Quote:
Originally Posted by Jackbass
In modern times post industrial revolution. Prior to unions the common man was not getting anywhere.
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The industrial revolution and capitalism tremendously improved the life of "the common man." It moved him out of the poverty of the aristocratic class system where he was stuck in mostly rural subsistence of poor health, short life, lack of mobility or improvement, into an overall improvement of all those conditions.
The market has always been the only method "the common man" could improve his lot. The market was the key element to bringing freedom and higher standards of living to "the common man." It is still the only viable method to maintain the best life for "the common man."--even in the so-called post industrial revolution.
The common man was "getting somewhere" during and after the industrial revolution due mainly through the market's ability to get him there. Unions may have helped him to get improved working conditions, which were improving anyway, and which were one of the greatest benefits of the industrial revolution and free market capitalism. As far as wages go, they were already higher in industries than elsewhere before unions were formed. The union demands only consistently escalated the cost of labor which had to be passed on to consumers and which were a part of the inflationary spiral that has existed since the New Deal.
Unions were not the reason for the "rise of the middle class." That rise was due to market capitalism and its empowerment of the consumer and individual entrepreneurs. Unions were the beneficiaries, not the propagators, of the rise of the middle class and the wealth created by the capitalistic market. The wealth first had to be created before there was any meaning for union existence. And there had to be an appreciable size to a business for the union to make demands. There are no unions for mom and pop stores. At the most basic levels where competition is most crucial for existence, unions would only be destructive. It is at the more secure levels, such as large corporations, and now, especially so, governments, that unions are "relevant." And it is in government where they are the most destructive.
If anything, in this post-post industrial revolution era the large conglomerate unions are an important part of a socio-political revolution. A revolution that is destroying "the middle class" and attempting to bring about an egalitarian society which discards capitalism, market forces, and even individual freedom. They were given their power by government intervention and mandate, and their main implementation is not for the benefit of the worker within his corporation, but the broader political power to destroy market forces in favor of a non-competitive, homogenous, and centralized, and yeah, Marxist, economy. They are making the idea of the "common man" one of meaning a humanity which is completely common.