7 Aug 2023 2:04 pm
Bruce » 07 Aug 2023, 12:18 am » wrote: ↑ Yellow Freight just went bankrupt and that will leave 30,000 union workers out of a job.
Our Republican friends will no doubt blame paying union scale wages.
All their trucks will be sold to other companies and all those drivers will gain other jobs.
It was not any different in 1944 except mega carriers did not exist to go broke.
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Hi Bruce:
It's almost invariably true that bosses hate unions irrespective of the company's financial health. So the knee-jerk reaction would be to blame the union, no matter the facts of the situation.
That said, unions tend to work best in large, hugely profitable corporations like Verizon Communications, Union Pacific Railroad, et al. The US has no shortage of hugely profitable corporations that could be unionized.
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My father made a decent living milking 25 dairy cows on a 300 acre farm with an $1,800 milk barn the federal government loaned him all the money to build on a 20 year note. That same government supported the price of milk to what would be about $50 per hundred ponds today, and $5 then. Today’s support price is $17.90 and a small dairy is a thousand cows.
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As you indicate, Factory Farming is rapidly replacing small and medium sized farms in the US. Much of this can be traced to lax anti trust laws. As with other sectors, the more concentrated wealth gets, the more power it can exert in Washington to stifle the competition.
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We must have a whole lot of capitalism tempered by flat out socialism to sustain America’s middle class as small businesses.
When you find the right mix, let me know.
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A precondition for any political system to work as originally intended are the honesty and good intentions of those governing. Any system can be undermined by a preponderance of bad actors.
That said, many different mixes of Capitalism and Socialism can be found in the various Social Democracies of the world. What these countries have in common are enough people of talent, ability and integrity, to make the government work for all of their citizens. The US is not doing so well right now.
The Social Democracies all share strong regulations on corporations, ensuring competition and preventing social and environmental harm. They all tax the rich appropriately and maintain strong social safety nets. And they are union-friendly.