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That's why its in the best interest of workers for us to work together and unionize to try and even out the power balance. Those in power don't like that which
by feet 4y ago
That's why its in the best interest of workers for us to work together and unionize to try and even out the power balance. Those in power don't like that which is why we hear so much about union busting... Again.
At least this time the unionizers aren't getting slaughtered by cops I guess?
- catchnear4321 4y agoIf it is allowed by the powerful it is at best a concession, at worst a means of control in disguise. There is no evening out the power balance. Going at it like that is committing to a never-ending battle for slightly better. It would still be the commoners banding together to feel less pain from the powerful. But that’s all. Less pain. Why tolerate any pain handed from one class to a “lower” one? Unions are treating a symptom.
- feet 4y agoWhat is the root cause? From my perspective the root cause is capitalism itself
- catchnear4321 4y agoThis is so much older and broader than capitalism. It is older than currency. Just more informally at that point, but maybe more explicitly. So long as you’ve picked an ism to fight, the powerful get to sleep at night.
- feet 4y agoSo what is it
- catchnear4321 4y agoJust answered essentially the same question here. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32216298 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32216298
- feet 4y agoI think we do agree, but we need a solution to the problem. The idea behind socialism is the acceptance that there are some people who are greedy and will go after power, but that we don't reward that greed. The capitalistic system that we have currently set up specifically does reward greed, changing the system would mitigate that. We can't rely on individuals to just not be greedy assholes which is why we should set up a system that prevents those type of people from controlling things. Socialism is true democracy in that the majority generally has the power instead of the few greedy people. We currently incentivize greed, changing this would mitigate many of the issues.
- catchnear4321 4y agoSet up a system to treat a symptom. Surely the actual problem would be capable of tainting that system as well, wouldn’t it? The slope is slippery and the cost is great. No, I’m not offering a solution. To the problem of capitalism, or to any other. But it is hard to get excited about more symptom solving. Greed comes close, but it is broader. A tyrant doesn’t have to be wealthy. Which is why another “ism” just doesn’t do it for me. Power doesn’t have to be draped in gold. (It just tends to be.)
- feet 4y agoI wasn't directly referring to wealth when I spoke about greed. People can be greedy for power over others. If you think the problem is innate to humans, we can't change it without changing humans themselves. At this point that is unrealistic, and we currently have a system that literally rewards greed. It rewards greed not only with money but with power. Political and corporate power systems reward greed, to make any progress that must be changed. Human progress is incremental, the next best step we can take is to implement mitigations to the innate issues present. You talk bad about "isms" but present no tangible solution. Quite frankly, that is not helpful. Greed for power has already been identified quite some time ago and systems have been thought up as mitigations to this problem. We need a tangible solution that we can put into place now because we have people suffering at the hands of others currently. I suggest you read about socialism and how the system is set up to mitigate these problems, as considering your statement about greed being able to taint the system, I don't think you understand how it works. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_State_and_Revolution https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_State_and_Revolution