earning potential, so long as you do it right. The medical field has professional organizations that act as unions. There are unions for each of the construction fields as well as a substantial non-unionized sector. Both sectors cater to different parts of the market. In all fields and sectors in which collective bargaining is a thing, innovation is stifled. Professions remain static, decade after decade, the union doing its damndest best to keep the status quo. > And there's a difference between "I wasn't born rich" and making it and "I'm born into a deprived circumstances." I was 1 step away from what they call "poor white trash." My mom's parents struggled a lot, and though my father's father had a stable union job with the railroad, my father was an alcoholic. My mom threw him out when I was around 3 or 4 and we were the very definition of poor. My mom has told me numerous stories of the ugliness of the people and the near-desperation in which we lived most of the time. I don't remember much of it because my mom managed to escape the hell of southern Louisiana by marrying a Marine. Soon after, he got posted to various other parts of the country, and south Louisiana was ancient history. I was born into the so-called 'working poor'. We didn't stay that way. Hell, south Louisiana didn't stay that way, it's a lot different now. It wasn't cushy union jobs that did it, it was the willingness to be mobile and to take advantage of the economic opportunities that being in the most powerful nation of the world afforded us.