Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

> allowed every opportunity

Unless you're also happy about shooting people starting a union or striking, you should read this article to learn why this is a really bad idea.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_union_busting_in_th...




I'm curious what you wanted to point out? (It's a really interesting read either way)


I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Mostly I wanted to give a bit more historic context. Japan is arguably a more productive economy and a better place to live than India, and Pseudoerasmus suggests that this is at least partly because labour was not able to mount as effective a defense as in India.

To belabour that point: Fred says at https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LABSHPINA156NRUG that the labour share of GDP in India is something above 50%.

Japan is also something above 50%: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LABSHPJPA156NRUG

India's GDP per capita is about 1.9k USD. The number for Japan is about 40k USD.

So even in the hypothetical world where Indian labour would somehow be so strong it would capture 100% of GDP, that would still be only about 10% of what Japanese workers get.

Now, of course, any nuanced argument will take into account that labour suppression wasn't the only difference between Japan and India.

But the important thing is that this shifts the context of the argument: instead of a knee-jerk attitude of 'unions are obviously good for workers in the long run', we have some more explaining to do.

(With sufficient mental gymnastics, you might stil be able to argue that unions and strong labour in general is good for standard of living. But at least now you have to engage in that gymnastics.)


didn't that happen when joining union was voluntary?




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: