[darkpuppet]

OAC_Sparky,Mar 14 2007, 01:29 PM Wrote:I wish we could have the economic equivalent of "It's a Wonderful Life" to see what the life and standard of living of the average person would be if there were no Unions.

If you want a glimpse, look at China.

And if you think that "well they're outdated" and you think that companies would continue to pay fairly out of the kindness of their heart, I've got land to sell.

haha.. I do agree actually... but there's a lot of government bodies that regulate this sort of thing nowadays anyways. You're basically saying that the Chinese have a democratic process and they don't.

There's a lot of other factors involved in that as well, considering American foreign policy and the structure of a world economy where we stand near the top of the pyramid, and they are at the bottom.

Unions did do a lot to improve the life of the worker when industry wasn't so regulated, but these days I wonder at it's usefullness.

I'm personally happy that I waive the right to my priveleged 3% payraise so that I may dictate my own payraise through my own actions. I would be no where near as successful in my job if I was bound to the union hierarchy.

And I've seen so many examples of unions running companies into the ground. If a company can't afford to do business, it doesn't do any union employees good to get their negotiated pay raises.

This is just my experience having been on both sides of the fence (tho limited compared to others)... I personally prefer rewards based on performance and competitive business, but probably because that's where I've experienced the most personal success.