Now try this with corporations:

"I don't think the company[1] is corrupt. The company's job is to advocate for its shareholders. The legislators' job is to say "no, you're asking for too much"."

[1] take your pick of Comcast, Boeing, or United Health

You're right. The real problem is that the MTA union is a big voting and donation bloc that selects the people they negotiate against. The real solution is to do away with the MTA union. An organization founded on corruption doing its intended purpose isn't any less corrupt.

It would be nice if the union found ways to advocate for its members that were less hostile to the well functioning of the MTA.

Unfortunately, I think the hostility here is very much part of the point. It's an expression of power.

Other countries' unions are much more open minded about automation.

> Other countries' unions are much more open minded about automation.

Other countries have social services outside of "fuck you, go die".

The US sucks major ass to be a working person, period. Your job is everything. If you lose your job, you can lose it all. Most people are one or two bad weeks away from being homeless here.

Yes, the stakes are higher. My job isn't just a job - it's my health insurance, it's the roof over my head, it's the food on my table, it's my reputation.

Want people to be less hostile to automation? Great, start by making automation less hostile to them. When automation threatens your actual life, people are going to oppose it. At the end of the day, we're animals. When a Gazelle sees a Lion, they run.

The New York State welfare system is better than the US average by a lot, actually. The problem is overcomplexity (e.g means testing) makes it scary to rely on, and general shit American efficiency means outcomes per dollar are not as good as Europe.

The "machine" politicians who these less-than-enligtened unions tend to support are actually more to the right (of the Democratic party) and less interested in expanding the welfare state. In fact, there have been times the unions are explicitly against more benefits to the general public because they feel they weaken union contracts in comparison (stuff that only they got before now everyone gets).

I wish I was kidding with these things...

European style sectoral bargaining is much better, and makes for much more enlightened unions. Hopefully we get it in the US, there are some positive signs it might be possible.