Originally Posted by
scambo1
Interesting treatise despite the errors.
Labor unions are by definition socialist.
Free market capitalism does not actually exist outside of sole proprietorships or mom and pop operations - and that really isn't free market. What we really have in the airline industry (and most others), is corporate capitalism where the government and corporations collude and, in America at least, roughly achieve what Marx couldn't.
You trade your free time for dollars, you sell your life, for your wage. Depending upon how you value yourself and how long it takes you to come to this realization will help shape your path. It really is surprising, toward the end of working life, how equal everyone in the population is/are unless they screwed it up.
Points well taken.
Labor unions are by definition socialist.
yes, on the one hand they are socialist in the sense that you, for lack of a better phrase, sign your rights away when you join one. They set the rules and you need to follow them regardless of how you may feel about it - good, bad, or indifferent.
However, labor unions do operate under the laws of capitalism as well. Internally, their revenue must exceed their expenses in order to survive. They do have the advantage of raising dues in order to raise revenue, which is to say the price of belonging to the union. But, if the dues are raised too much and enough people refuse to pay them then either the union dissolves or is replaced by another one.
When it comes time to negotiate it is done under the laws of capitalism. Both sides come to the table and give-and-take until both sides come up with something they can live with. The company wants to preserve their bottom line as much as feasible, and the union wants to gain as much money, benefits, and quality of life for it's members. Both are driven by greed to some extent and neither are exempt.
What we really have in the airline industry (and most others), is corporate capitalism where the government and corporations collude and, in America at least, roughly achieve what Marx couldn't.
Did you mean to say
crony capitalism? I would agree that crony-capitalism is alive and well today, and I would also say that I don't believe crony-capitalism is true capitalism at all.