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> Ahh, okay, now im understanding the point of this article. Lets fight monopolies with more monopolies instead of solving the underlying issues! If an opposin

> Ahh, okay, now im understanding the point of this article. Lets fight monopolies with more monopolies instead of solving the underlying issues! If an opposing force of similar power is not the best strategy, what do you propose as an alternative?

Eridrus 9y ago
We can enact laws to prevent the practices we as a society decide are unacceptable. There are people here who are fatalistic and think that politics is unwinnable and politicians are in people's pockets, but laws can take away unions' power too, so I don't see politics as avoidable in any case. I think framing a union as a monopoly is odd, but they become institutions in their own right, and theirs interests diverge from the wider group's fairly quickly. The UPS union seems to want to force UPS to not invest in drones or self-driving trucks at the expense of everyone who would benefit from significantly cheaper delivery, and this isn't exactly an isolated incident. The construction unions in NYC have secured themselves a deal where the government must use union labor, and unions negotiate a contract with their employers, who have no incentives to keep costs down because they pass all these costs on, and we get subways that are 10 times more expensive than anywhere else in the world. We have a similar situation with construction unions & housing in NYC leading to increased costs and .: more expensive housing for everyone in NYC. And the list goes on forever.
- pjmorris 9y ago
  > We can enact laws to prevent the practices we as a society decide are unacceptable. The trick about laws is that they are only as strong as their enforcement. The larger an organization is, relative to the enforcer, the easier the laws are to game.
- cannonedhamster 9y ago
  We can't even pass a federal budget, but we can make sure corporate lobbying gets their giveaways. Laws in the United States as of late almost never benefit the citizen, unless of course you consider corporations people.
  - Eridrus 9y ago
    Union organising won't save you if the politics are against you.

Eridrus 9y ago

We can enact laws to prevent the practices we as a society decide are unacceptable. There are people here who are fatalistic and think that politics is unwinnable and politicians are in people's pockets, but laws can take away unions' power too, so I don't see politics as avoidable in any case. I think framing a union as a monopoly is odd, but they become institutions in their own right, and theirs interests diverge from the wider group's fairly quickly. The UPS union seems to want to force UPS to not invest in drones or self-driving trucks at the expense of everyone who would benefit from significantly cheaper delivery, and this isn't exactly an isolated incident. The construction unions in NYC have secured themselves a deal where the government must use union labor, and unions negotiate a contract with their employers, who have no incentives to keep costs down because they pass all these costs on, and we get subways that are 10 times more expensive than anywhere else in the world. We have a similar situation with construction unions & housing in NYC leading to increased costs and .: more expensive housing for everyone in NYC. And the list goes on forever.

pjmorris 9y ago
> We can enact laws to prevent the practices we as a society decide are unacceptable. The trick about laws is that they are only as strong as their enforcement. The larger an organization is, relative to the enforcer, the easier the laws are to game.
cannonedhamster 9y ago
We can't even pass a federal budget, but we can make sure corporate lobbying gets their giveaways. Laws in the United States as of late almost never benefit the citizen, unless of course you consider corporations people.
- Eridrus 9y ago
  Union organising won't save you if the politics are against you.