http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/08/david-simon-capitalism-marx-two-americas-wire http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/08/david-simon-cap... http

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/08/david-simon-capitalism-marx-two-americas-wire http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/08/david-simon-cap... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNttT7hDKsk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNttT7hDKsk The above two links go to the same essay by author of "The Wire" David Simon in written and video forms. He discusses specifically the problem of unions... and the problem of capital. If you have the time, please watch and/or read this essay. A very, very brief summary: Unions are absolutely necessary, but not because of some specific feature they might achieve. Instead, they are a check on capital. (and vice versa). Similar to our "adversarial" judicial system - where each side is expected to fight hard for their own interests - it is the struggle between labor and capital that produces a working economy. If either side actually gets what they want, the system becomes pathological. So yes, unions are an inefficiency. That was the intended effect. There is a lot of hostility in this very thread to the idea that "those people" - in this case, "people I see as 'lower-quality engineers'" - might be getting something they "don't deserve". Or the fear might be that helping the bottom end would require taking from someone else, as if the economy was some zero-sum game. Yes, some amount of those effect was the goal. The alternative that says some variation of "fsck you, I've got mine" may betray a lack of empathy in the speaker, but in most cases I suspect it betrays a belief in one of our most damaging cultural myths: the "just world" fallacy we call the "free market". The question isn't really about unions. Instead, the question to ask yourself is "are we in this together?" Do you want a society with a functioning economy or not? Or do you want to let us continue our slide back into feudalism... and probably some sort of violent rebellion in the long run. To make society work, it might require occasionally helping those that are less fortunate. Just like we do with "taxes" and "health insurance". Forming a union and participating in it might be one of the ways you can provide input on how these issues should be managed.