kingstoned

  "...what may be attained by industrial or commercial success is still the nearest approach to medieval lordship possible to modern man."

source: https://www.panarchy.org/schumpeter/development.html

So according to you unions are rational, omnisciencet and benevolent agents, while entrepreneurs are dumb irrational idiots who will randomly fire people all the time for wearing a green shirt.

  To your point about labor restrictions, unions gave us two day weekends and forty hour weeks. Modern labor practices are almost entirely defined by things unions fought for and standardized. The restrictions we have on work now didn't nebulously appear from the goodwill of employers.

What enabled more leisure and higher living standards for workers was harnessing efficient sources of energy, especially in the 19th century and creating machines to do a lot of hard work. Without efficient energy and machines, everything has to be done by humans, so reducing work hours means worse living standards. The fact that living standards were rising while cutting back on hours tells you there was something else doing the hard work and that was machines powered by efficient energy sources. That was the real enabler of leasure, cozy office work and high living standards.

  The point of a union is not job security. It's about giving workers collective power they may not otherwise have.

What would people do with this theoretical collective power? Probably job security combined with restrictions on work. Do as little as you can while being guaranteed a paycheck.

  What people want is protection from being fired for no reason.

How can people be fired for no reason? There is always a reason, whether it's related to company's performance, worker productivity or overall economic conditions.

How long will it take to be able to use it? I am still on the waiting list.

There is an interesting article comparing sex and income inequality:

https://www.overcomingbias.com/2018/06/comparing-income-sex-...

Also a good quote:

  “It's a fact...that in societies like ours sex truly represents a second system of differentiation, completely independent of money; and as a system of differentiation it functions just as mercilessly. The effects of these two systems are, furthermore, strictly equivalent. Just like unrestrained economic liberalism, and for similar reasons, sexual liberalism produces phenomena of absolute pauperization . Some men make love every day; others five or six times in their life, or never. Some make love with dozens of women; others with none. It's what's known as 'the law of the market'...Economic liberalism is an extension of the domain of the struggle, its extension to all ages and all classes of society. Sexual liberalism is likewise an extension of the domain of the struggle, its extension to all ages and all classes of society.”

― Michel Houellebecq, Extension du domaine de la lutte

It reminds me of tobacco industry. Check out this article:

https://pandodaily.com/2015/06/30/tobacco-industry-will-kill...