Equating corporate businesses with worker unions is a false equivalence, since ownership and wealth can be concentrated, but labor cannot.
Just as a thought experiment, let's say labor could be concentrated like wealth. If it could be, how would we measure it? Wouldn't the units simply be those of productivity? More work getting done -- or more precisely, more value being created -- with fewer workers?
It seems intuitively true that this is a desirable goal for society to strive for, not a problematic condition to be remedied. Unionization tries to guarantee a steady position for every worker, but if it does so equitably, the effect will be to dilute the labor pool rather than concentrating it. Is this really a progressive value?
More concretely, it can be surmised that every time unions attempt to organize labor in Amazon warehouses, the company responds by increasing the funding for robotics R&D. Is this seen as a good thing or a bad thing in labor circles? Obviously it's seen as a bad thing... but the assumption that this view is somehow morally and socially correct doesn't get challenged anywhere near often enough.
Just as a thought experiment, let's say labor could be concentrated like wealth. If it could be, how would we measure it? Wouldn't the units simply be those of productivity? More work getting done -- or more precisely, more value being created -- with fewer workers?
It seems intuitively true that this is a desirable goal for society to strive for, not a problematic condition to be remedied. Unionization tries to guarantee a steady position for every worker, but if it does so equitably, the effect will be to dilute the labor pool rather than concentrating it. Is this really a progressive value?
More concretely, it can be surmised that every time unions attempt to organize labor in Amazon warehouses, the company responds by increasing the funding for robotics R&D. Is this seen as a good thing or a bad thing in labor circles? Obviously it's seen as a bad thing... but the assumption that this view is somehow morally and socially correct doesn't get challenged anywhere near often enough.