JohnRoberts said:
Correlation does not prove causation. The worker's pay issues appear more driven by globalization than union membership.
Without any collective bargaining, worker's pay is driven completely by supply and demand. Excess supply will lead to stagnant or even declining wages, so globalization has definitely had an substantial impact in the past 3 decades. As has the business cycle in the US where unemployment has risen on an appx 10 yr cycle. However, unions for private workers had already declined substantially by the '90s, so it is pure speculation where wages would be today if unions had been able to oppose the developments of the last 30 yrs and the resulting stagnation.
Much of the correlation of Union's effect on wages was observed after the great depression, where collective bargaining played a significant role in turning around the consolidation of wealth at the top through suppressed worker's wages.
As I've posted before, 90% of Americans work for wages, so having their income stagnate erodes the foundation of the economy.
Profit margins of the SP500 is at a historical high of 11%, primarily enabled by an imbalance of power between labor and capital.
Structural policy action at the government level could and should address this issue, as it is a great threat to the economy. But simply put, many people in positions of power (due to wealth) derive their income from capital and it biases their viewpoint.
It is human nature that people tend to believe what favors themselves. A person that derives income from the stock market will favor political views that benefit themselves and perhaps be willfully ignorant of the bigger picture.
Wages in US are finally starting to firm up, but this is a complex problem and IMO unrelated to collective bargaining. A poorly kept secret is that a fraction of the business tax cuts are going to employee bonuses, raises, and in some cases product price cuts.
A very small fraction - there has actually been big media stories on bonuses and a few wage increases and stuff like that. But the real news is that the majority of the tax cut is going to stock buybacks to drive up stock prices, which is exactly what was expected by economists. There has been no signs of capital investment yet, either. This was the most heavily weighted tax cut to the wealthy in history and it is playing out exactly that way.
I expect people who derive income from the stock market, however, will continue to play politics with this trying to obfuscate the real facts.
We need to find ways for workers to create more value. Better, more targeted education seems a good start, but I won't pretend there are simple easy answers fr such a complex problem.
JR
As I've posted before, the business owners are only ~3% of the work force. The VALUE of the US economy is being created by the workers, but they simply are not in a position of power to get the wealth they deserve.
PS: I think I was probably a union member at one of my sundry entry level jobs as a young man, but nothing I ever intentionally joined or made a cognizant decision about. In my experience my pay and job advancement was typically merit based, not a result of some collective agreement.
I'm sure you pulled yourself up by your bootstraps ;D
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