Retribution not enough

[Sampo Syreeni]

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 at iki.fi, tel:+358-50-5756111
student/math+cs/helsinki university, http://www.iki.fi/~decoy/front
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