The Future of Unions

[David Horn]

(09-14-2018, 08:09 PM)TheNomad Wrote:

(09-09-2018, 10:34 AM)David Horn Wrote: I don't see a union renewal, at least not in the form they previously held.  The capitalists won the battle of labor supply and demand, and that won't change.  Instead, something else has to emerge, though what is a great question.  You can't have prosperity and poverty in the same country without triggering political unrest at a very high level.  No one wants low crime and quiet more than the rich, so they will have to acquiesce at some point.

I want low crime and quiet.  Does that mean I'm rich?  I need to schedule a party.

Well, I am kind of shocked at the level of discrepancy between wealthy and non-wealthy.  But sometimes, not so much.  Through my life I have lived in all kinds of situations and I have to say, I'm a student of history and when I see things like RURAL lifestyles of just 50 years ago where people lived in ACTUAL (not hyperbolic) shacks and shanty towns, even public assistance receivers live better than that now.  That lifestyle is not optimal (I mean, speaking personally) but it is not swelled bellies and starvation, no malaria or lack of access to healthcare (anymore).

"Poverty" has been redefined in and by America if we are really honest.  Nowhere on Earth does someone who has nothing have access to base essentials like they do here in America.

Abject poverty has been suppressed, not solved.  Other countries have actually created real solutions that lift people up, not merely subsidize them in their misery.  There's a reason we have a massive opioid crisis.

Nomad Wrote:YET, then above that is the supposed "middle class" and of course this is the problem because those people are must closely related to the "welfare" class than the wealthy.  MANY "middle class" are always one paycheck away from doom.  That's a big difference than those who have months free annually to go on vacations and have really not much financial worry EXCEPT where they are outspending their own livelihood.  You know, they people who expect a McMansion in their 30s but should be in an apartment if they got real with themselves?  That shit.

So, if people just lived within their means, there would be a lot less struggle than their is right now.  STILL THO those with "access" and "connection" just have way too much, it is almost like thievery.  No CEO should earn millions.  I just don't see it.  I know what CEOs do.  Most of them don't deserve what they are paid.  BUT our American system is set up that way.  Our hyper-capitalistic system tells business one thing: MAKE MONEY OR DIE.  <--- That is a killer robot.  Literally.  It's a cylon with one function: destroy everything and anything to increase the balance sheet numbers.

Who would do this?  WHO would do this?  WE DID.  America did.  We want restraints off totally from a creature that exists without reason or justice, without fairness or wisdom................................ its only function is to increase profit.  If that seems wrong to anyone here, we made this a reality when we chose hyper capitalism back in the last Turning.

The nominal Middle Class have stalled while the top 10% have advanced.  It's sad that, in a growing economy, only the top has seen any gains, wth the very top at all-time highs.