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> Maybe you don’t care that much about the world outside the US or Western Europe I don't think that's a fair reaction. It's possible to care about the rest of
by untog 8y ago
> Maybe you don’t care that much about the world outside the US or Western Europe
I don't think that's a fair reaction. It's possible to care about the rest of the world and recognise context. Workers looking for greater bargaining power in the US shouldn't accept "but things are much better in Eastern Europe these days" as a reason for them to not organise - the two are entirely separate issues, and can happen independent of each other.
- andy_ppp 8y agoYes. Clearly my comment relates to the article which I believe is talking about pay and conditions in the West.
- bzbarsky 8y agoThey're not entirely separate issues. One of the big reasons for rising living standards in the rest of the world has been the offshoring of work from the US and Western Europe, which is also one of the things reducing worker bargaining power.
- s2g 8y agoBut it's got nothing to do with the decimation of unions and the rise of more and more worker hostile policies in general.
- bzbarsky 8y agoIt's not entirely unrelated. It's easier to get away with worker hostile policies for an employer when the employer's option if workers object is not "no workers" but "I guess I have ti shift production to China". You're right that it's not directly related to the decimation of unions. That has other things going on, and different things in different sectors.
- ishjoh 8y agoI think they are related. If a factory is in the US, and unions drive cost of employment higher, then the factory owners look to move the factory overseas to be more competitive. Now it's important that we also recognize that the factory owners also have to be competitive in a global landscape and against new entrants into the market, new entrants that can spring up from countries where the cost of employment is much less, so they have a strong incentive to move factories when costs rise. Now at its disposal, a government can implement tariffs and protectionism to level the playing field, but those can have disastrous long term effects (see the history of India's protectionism). So, an excellent way for wages to rise is to make employees extremely efficient, and to increase the demand in labor. Make no mistake though, the gains in other countries have effected US and European workers.
- walterstucco 8y agoThat's another way of transfering wealth from richer to poorer They are strictly correlated Poverty is globally going down because poorer countries are becoming less poor, meanwhile richer countries are not becoming richer at the same speed as before Just like CPUs They're becoming faster but the difference between each generation is smaller So yes, aknwoledging that eastern Europe used to be so much worse than actual US is a tool to put things in perspective