(06-27-2017, 01:50 AM)Warren Dew Wrote: [As long as there are a reasonable number of competitors, you can switch to a different corporation. This threat keeps the corporations in line.Assuming that the "you" refers to an employee, this is not generally true. It is only true if competitors are hiring. Hiring is strongest towards the end of business cycle expansions, so one can do this reliably only part of the time.
That this mechanism can "keep corporations in line" is disputed by the trend in fraction of output that goes to worker, which has steadily declined over the past 30 years showing that bosses have had the upper hand over the employees. In general management typically has the upper hand as they are many (they represent shareholders and management who are thousands of people controlling billions of dollars) against one (the employee, who if he controlled significant wealth would not need the job). When the terrain is favorable (good job prospects) or the worker has allies (a union) then the bargaining can occur on an even field. Otherwise it is tilted against the employee.
This is simply a manifestation of the basic capitalistic process and "the Mathew Effect".