Robert Reich: Back to the Nineteenth Century

[marmar]

Back to the Nineteenth Century
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2015


My recent column about the growth of on-demand jobs like Uber making life less predictable and secure for workers unleashed a small barrage of criticism from some who contend that workers get what they’re worth in the market.

A Forbes Magazine contributor, for example, writes that jobs exist only “when both employer and employee are happy with the deal being made.” So if the new jobs are low-paying and irregular, too bad.

Much the same argument was voiced in the late nineteenth century over alleged “freedom of contract.” Any deal between employees and workers was assumed to be fine if both sides voluntarily agreed to it.

It was an era when many workers were “happy” to toil twelve-hour days in sweat shops for lack of any better alternative. ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://robertreich.org/post/110555525570

[pampango]

1. We also learned that capitalism needs a fair balance of power between big corporations and workers."

We achieved that through antitrust laws that reduced the capacity of giant corporations to impose their will, and labor laws that allowed workers to organize and bargain collectively.

By the 1950s, when 35 percent of private-sector workers belonged to a labor union, they were able to negotiate higher wages and better working conditions than employers would otherwise have been “happy” to provide.

But less tolerance toward labor unions — as workers trying to form unions are fired with impunity, and more states adopt so-called “right-to-work” laws that undermine unions."

[pipoman]

2. Maybe Bob..

If US bureaucrats hadn't championed putting US workers in competition with people living in dirt houses with no running water, we wouldn't be in this position. ...but alas Bob, you sold US workers down the river when you actually had a voice...you Bob, are a traitor to US labor

[closeupready]

3. +1.