[quote=CA renter]
It’s pretty clear that, without unions, capital will always hold all the power and wealth. There will be no rolling back of protection for capital if labor is weak.
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We live in a democracy. Why do advocate for labor laws rather than advocate for removing protections from the capital side. Why do we propose solutions to the symptoms of a problem rather than the removal of a problem. Organized labor can be weak as long as the electorate remains strong. Granted the population of the United States has been piss poor at electing real representatives.
[quote=CA renter]
If you can show us some examples of countries without labor protections that have a better economy/society than developed nations where labor has more power, I’d like to see it.
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This depends on how you define a better economy. If I simply define a better economy as one that grows faster than another I could point to China, India, and Brazil as countries that have better growth with weaker labor. I can also point to France, Italy, and Greece as countries with strong labor and negative growth.
Granted growth isn’t the end all be all but all these economists seem to think that growth is the way out of the debt hole. It would seem moving further in the direction of socialistic policies that much of Europe has is going to mean that growth is never going to come.
[quote=CA renter]
You still haven’t addressed how highly concentrated wealth/power would benefit society or our economy, the platitudes about “wealth and growth,” notwithstanding. The rhetoric in favor or capital and supply-side economics does not match reality.
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I never said highly concentrated wealth benefits society. I said that allowing competitive forces to happen without many government regulations would increase growth. You seem to think that unregulated competition logic means that wealth will naturally concentrate into the hands of the few but there isn’t a ton of evidence of that. Most companies grow and then die. There’s far more Kodak’s and GM’s in the world than GE’s or IBM’s.
I do think we need to do something with estate taxes. I would like to see the business playing field leveled somewhat based on ability rather than inheritance. Fixing the estate tax situation would lessen the feared massive concentration of wealth scenario.