[Discuss] [OT] unions

[john saylor]

hi

> On Thu, Apr 19, 2012 at 04:51:56PM -0400, john saylor wrote:
>> isn't the union movement on life support in this country?

On 04/19/2012 05:34 PM, Derek Martin wrote:
> I don't know, is it?

yes it is.

btw, your mother's union experiences are interesting- but they are only 
one tiny sample.

>> The number of people in poverty in 2010 (46.2 million) is the
>> largest number in the 52 years for which poverty estimates have been
>> published.
>> [from http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/about/overview/index.html]
>
> First let's clarify: you mean in the USA, specifically.

yes, www.census.gov is a us gov't site. and let's not even go to the 
world-wide stats as the poverty situation only gets worse.

> Could it perhaps be that globalization and the high price of American
> labor has priced us out of manufacturing and other industry sectors?
> Or perhaps other factors?

globalization- what do you mean by that in this context? to my analysis, 
globalization means multi-national corporations dominating more and more 
smaller national markets. in this sense, globalization is another 
mechanism to condense wealth in fewer and fewer hands, another resource 
grab by management. who can counteract this?

i think it could be the unmitigated greed of our corporate overlords 
that has sucked up all the resources that used to support the middle 
class and not anything having to do with unions. the best figures i've 
heard say that the top 1% of income earners control 46% of american 
resources. this is the industrial feudalism i mentioned earlier.

there is no doubt that wealth is collecting in fewer and fewer hands. i 
do not see how this can be thought to be advantageous for our 
civiliation [such as it is].

> I did say that unions, at a certain stage, serve a useful purpose.
> The problem is that, as with all entities involving humans, once they
> attain a certain level of power, they become corrupt and abuse their
> power, and at that point cease to be a force for good.

i think this is far more applicable to the boards of directors of the 
fortune 500 than union leadership [especially given the anemic nature of 
unions in america].

-- 
http://or8.net/~johns "yeah yeah yeah" -beatles