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I think unionizing is actually aiming way too low for many workers. Even lower-skill ones. As an example, people have bandied about ideas about whether Uber dr
by ef4 12y ago
I think unionizing is actually aiming way too low for many workers. Even lower-skill ones.
As an example, people have bandied about ideas about whether Uber drivers should unionize. But Uber drivers already own the means of production. So if you could effectively organize them, don't bother with a union, just create a worker-owned cooperate that competes directly with Uber. Get 100,000 drivers to chip in $10 a month and you can fund a really nice app plus the necessary lawyers.
The same pattern reoccurs in many parts of the modern economy. Many businesses are so capital-efficient that they only exist because they're good at coordinating workers -- not because they monopolize the working capital. So if you can organize workers, skip the union and go directly to worker ownership.
- Apocryphon 12y agoThis is a really great idea, and brings something that's ironically been absent in this entire conversation: innovation. Why not "disrupt" the state of labor? So many startups are already involved in the art of social engineering and tweaking, why not create a modern equivalent to unions that could empower workers in a different way?