Remember that the "lush contracts" provide the wages that support effective demand, ie., purchasing power in the economy.
Along with getting rid of unions, Harry, would you roll back child labour laws, and environmental standards....all so we can be more competitive with SE Asia? It took a long time to create a middle class in No. America, looks like it will take less time for it to be swept away. arthur -----Original Message----- From: Harry Pollard [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2005 6:14 PM To: Webmail: Cordell, Arthur; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Cordell, Arthur: ECOM Cc: futurework@fes.uwaterloo.ca Subject: RE: [Futurework] FW: Decades of Stagnation: Low-paid WorkinCanada/Des dcennies de stagnation : Le travail faiblementrmunr auCanada Arthur, Getting rid of unions in the US might make the present 15% of union workers unhappy - but the rest of us might be better off with lower prices for goods. You may have seen that GM pointed out that union costs add some 15% to the price of a car. In fact, with things getting difficult, GM's answer might be to declare bankruptcy which will get them off the hook albeit with a disastrous effect on union pensioners and present workers. As it is the unions are in league with their industries to support tariffs (at our expense) so their lush contracts may continue. You may remember that some 5,000 members were paid by the unions to hit the election streets to campaign against Bush. You will have to ask the "working poor" about the minimum wage. They have jobs - presumably at minimum wage - yet need extra money from the government to get along. Darryl's solution is a higher minimum wage yet this poses difficulties. When labor gets too expensive, it is replaced. We just had our winding street up the canyon resurfaced. A man in a machine came up the street grinding the road smooth. On another day, another man (maybe the same one) drove a brush/vacuum cleaner combination to clean the street. A third machine (again, maybe the same man) laid the asphalt along this three quarter mile street. Once road-building was the way to sop up excess labor. Not any longer. I wonder what happened to our fantasies about those three machines - and a thousand others - enabling us to live well on 30 hours a week? Or 20? Or, even 10? What has happened to us that in spite of our enormous power to produce, it is still so hard to make a living? That's the question Henry George asked more than a century ago. It's about time we answered it. Harry ******************************* Henry George School of Social Science of Los Angeles Box 655 Tujunga CA 91042 818 352-4141 ******************************* -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, May 06, 2005 7:20 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: futurework@fes.uwaterloo.ca Subject: RE: [Futurework] FW: Decades of Stagnation: Low-paid WorkinCanada/Des dcennies de stagnation : Le travail faiblementrmunr auCanada It isn't clear what will "work" to "solve" the problem. I think we should be able to agree, though, that getting rid of unions and eliminating minimum wages would have a negative effect on working men and women. arthur -----Original Message----- From: Harry Pollard To: 'Ed Weick'; 'Keith Hudson'; Cordell, Arthur: ECOM Cc: futurework@fes.uwaterloo.ca Sent: 5/6/05 5:18 PM Subject: RE: [Futurework] FW: Decades of Stagnation: Low-paid WorkinCanada/Des dcennies de stagnation : Le travail faiblementrmunr auCanada Ed, As you know, progress and poverty existed before any of the things you mentioned - it isn't something that has arrived with modern economies. So, it seems a trifle ingenuous to place reasons for the problem on anything that is newish in our economic structure. Your suggestions for amelioration are old faithfuls - union activity and minimum wage. These are devices to protect workers from the problem - yet neither of them work. The cause is largely unaffected and these "solutions" lead to unintended consequences. Harry ******************************* Henry George School of Social Science of Los Angeles Box 655 Tujunga CA 91042 818 352-4141 ******************************* _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list Futurework@fes.uwaterloo.ca http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
