I can hardly wait for the instant libraries ala Star Trek. Sorry I won't be around to see that.
REH From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Keith Hudson Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2011 2:17 AM To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION; Ed Weick Subject: Re: [Futurework] Unions Ed, Of course, unions aren't "evil". They've been natural claimants for the prosperity that the industrial revolution produced. In my time in industry in a large factory (at Massey-Ferguson where we produced more tractors than anywhere else in the world at that time -- about 1,500 per day if I remember rightly) I noticed that the workers nearest to the end of the assembly track (that is, nearest to the customer) struck more often and were paid more than those elsewhere in the factory (and roughly three times as much as average wages outside the automotive industry!). In these days of increasing automation, and when the mass of jobs are being dumbed down (increasingly able to be done by any 14-year old), then unions will continue to lose the power they had. Actually -- to refer to the other thread -- exactly the same will apply to the overpaid FIRE sector. In the way it could manufacture credit (building on government methods ever since the 1920s) it, too, was pretty near the customer and could thus exercise power. Its personnel, too, will be increasingly slimmed down by automation. In the last ten years the new high-speed algorithm methods driven by super-computers now carries out well over 80% of stock market transactions automatically. This is bound to spread into the bonds and futures markets in the coming years as the credit crunch gets sorted out. (One big advantage of this in due course is that "instant" world-wide balance sheets will be possible. At the present time no-one knows just how much real debt lies in governments, banks and off-balance-sheet 'vehicles'.) Keith At 21:41 21/09/2011, you wrote: Are they still of any consequence? Maybe not. I watched the TV yesterday evening. On the CBC's "Lang and O'leary exchange", arch-capitalist Kevin O'Leary referred to unions as "evil" and said they should be abolished. On "Connect with Mark Kelly", a guy held an "On Strike" sign up and asked passers-by to tell him what they thought. A lot of them said that they didn't care for unions at all. Then came the CBC news. It seemed that Air Canada's flight attendants and the airline had reached an agreement -- no strike. Had they not agreed, our government had back to work legislation ready to go. One has to wonder if unions still have any real significance and whether there still is a collective bargaining process. Ed _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework Keith Hudson, Saltford, England http://allisstatus.wordpress.com/2012/08/
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