tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post5133892759009400223..comments2024-03-06T06:34:42.881-05:00Comments on EconoSpeak: A Blast from the Past: Unions as Combinations in Restraint of TradeUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-5411221278380364102015-12-15T11:27:09.186-05:002015-12-15T11:27:09.186-05:00A labor union is (tries to be) a monopoly -- ONE S...A labor union is (tries to be) a monopoly -- ONE SELLER -- balancing off against ownership monopsony -- ONE BUYER. The ultimate consumers of their product provide the ultimate checks -- the max they are willing to pay.<br /><br />Checks and balances in a truly free market: there it is. :-)<br /><br />Economists (too many progressives I am afraid) neglect the monopsony aspect of ownership while the vast majority of American employees labor under the condition of unopposed monopsony. Unopposed monopsony is the mostly unrecognized pathology in America's economic and political life.<br /><br />PS. A labor union's ability to withhold its input to production in order to get the best deal may be routinely undercut (sent on the race to the bottom) if another employer can squeeze a bad contract out of its workers and then out compete everyone else on the basis of resulting lower prices, forcing ownership and labor at other firms to cut wages. The answer to this of course -- the gold standard -- is centralized bargaining where everyone doing the same kind of work in the same geo locale works under one commonly negotiated contract. Then, firms can compete on the basis of service and innovation alone -- which a lot of really talented business people prefer to trying to out skunk their employees; who wouldn't prefer? <br /><br />The centralized bargaining system is featured in such "exotic, radical experiment inclined" economies as French-Canada, Germany and much of continental Europe, to as far away as Argentina and Indonesia. Oddly enough, this system was instituted in continental Europe after WWII to keep labor from going on a race to the wages top -- to conserve money for rebuilding. Don't for get the Teamsters Union's National Master Freight Agreement won in 1964 in (across) America.Denis Drewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11833367196756465896noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-46343172556353065152015-12-14T15:49:13.860-05:002015-12-14T15:49:13.860-05:00When Mayor De Blasio tried to impose sensible rule...When Mayor De Blasio tried to impose sensible rules in New York City for Uber, David Plouffe choose to run a lot of incredibly dishonest ads trying to paint our mayor as being against poor black people. It is sad how he shills for a large corporation,ProGrowthLiberalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17138489390594441753noreply@blogger.com