Obligatory: I used to have some respect for them until I read about the union-mafia connections. Now I think mafia is completely irredeemable :) Unions are bas

Obligatory: I used to have some respect for them until I read about the union-mafia connections. Now I think mafia is completely irredeemable :) Unions are basically the embodiment of misaligned incentives - combining the worst of medieval guilds' exclusion (e.g. unions were openly exclusionary against Blacks during Great Migration), ineptitude of a government bureaucracies (too many examples to recount), monopolistic power (e.g. healthcare supply restrictions by AMA) kleptocratic "nepotism" (whatever is the equivalent of nepotism for an old boys club - that's where criminal connection come in), and actual incentive to be inefficient that probably has no parallel in history (see e.g. construction staffing in NYC vs. almost anywhere else, and many more examples including from some union members I know where necessary work is postponed forever so the union could benefit, in the safety of knowing it is illegal for non union workers to do it). They are literally the most harmful organizations invented by man outside of those dedicated to violence explicitly. Yes, they were a major factor in achieving something good, once, in very specific historical circumstances. So were nuclear strikes on cities...