Re:How alarmist rhetoric is informing draconian speech laws ...
by Nasrudith on Tuesday September 08, 2020 @05:12PM
(#24413436)
The "working class" in that context doesn't mean the whole working class including those discriminated against. They tend to get ignored when talking about the good old days of the "in group" as usual. They had an artifically deflated labor pool that kept out competitors driving up their wages, effectively a cartel. This bigotry in labor was also the seed of their downfall as those excluded started their own and undid the monopoly on labor bargining. Cartels either hold the world back or are passed by it. The gatekeeping approach has failed recursively with non-union shop prevalence, increased automation paired with professionalization as opposed to trade shifts, and outsourcing.
From what little I can tell about many European labor union styles they avoided this shortsighted xenophobic fracturing of their bargining power.
Re:How alarmist rhetoric is informing draconian speech laws ...
by DFHippie on Tuesday September 08, 2020 @01:12PM
(#24410438)
Also, there was an effective labor movement in the US which could equalize the negotiating positions of management and labor. I saw this just today: https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2020/09/the-demise-of...
I think that the working-class prosperity the US enjoyed from the 1950s through the 1970s was not just because the US was the only major economy not devastated by war. I think it was also because business owners were afraid of communism, and were therefore treating their employees somewhat better, to head off any ideas they might have of getting a better deal by revolution. Something like that could happen again... if business owners become concerned enough about the possibility of the workers revolting.