Originally Posted by
MrDK
**** Unions are important. No individual can negotiate with a corporate monolith fairly, unions give some (but still nowhere near) balance to the equation. ****
When I moved to the US I earned $1000/month (1983).
20 years later I managed $12,000 per month with a fortune 500.
No one but I got me there.
Fell on my ass later, but blame I no one.
Employees should be valued on their own merit and not on the ability to be collectively destructive.
One only has to wonder why so few unions have not started their own corporations, being it an airline, a shipping company, an automobile manufacture, etc.
So are you saying if everyone just tried a bit harder they'd all be earning $12,000 a more then?
Believe it or not, not everyone wants to work for a fortune 500 company - many of us can think of nothing worse. Many people choose to do something they are passionate about and they feel has value. I'm sure there are many smarter people in atc making less than a lot of less competent people in fortune 500 companies.
All the evidence shows the USA is probably the least merit based economy in the developed world. I'm not saying it applies to you, but it's been shown time and time again, most people in well paid positions are NOT there on merit, though obviously they convince themselves they are. Social immobility means it doesn't matter how hard a lot of people try, the cards are so stacked against them it becomes night on impossible to improve. And of course the US economy is built on corporations paying a lot of people a pittance, however many smart people there are.
People generally just want to be valued, and not endlessly be the ones getting shafted when management screws up and needs to save money, or just protect its own dividend. Management of course never diminishes it's own terms, unions at least provide a means of neogitiation, otherwise a worker has nobe, which seems like market failure to me.
It's really sad how some people support the race the bottom, aren't we supposed to be progressing as a civilisation? Capitalists love talking about Go and do some, bit at the same time think people should put up with less?