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Termyn8or -> RE: An odd conundrum. (3/25/2011 5:43:24 PM)
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"Anyone here ever felt that they were on equal power terms with their boss?"
Not to blow my own horn here ....... but I have at more than one job. However that is the market - or was. Everything changes but really the market determines things if left to it's own means. However my trade is falling down due to conditions beyond the scope of this text. Suffice it to say they didn't tell me what I make, I told them. Things have changed.
But take the case of this town in the SE US I heard of years ago. It was a long time ago and minimum wage may have been around four bucks an hour. There was alot of building and development going on and just about everyone in the nearby communities were either working construction or employed in the service industry supported by this growth. There simply weren't enough people.
To keep the story short - McD's was hiring into entry level positions at double the minimum wage. DOUBLE. Their businesses were booming for the lunch crowd etc. and they were making money. No way in hell they wanted to share it, but they were forced to by market conditions.
The point of all this is that as long as unemployment is rampant and widespread (do not let the numbers fool you, it's like 30% for real), it's a buyer's matket. Unions gain the edge by solidarity, not by market forces. If the gains the unions had made were because of market forces you wouldn't have floor sweepers in the auto industry making more than degreed engineers their third year in the field. The market would never allow that.
Thus the laws of nature are again trampled upon by forces which may have been necessary at one time, which one would think are no longer needed. But they are, even though their power is greatly diminished. Unemployment does that.
Look at China and how cheap those people work, and work HARD. People commiting suicide ! But when you have a half a billion people who are living in huts, under trees or sixteen to a room, they are desparate which creates a buyer's market.
That's why "they" like overpopulation, not realizing that it is a self destructive policy. At the root of it all is greed. What's more the union label at some times meant that you were paying too much, as employees cheated their employers by punching the time clock for a few of their buddies all the time. Fifty bucks an hour (benefits considered) to sweep the floor full time, but only work part time. This yields a net wage of alot more than the already ridiculous rate the employer thinks he is paying.
Neither side is with clean hands here. Greed.
T^T
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