4 ms·

I think HN has been recently overtaken by a lot of very neoliberal people who preach unregulated capitalism very hard.

by jason0597 6y ago

dmos62 6y ago
A world where basic income isn't downvoted, but strong trade unions or anti-trust laws are is a weird one.
- morei 6y ago
  Unions definitely have their upsides, but also some rather strong downsides (c.f. most police unions). Basic income has many of the same upsides, but the downsides are mostly about the dollar cost. It's not unreasonable that some people prefer to pay (eg) higher taxes than suffer various forms of corruption.
- solveit 6y ago
  We think unions and laws tend to distort markets much more than honest straight cash transfers.
- anonuser123456 6y ago
  UBI doesn’t mess with the price system and ruin market efficiency. Unions totally screw it up. I will take UBI or negative income tax every day of the week over unions.
bscphil 6y ago
It's not particularly recent or even surprising, this is basically a SV startup forum after all. Or at least directly adjacent to one.
brigandish 6y ago
As someone of a more libertarian bent myself, I find the opposition to unions slightly puzzling. It's clear the disdain is driven by opposition to socialism, as so many unions are subverted by socialists and their influence, but as a general idea they are perfectly acceptable if not ideal and should be championed - free association, individuals coming together to use their bargaining power to provide corrective balance to a part of the market suffering from power and information asymmetry… there's so many good things about unions. In fact, if they were championed by - shall we call them economic liberals? - then they might be a damned sight harder to subvert and be a whole lot more effective and palatable. I know Sweden has strong unions and workers on boards (something I learnt from the very readable though still arguable book 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism[1]), with restricted power (the employees can never become a majority in any vote on the board) and it seems to me to be an obviously good idea. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23_Things_They_Don%27t_Tell_You_About_Capitalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23_Things_They_Don%27t_Tell_Yo...

I think HN has been recently overtaken by a lot of very neoliberal people who preach unregulated capitalism very hard.

dmos62 6y ago

A world where basic income isn't downvoted, but strong trade unions or anti-trust laws are is a weird one.

morei 6y ago
Unions definitely have their upsides, but also some rather strong downsides (c.f. most police unions). Basic income has many of the same upsides, but the downsides are mostly about the dollar cost. It's not unreasonable that some people prefer to pay (eg) higher taxes than suffer various forms of corruption.
solveit 6y ago
We think unions and laws tend to distort markets much more than honest straight cash transfers.
anonuser123456 6y ago
UBI doesn’t mess with the price system and ruin market efficiency. Unions totally screw it up. I will take UBI or negative income tax every day of the week over unions.

bscphil 6y ago

It's not particularly recent or even surprising, this is basically a SV startup forum after all. Or at least directly adjacent to one.

brigandish 6y ago

As someone of a more libertarian bent myself, I find the opposition to unions slightly puzzling. It's clear the disdain is driven by opposition to socialism, as so many unions are subverted by socialists and their influence, but as a general idea they are perfectly acceptable if not ideal and should be championed - free association, individuals coming together to use their bargaining power to provide corrective balance to a part of the market suffering from power and information asymmetry… there's so many good things about unions. In fact, if they were championed by - shall we call them economic liberals? - then they might be a damned sight harder to subvert and be a whole lot more effective and palatable. I know Sweden has strong unions and workers on boards (something I learnt from the very readable though still arguable book 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism[1]), with restricted power (the employees can never become a majority in any vote on the board) and it seems to me to be an obviously good idea. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23_Things_They_Don%27t_Tell_You_About_Capitalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23_Things_They_Don%27t_Tell_Yo...