it’s not like they’re hourly shift workers.

plenty of high tech salaries.

All workers should unionize. There is no need to punch down or be classist in any direction.

Know how the 40 hour work week became a thing, paid time off, etc.? Collective action by workers.

Employee-owned co-ops are actually the fairest structures for workers of all sorts.

If you're not an owner, then you're the product, being cheated, and at the mercy of the corporation to fire or replace you at any time.

> Know how the 40 hour work week became a thing, paid time off, etc.? Collective action by workers.

In the US? Armed revolt by unionized workers. Blood baths on both sides (labor and hired scabs/private police/paramilitary). Forced bargaining from state and federal governments. If you know where to look, there are little "union" cemeteries dotted across the Eastern and Midwestern US where union folk are buried due to company town cemeteries banning strikers and their families from being buried "in town".

Workers' rights were bought and paid for in blood.

> In the US? Armed revolt by unionized workers.

And folks wonder why I oppose gun control.

The key is the kind of gun control. I don't want kids having gatling guns, drunks shooting off their pistols on New Year's in city limits, neighbors owning live grenades, or criminals packing SMGs. I do want every sane, stable, decent, responsible adult conceal carrying to be able to defend their life and others against the threat of mass shooters and random crazies. When seconds matter, help is only minutes-hours away and can file a report about it. Weapons-free areas require there to be official continuous security to fill the void, otherwise it presents a security risk to those who follow the rules. (And I'm no MAGA, I'm a pinko commie.) If the US started as "gun-free", gun control would be possible but there are just too many guns out there to where the "nuclear genie" is out the bottle and can't be easily put back in.

Don't conflate or equivocate the two. I recall reading of an incident were Pinkertons sat in the comfort of sniper nests and shot down picketing miners as fast as they could shoot. The sort of thing you hear about in the most oppressive regimes or during periods of colonial rule.

The Bonus Army. Douglas MacArthur and George S. Patton attacked veterans, their wives, and children with tanks and live ammunition. Similar violence occurred against Occupy Wall Street.

Most people don't remember, or were never taught, that Oklahoma was a bastion of socialist thought and movements until it was obliterated.

Bernie Sanders is a modern day Henry A. Wallace and suffered a similar fate.

Basically all companies are optimized for profit.

Technically correct.

There is a difference, though, between maximising profit and delivering value for everyone.

A corner store is technically optimising for profit, but they also ensure value so that you don't go elsewhere.

Oracle does more of the former, they maximise profit above what the value is.

You could ask then "Who are there customers, surely someone has value", which is a valid claim but I would put hard money on: a lot of Oracle customers used to have value but are now just being squeezed hard.

Maybe a minority actually get a good value out of them though.

A lot of startups use Netsuite and get squeezed hard for it, and a lot of enterprises use Oracle DB and get squeezed hard for it. Oracle doesn't need to "ensure value" to prevent you from going elsewhere; vendor lock-in works just fine.