LostnFound crying againlostnfound (1000+ posts) Fri May-29-09 05:20 AM
Original message
Sticking together is unAmerican.
Edited on Fri May-29-09 05:36 AM by lostnfound
Reading about UAW workers at GM prompted me to start wondering, why have union auto workers been vilified so much? One sometimes hears that unions are corrupt and that union top leaders (through history) end up taking money.. but America tolerates and even admires plenty of scammers. One hears that union workers are overpaid but we live in a society where major league players and stock brokers can make millions. Of course much of the current sentiment against unions is the product of well-funded propaganda by right-wing think tanks and corporate P.R. firms. But the pattern of our society has been managed into its present form via numerous institutions.
Major League Ball Player? Talented and worked his ass off to get there. Big money stock broker? (you know most brokers are just middle class right?) Skilled and worked his ass off to get there. Union Worker getting paid $25 an hour plus benfits to mount stereos in car doors? Not so much. But when hate is all you got, and your a liberal so.....
In school we are atomized. One "advantage" to Bush's No-Child-Left-Behind approach is that kids cannot escape the constant grading, sorting, grading, sorting process that conditions them to recognize that they are Objects On Their Own. Kids coming into first grade from newfangled Montessori programs had an alarming tendency to want to help one another. While this behavior is considered 'cute' in preschool land, it cannot be allowed to "fester". Talking or fraternizing among the "graded classes" is forbidden for most hours of the day. By the time 5th grade rolls around, by the time we are 10, the Brahmin class will find easy comfort with this idea: I'm naturally smarter and I worked hard for this A, and some people are just going to flunk, and that's not my problem.
What you really mean to say, is that by age 10, kids begin to show what direction they will take in life. Yes, at age 10, if they don't study they will either fail or they need to be challenged. Yes, when it comes to the test, they are on their own, like it should be.
The owners would prefer to prevent clumping or continuity in the lower ranks. Workers should be granular for optimal operation of the machine. At large schools, it is possible and desirable to shake the classes up and mix kids like beans in a jar every year to reduce clumping, which is a big advantage compared to small schools. Your future is in your own hands. Clumping together with other workers, like depending on another student, is similar to cheating.
Yes, because kids are totally unable to make choices about who they should hang out with. You are aware that smaller schools means less availability in elective courses, right?
Over the last 100 years, how much more "productive" has our economy been because of these practices? Does anyone share a lawnmower on my street? We have been taught to struggle independently for the American dream, which evolved from the 1880s dream of making a good and independent living in one's own trade via one's own business, to making a good but dependent living working for someone else -- dependent on our owners just as we were dependent once upon our teachers, but not on each other when it comes to our "grades" -- our paychecks.
Actually, when I'm home I mow neighbors grass every summer, along with helping her younger son learn the finer points of mathematics. In return, her older son gives me a hand when I'm working on vehicles. It works out pretty good actually, but then you don't talk to your neighbors. As far as my company, I sell my service to them at an agreed upon compensation, I work for myself.
What is wrong with sticking together for health care? A person may share their health care plan with their spouse and children, but not with their brother, sister or neighbors. There is something suspiciously unAmerican about sticking together to have a health care plan for all. Because that other guy..well, he didn't earn what I've earned. Some people are just going to flunk, and that's not my problem.
No, the other guy isn't my problem. He is his own problem.
The football player or the executive who approaches their employer to negotiate a better salary for themselves -- they've got gumption, they've got skill. But if a clump forms and a group approaches their employer to negotiate better salaries for the whole group -- well, that's akin to blackmail or extortion by a gang. It upsets the balance of power, and it threatens the very fabric of our atomized society.
The football player and the executive can be measured on tangible individual goals and results. The clump can't. You actually reduce personal initiative within your clump, because everybody is stuck at the same level of compensation one way or another.
liberal N proud (1000+ posts) Fri May-29-09 06:53 AM
Response to Original message
1. The disdain American show toward unions is all wrought from propaganda
The right wing media, big business media has for years slandered the union workers and illustrated them as having something that other non-union workers didn't have. Then with every strike came opportunity to vilify union leaders and their members.
There has been an ongoing effort for the last 30 years at least to make non-union workers believe the union membership was getting more than they deserved.
More propaganda used to sway Americans views.
So what should a relatively unskilled laborer who, by contract, can only perform one job be compensated for his service? What wage, with what sort of benefits package? Non-union workers know union workers are very often over paid.
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