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Comment by Willson50 | Hacker News Reader

This is literally how democracies work.

Most democracies include, at the very least, a bunch of hand-wringing about oppression of minorities, though.

It would be unusual in the extreme for a modern western democracy that was 75% christian to force the 25% minority to convert.

Being in a union that protects your rights as a worker is more like insurance (which the majority indeed mandates the minority to get) than religion.

That comparison only holds up if you assume all unions are politically neutral. And I would be shocked if you could find any union that was politically neutral on anything.

It's not insurance. It actively changes how you can be compensated and takes very hands-on interference with the operations of the company (in US unions at least).

As opposed to insurance, which has a huge influence on who you can go to and what your options are if you get sick, to the point that your choice of insurance may end up becoming a turning point in your life? I don't think I ever heard of someone's life turning on joining the wrong union.

So no, I don't really see the distinction. But my point was more that sometimes we are "forced" to do things for the benefit of the people around us, even if we don't really want to and don't personally think we need it. Unionizing is one of those things.

True, but most democracies also have some kind of founding document that sets out broad limits on the scope of the democratic or representative powers of government.

And yet you rarely hear about businesses being described as a democracy, except for many coops.

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