Quote from: CoinsCoinsEverywhere on August 15, 2014, 03:09:08 AM

Quote from: zedicus on August 15, 2014, 12:40:59 AM

Quote from: twiifm on August 14, 2014, 08:02:44 PM

Quote from: Nicolas Dorier on August 14, 2014, 11:29:08 AM

At a restaurant you trade money against a good meal. Wealth just got created.
You valued your money less than the meal, and the cook valued the meal less than the money. The sum of the difference of valuation is wealth.

Not all trade is equal. Most of the time there is a power relationship where the strong exploits the weak.

An example is sweatshops. People who need jobs are willing to allow themselves to be exploited because they need money. This was common in 19th/ early 20th century before existence of labor unions

Labor unions were necessary a long time ago but are useless today, as they are only good for enriching themselves and the politicians they support. There are enough employment laws today that will protect workers from these kinds of abuses. Additionally workers are educated enough to be able to stand up to these kinds of abuses.

The pendulum swings back and forth. Corporations were too greedy and tried to exploit people. Labor unions were formed to combat that, and it worked pretty well. But then the labor unions got greedy and tried to take too much from the corporations. Labor unions have been disappearing, and corporations are getting greedy again. Education has little to do with it. You can't stand up to corporations when you have no better options. For example, look at how corporations have slashed benefits over the last couple decades. You can't stand up to a corporation and demand a pension when no other corporations are offering them. And just look at how companies treat their employees now--they're just expendable labor. There's no loyalty anymore.

I disagree. I think people today are more informed as to what their rights are because some government regulations have been written well and have forced companies to disclose what workers' rights are in conspicuous places throughout the workplace. I work for a fortune 500 company when even the lowest paid workers make well over minimum wage and every hourly employee needs to take an online class about how workers must input the time into their time-cards accurately even if they worked unauthorized overtime. This company does not have any unions (that I am aware of), though they do pay very well and respects their workers and their rights.