On Mon, 22 Oct 2001, Tim May wrote:
"Sure, unions are good" is not at all obvious to me. Why do you claim this?
When they're not given special privileges, they are a useful tool for market awareness and employee side organization. Corporations can be seen as the employer side one -- if there's no need to organize, why should corporations exceed a single employee in size?
Most labor unions are simply rent-seeking clubs designed to cement the status quo.
In a free market, they would be an employee side monopoly at best. We all know how stable monopolies are.
Teacher's unions in the U.S. are a prime example: once the union got powerful enough, it fought for a tenure-type system which made it nearly impossible to remove those who taught poorly and to reward those who taught especially well.
The precise same argument can be used in an argument for monopoly control. Or the coerced breakup of any sufficient large corporation. You for that?
I've never belonged to a labor union of any kind, and they are essentially absent from the chip and computer industries.
Me neither. Not going to, either. That does not mean that unions couldn't be good for other people.
From what I have seen, labor unions are a collectivist evil.
Well, in a state where they're not hiding behind the government, that's something you'll just have to get used to. They've earned killing? Unions can play that game too, I hear. Sampo Syreeni, aka decoy - mailto:decoy@iki.fi, tel:+358-50-5756111 student/math+cs/helsinki university, http://www.iki.fi/~decoy/front openpgp: 050985C2/025E D175 ABE5 027C 9494 EEB0 E090 8BA9 0509 85C2