Strikes aren’t bad for the US economy. They’re the best thing that could happen

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨eee@lemm.ee⁩ to ⁨workreform@lemmy.world⁩

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/19/strikes-us-economy-uaw-writers-actors-starbucks

Auto workers, writers, actors, Starbucks workers, Amazon workers, UPS drivers, flight attendants – labor isn’t a ‘special interest’. It’s all of us

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Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Seems to me that if we have an economy based on consumer spending, giving consumers more money to spend would be a good thing.

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- NaibofTabr@infosec.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  No no, see once the most super-rich person collects all the money they win the game, and then we all get to quit.
  
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  - Chetzemoka@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    If by "quitting" you mean we all die, I think you just might be right.
    
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- algorithmae@lemmy.one ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I legitimately don’t understand why this is such a hard concept to grasp. I’d gladly buy your $thing if I could afford it
  
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  - 4am@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Because the way they see it, you’d have to take their money through wages in order to afford stuff. If their only liquidity is through perpetually revolving loans against the equity they hold, then their only job is to make that equity ever increase. The less those companies pay, the higher the profit. The higher the profit, the greater the dividends. They greater the dividends, the higher the stock price. The higher the stock price, the larger the valuation. Ever increasing valuation = perpetual revolving borrowing patterns = cheat code for unlimited money.
    
    But if it ever falls apart they’ll be on the hook for a loan so big they might not be able to pay it back if they liquidate everything. So they MUST win at all costs. This is the deal with the devil. Ultimate power, but you must keep the plates spinning. One wrong move and you are collected.
    
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- HawlSera@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  A friend of mine had this saying, that if you know someone who is greedy, you don’t really know someone who is greedy you know someone who is stupid.
  
  If your company encourages a strong well paid Workforce that can afford to take their earnings and invest it back into the company, then you’re going to be doing all right for yourself. But if you continuously try to squeeze blood from a Stone, everyone is going to hate you for it and no one is going to be able to afford your product.
  
  Like seriously these businessmen need to look up Henry ford, and how he couldn’t sell cars, he asked his employees why they weren’t buying cars, when they told him that they couldn’t afford cars he gave them raises and told them to buy cars. This actually worked because a consumer based economy can only work if the consumers can afford to consume.
  
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  - ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Unfortunately it’s a myth that Ford treated his employees well. Yes, he greatly raised pay, but that was to reduce employee turnover. For example, in 1913 Ford hired 52,000 people to keep a workforce of 14,000. Ford literally had his own secret police who would monitor employees and beat ones who were caught slacking. On top of that, the increase in pay was about half a bonus for meeting “character requirements” enforced by the Socialization Organization.
    
    This was a committee that would visit the employees’ homes to ensure that they were doing things the “American way.” They were supposed to avoid social ills such as gambling and drinking. They were to learn English, and many (primarily the recent immigrants) had to attend classes to become “Americanized.” Women were not eligible for the bonus unless they were single and supporting the family. Also, men were not eligible if their wives worked outside the home.
    
    forbes.com/…/the-story-of-henry-fords-5-a-day-wag…
    
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  - Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Now take that to the extreme and make it a worker-owned company, where everyone has a vested interest in the company succeeding and control over company decisions.
    
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- rebul@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Heck yeah! And of course, the companies will just eat that loss and not increase their products' price to cover higher wages.
  
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  - Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    They've increased costs without covering wages so that would be a refreshing change.
    
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  - HawlSera@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Eventually the system is going to come to a screeching halt
    
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Chetzemoka@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
As I literally sit here in the cafeteria on my day off rallying for our upcoming union vote 💪

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ieightpi@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Its really fascinating to see how cyclical our culture is. Ive heard historians say that we are experiencing a very similar time period compared to the late 1800s and the early 1900s.

Lets hope that this trend doesn’t lead to another world war and a depression. But I think what these experts have been trying to convey is its likely we will find ourselves in a new social revolution in the coming years. It happened back then, it will happen again.

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- SinningStromgald@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Let’s hope it’s a social revolution that goes forward and not backward.
  
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  - ieightpi@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Is optimism just another way of saying someone’s naive? Rhetorical.
    
    I think the doomer mentality in the US has gotten out of hand.
    
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- HawlSera@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Honey we are already in the depression.
  
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- squib@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Strauss Howe Generational theory is probably what you're think of.
  
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HawlSera@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
This is the only language the bastards who ruined our lives understand

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- i_stole_ur_taco@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  There’s another one, but we’re trying not to talk about it until things get really serious.
  
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timicin@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
not unless biden can help it, again.

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- Toribor@corndog.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I was mad about the Biden administration’s approach to the rail strike too but you should know that the administration continued to negotiate after ending the strike to get workers the benefits they deserved while also avoiding the devastating impact of a strike.
  
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  - ram@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    There was clear damage resulting from the admin’s actions.^[en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Ohio_train_derailment] Did the rail workers ever have their demands met? /g
    
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MrBusinessMan@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Wrongo! Strikes are bad for EVERYONE and should be ILLEGAL! Whenever I hear whispers of union stuff at my company I fire the guilty employee and I also call the cops on them and say I saw a drug deal happening at their house.

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- jedi_hamster@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Bobby relogin
  
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