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"If workers merged and formed a coherent Union, and acted as a single monolithic entity i.e. 'all labour in the colonies comes from a single Guild'", will they

"If workers merged and formed a coherent Union, and acted as a single monolithic entity i.e. 'all labour in the colonies comes from a single Guild'", will they win a bargain to get paid $1million and the capitalist only get paid the minimum?

jollybean 5y ago
Think of the 'Super Guild' as just a corporation selling it's services aka labour, to other corporations. The more powerful corporations will accumulate more of the profits that are available to be divided. So each corporate participant will get back it's 'costs' i.e. the minimum requirement for equipment (and maybe include very base salaries) - after that, everything is up for negotiation. The 'Super Guild' that had 'All of the Workers in the Colonies' would probably be able to negotiate so that the corporations it sold it's services to didn't make any profits at all. So the 'Super Guild' would accumulate most of the profits, and then they'd have to figure out how to divide those profits among themselves. There are actually is not remotely 'that much surplus' in these systems, and that if workers took 'all the profits' it wouldn't make them rich. Just somewhat better off. So if the 'Super Guild' distributed the profits fairly evenly, everyone would get a nice raise and that's that. Since workers tend to spend most of their income, almost all of that surplus would end up back in the economy pretty quickly, and all businesses would grow. This is Henry Ford's realization: "I have to pay my workers enough to be able to afford my car!" FYI you can see this in action with professional designations, like MD, RN. They keep wages 'artificially' high by limiting the number of those that can do the work. That said, even without their Guilds, because they do work that not many can do, they'd still command good wages. The 'Bad Asymmetries' in the economy happen at either end: the unskilled labour pool, who's wages would be 'barely survival wages' (i.e. workers in favelas, no proper sanitation, no healthcare), and on the other end concentration of corporate and private wealth that gives immense advantage. The former needs something like 'minimum wage' (we can do better than that) and the later needs smarter taxation, getting rid of loopholes, offshore, unfair lobbying etc..

jollybean 5y ago

Think of the 'Super Guild' as just a corporation selling it's services aka labour, to other corporations. The more powerful corporations will accumulate more of the profits that are available to be divided. So each corporate participant will get back it's 'costs' i.e. the minimum requirement for equipment (and maybe include very base salaries) - after that, everything is up for negotiation. The 'Super Guild' that had 'All of the Workers in the Colonies' would probably be able to negotiate so that the corporations it sold it's services to didn't make any profits at all. So the 'Super Guild' would accumulate most of the profits, and then they'd have to figure out how to divide those profits among themselves. There are actually is not remotely 'that much surplus' in these systems, and that if workers took 'all the profits' it wouldn't make them rich. Just somewhat better off. So if the 'Super Guild' distributed the profits fairly evenly, everyone would get a nice raise and that's that. Since workers tend to spend most of their income, almost all of that surplus would end up back in the economy pretty quickly, and all businesses would grow. This is Henry Ford's realization: "I have to pay my workers enough to be able to afford my car!" FYI you can see this in action with professional designations, like MD, RN. They keep wages 'artificially' high by limiting the number of those that can do the work. That said, even without their Guilds, because they do work that not many can do, they'd still command good wages. The 'Bad Asymmetries' in the economy happen at either end: the unskilled labour pool, who's wages would be 'barely survival wages' (i.e. workers in favelas, no proper sanitation, no healthcare), and on the other end concentration of corporate and private wealth that gives immense advantage. The former needs something like 'minimum wage' (we can do better than that) and the later needs smarter taxation, getting rid of loopholes, offshore, unfair lobbying etc..