Ironically, flagging a post without bad content is just the sort of passive aggressive crap you have to put up with in a union.

BTW, Amazon is still using Pinkertons to repress unionization attempts[0]. Things haven't changed that much after all.

- [0]: https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-pinkerton-agency-spie...

Things have just gotten more politically correct, because now every employee could record your Pinkertons beating up people and share it with the whole world.

Don't think things have changed for any other reason that we forced them to do that.

We did not. Unless you are seventy. The changing laws of our country that make unions less useful have also gotten rid of private armies.

> The struggle is still the same.

Wow, no. Not at all. Not having people willing or able to hurt you kinda makes all the difference.

Most fields except: retail, food service, food delivery, warehouse work, customer service/support, auto repair, etc. Basically, half the people in the US if not more.

Society rewards contribution it finds valuable. The amount of that reward is an extremely valuable signal for people to find ways to increase the quality or quantity of their contribution.

Possibly this is true for the kind of jobs that many HN readers tend to have. But many, many people have to slog it out in low-skilled or semi-skilled jobs with minimal ability to bargain, and with almost all power on the side of the employer.

I didn't say any of that. I was commenting on the assertion that "today's situation favours the employee in most fields". Which is demonstrably untrue for many people.

And I was also implicitly asserting that society should create the conditions for all workers to be treated decently, whether or not they receive a high salary.

Ah yes, the invocation of the Free Market Fairy https://bitworking.org/news/2008/01/the-free-market-fairy/

I guess employees are choosing to let rich people take all the wealth they generate, then. How very generous of employees.

I guess what I'm basically saying is that the evidence indicates that what you just said is bullshit.

I know there are organisational structures in which all kinds of people cooperate to create wealth which is then distributed along to clearly agreed and understood rules to funders, investors and workers. They are called companies and all participants are adult, informed and consenting.

This isn't exactly esoteric knowledge. It's pretty widely known. Your assertion that employees have the power would suggest that employees are choosing to give these gains to the rich. That's just plain nonsense. All those people making minimum wage at Walmart; do they really look to you like they're in the driving seat?

Not aware of any evidence? You don't have to agree with Piketti to be aware of him; to be unaware of his work is to be wilfully ignorant. Best selling economist of the last decade? Enormously widely sold? Discussed in almost every economic forum? If you are genuinely unaware of any of the work on the subject (even those who vehemently disagree are still aware of it), then you are phenomenally ignorant in the field and should probably just not say anything.

But today anybody can own stock in companies so I guess everybody had the opportunity to enjoy those gains.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/8/8/16112368/pi...

Why do you even bother coming to the internet if you already know everything? I bet, I bet you think of yourself as hyper-rational. That you don't have biases, you're rational. That you can work things out from first principles and if reality disagrees, reality is wrong. I bet you have some fantasy about the "free market" and that by definition everything that happens in it is right and fair.

I do note that your argument has switched right round. Suddenly you realise you were wrong and that employees don't actually have the upper hand? Do you think people don't notice when you backtrack and change your argument mid-way through?

The free market and being rational are tools that are proven to work. They brought all the advances we enjoy every day in our life. I am eager to learn the other tools you propose instead.

Oh, and of course I am aware of Piketty. I also know he is wrong, laughably and demonstrably so. Not the first economist to be wrong, anyway. Turns out being well known doesn't make you right - kind of like Marx I guess.