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> Especially since we've largely abandoned previous institutions True, though I think new institutions will come back. Things like Meetup groups seem to be gai
by idrios 10y ago
> Especially since we've largely abandoned previous institutions
True, though I think new institutions will come back. Things like Meetup groups seem to be gaining more traction--The groups are just slow to adoption because they're so new that nobody can be grandfathered in yet by friends or family who have been long-term members.
> Unions are overall good ideas -- Maybe. Depends.
I see unions as just another corporation - they're satisfying a need of "workers should not be exploited", their revenue model is "members pay X% and in return get our strength in numbers", and their activity streams are "fight for favorable legislation" and "Threaten uncompliant businesses".
The problem with unions is they are not treated as corporations in their own right, so unions have become monopolistic, heavily involved in lobbying and partaking in generally corrupt behavior--responding more strongly to incentives to survive and make money than incentives to keep its members happy.
Unions are still powerfully beneficial, but I'd wish there were multiple unions for any industry that competed with each other, some with stricter requirements to get in, each offering different freedoms and protections to its workers
- mbostleman 10y agoUnions are monopolies by their nature - it's not something they become. They only exist due to a statutory exemption of anti-trust law. I personally have not been able find a justification for a monopoly of any kind in a free society.
- astazangasta 10y agoThis is what unions are now, because the NLRB institutionalized them, and Taft-Hartley defanged them, and they became another kind of entrenched power. This is not what they were, when they served as a democratic organ, a way for workers to make collective decisions outside of government.
- cortesoft 10y agoIf a union was not a monopoly, they would lose all the power they have - the power to withhold labor from an employer. How would a non-monopoly union work?
- mbostleman 10y agoI don't see what benefits unions provide other than relieving their members from participating in a free market. The inefficiencies of such relief being paid for by consumers that have no choice in the matter.