In a HOA the members are the home owners. In a union the members are the employees. In both cases a majority of members get to dictate to a minority. You may not like the outcome if you're in a minority on some issue.

Like if you like long grass, the HOA can dictate you can’t do that. Or if you like pay by performance but the majority of the union wants pay by seniority they can dictate that to you.

I don’t mind the HOA handling all sorts of exterior work I can’t be bothered with. I may not like to the fees, but I understand that is the price I pay for amenities. So you’re saying a union would operate similarly? Not bad.

The HOA mandates the work you do on your own property - they don't do it for you as a service.

And while it sounds good in theory... in practice many people hate HOAs. They hate not being able to decide what to do themselves and they hate the pettiness and politics of it.

Sure, but if I don’t have anything I want to do in contravention to their guidelines, then I don’t care. The monthly fee is an annoyance but they take care of the exterior work I don’t want to manage. A relationship I am fine with.

Word of warning, this is what I thought HOAs were about when I bought a house in one, with extremely reasonable rules and landscaping services. But unfortunately power corrupts and the board members went out and hired a lawyer in secret, re-wrote the CC&Rs, and then used obscure vote procedures to take total control.

Once the board members gave themselves the ability to write rules without a vote, they started going after everyone for petty violations, like parking a car in your driveway for too many days or having the wrong colored door mat. And they have the legal power to foreclose on your house if you don’t play along.

> Sure, but if I don’t have anything I want to do in contravention to their guidelines, then I don’t care.

And if you're in the majority in the union then you're also ok.

The problem is when you're in a minority for some reason.

So your analogy breaks down because there is nothing corresponding to CEO/Management.

Yeah, this is a terrible analogy.