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It’s time to balance the power between workers and employers

washingtonpost.com

11–20 of 224 posts

Re: It’s time to balance the power between workers and employers

#11
post #6

I don't like or want egalitarianism. No thank you.

I hope you die an extremely slow and painful death when your time comes.

Don't tie a person's current ideas to the person. What if he changes his mind in 5 years? Do you want to condemn him from now to all time?

Re: It’s time to balance the power between workers and employers

#12
post #6

I don't like or want egalitarianism. No thank you.

I hope you die an extremely slow and painful death when your time comes.

I'm pro-egalitarianism but definitely not pro-murder-and-torture. This exchange was depressing to read.

Re: It’s time to balance the power between workers and employers

#14
post #9

Software developers are already highly paid with lots of perks. Do they need unions?

I think the argument goes: We make table scraps compared to the amount that a corporation rakes in. Yet we're the sole reason they're able to rake in that amount of money.

Not that I agree with it, but that's an argument.

Re: It’s time to balance the power between workers and employers

#16
post #9

Software developers are already highly paid with lots of perks. Do they need unions?

I think they do, yes. A few generations of kids growing up learning programming from kindergarten onwards is going to ensure that programming is put on par with welding, carpentry, painting, etc.

Those of us commenting here today may not be around to see it happen, but I believe it will happen eventually.

For now things are good. We got lucky and we found ourselves in a relatively new profession that not a lot of people are trained in and we're making good money (and some of us don't even have college degrees)

Re: It’s time to balance the power between workers and employers

#17
post #9

Software developers are already highly paid with lots of perks. Do they need unions?

I think the argument goes: We make table scraps compared to the amount that a corporation rakes in. Yet we're the sole reason they're able to rake in that amount of money. Not that I agree with it, but that's an argument.

I think we're fully in the "see what little you can pay someone to get them to do a job" optimization mode. The marginal cost=marginal benefit argument doesn't seem to apply anywhere.

On the contrary, if you're actively making something (burgers, computers) then you're usually not paid enough to actually consume those things on a regular schedule. I think that's a symptom of an emergent caste system.

Re: It’s time to balance the power between workers and employers

#18

Ironic that the Washington Post is owned by Jeff Bezos.

Why is this ironic? Jeff Bezos doesn't have time to micromanage all of his enterprises. It's also likely that some individual writers and editors at the Washington Post disagree with Jeff Bezos on nearly everything. These are managed by people who do have time to micromanage if they choose, but these managers are optimizing for more local goals such as making the Washington Post profitable, not large-scale goals like…

Larry Summers is also a huge voice in establishment economics.

The WaPo would implode if (many) people thought Bezos was coloring the editorial decisions of the paper to such an extent that such an opinion piece was discarded.

Re: It’s time to balance the power between workers and employers

#19
post #13

Countries are best off that empower their people: the individual citizens.

I really don't like the framing of that. Good countries get the hell out of the way while people use their inherent power of self-determination. If someone powerful spends their time "empowering" you, it means you had none in the first place.

Re: It’s time to balance the power between workers and employers

#20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or maybe Larry Summers just wrote this for the newspaper and having influential people like Summers on the bylines is good, regardless of what he writes? Why does it have to be a political thing for every op-ed writing? Bezos isn't hand-approving every single post.

> Why does it have to be a political thing for every op-ed writing? You're right, but most media companies in the US pretty much act as spokespeople for one political wing or another. They are all generally very biased towards the direction of their donors or owners. I also find it interesting that no(or few) major media outlets were so against big business until this recent election cycle. Why else would the recent…

>>They are all generally very biased towards the direction of their donors or owners.

Yes, I agree with that. But Larry Summers' article would have been welcome anywhere, probably even Fox News. He is accomplished like few others, and having him write for you is good no matter what. It is important to separate the cases indivdually.

>>I also find it interesting that no(or few) major media outlets were so against big business until this recent election cycle.

Cases like Uber help for sure, and the income gap is ever-widening. I think it's just a natural state of being. It couldn't last forever. An opinion of a significant number of Americans was that HRC/Trump offered us no real alternative in regards to labor/business reform, and the media is playing that up after the fact.

I don't think there is anything nefarious going on or anyone trying to get on the right side of history. I think in large part the media is reflecting what most Americans are feeling right now: Malaise.

(For the record I am upvoting you, I have no idea who is downvoting your posts.)

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