Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (302316)	9/5/2006 3:04:28 PM
From: SilentZ	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1576660

>If you believe that's the result of corporate spending, be my guest. Personally, I'm not impressed with large budgets. Just because Universal poured so much money into the movie Waterworld doesn't mean people will automatically go see it. Politics and art are not the same thing. When you're a candidate/cause whose budget is much smaller than your opponent's, you're almost always considered the longshot. And, most of the time in politics, saying something often makes it true. -Z

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (302316)	9/9/2006 3:50:11 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1576660

The truth is that unions are making themselves irrelevant in today's global economy. People don't feel any need to join a union these days, primarily because of the fact that individuals own their own employability. Also, there is a general sense that unions actually helped cripple things like the auto industry and public education. Actually, its the global economy that is making it very difficult for unions to survive. Workers know that if they demand higher wages or better working conditions, their work will be outsourced to a nation where the standard of living is much lower and the people willing to work at half the American's wage. The only way the American worker has been able to keep up is through higher productivity with the help of technology. This is a whole different scenario that when unions were strong in this country. Back then, the threat to the northern worker was the South. If unions made too many demands, the factory would move to the South where there were no unions and the wages were cheaper. However, the difference was like the difference between a Volkswagon Golf and an Audi. The savvy unions could find ways to offset the advantages of cheaper southern help. So unions continued to remain popular as a negotiating chit with mgmt. But in the global economy, the difference in labor costs is like the difference between a Chevy and a Rolls Royce. No matter how the unions crunch the numbers they can't offset the advantages of labor in say a Guatemala. Hence, unions have become mostly superfluous to the average American worker. The end results for the American worker is similar to what you suggest up above but its not because of some new found sense of independence as your description implies. Its because the American worker has no choice. And the results are not necessarily pretty.......the American worker now works longer hours than ever before and is less likely to take a vacation. And when s/he does take a vacation, its usually in place.......s/he's too exhausted to go anywhere. And its not just the blue collar worker who is feeling the effects as you well know; the same scenario has migrated to the white color work as places like India become a cheaper alternative to Portland or Seattle or San Jose or the OC. So then, we reap the rewards of cheaper products due to the global economy but for that benefit, we pay a psychological and physical price in return. In other words, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. ;-)