Sticking together is unAmerican.

[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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

[liberal N proud]

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.

[90-percent]

2. A peeve

In the US Auto bailout debate, the MSM and anti-union politicians talk about direct labor as if it was the major factor in the cost of a car. The amount of cost for union labor on an American car is about 9%. If they cut all the union workers salary BY HALF, that would be 4.5%

Why do they not go after the other 91% of the costs associated with building a car?

Sheesh!

-90% Jimmy