4 ms·
Except this isn't a zero-sum game.
by LaundroMat 6y ago
Except this isn't a zero-sum game.
- missedthecue 6y agoBut it is. Why do you think it takes 10 years to join the longshoreman's union? Why do you think they make $140,000-$400,000 a year doing menial lower skill work? Why do you think it takes well over a year to join the plumbers union in some states? They are making their money at the expense of non-union workers. There is no value-add in banding together to make more money. It's the exact same concept as the non-poaching rules in tech. Cartels advantage the cartel members at the expense of the everyone who isn't in the cartel, and unions are a cartel. They restrict supply of a product (labor) to increase the price at which is it sold. Cartels are bad when OPEC does it, and they're bad when the UAW does it.
- throwawaysea 6y agoExactly this. But the same dynamics apply to all unions including the ever sacred teacher unions. Their playbook is to use children as a rallying cry for continual pay increases, resistance to performance measurement, and resistance to competition from charter schools or any model that allows school choice.