Corruption and greed and increasing the cost of labor  

 who is corrupt and greedy?  

 Unions 

 unions are not where you should be looking if you want to find the real corruption, greed and manipulation 

 But they are a good place to start! And they drive up the costs of good and services 

 it's a distraction 

 no, Teachers unions are notorious for keeping bad teachers. Regular work unions have to keep bad employees. The fight for higher pay and benefits is costly to companies 

 you're generalising from the exception not the rule. also, there's lots of evidence that shows there's actually a high cost to not providing decent pay and benefits to workers. 

 This is very common though. Unions are good in theory but fell to corruption and abuse like everything else  

 so isn't the answer more transparency and accountability, not throwing the baby out with the bathwater?
 

 Depends in what country you live, in some places workers rights and unions are awesome, and have changed the course of human rights and liberty in the work place 

 Also valid but the incentive structure simply does not cater to those benefits being consistent or unabused for long. Years, decades they'll last, but not forever. Eventually snakes will get into the garden. 

 In some countries unions tell the government what the conditions are and if they don’t comply with the demands the stop producing, eventually the government gives in because they can’t afford to piss so any people off, these regulations have been around for 50 years or more 

 I'm sure that is the case in most places but the same can be accomplished via general unity and without compulsory dues. I don't mean to sound pessimistic, maybe there isn't an organization I'm not cynical about. If our governments actually worked for our best interest maybe that would change.  

 You don’t have to be part of a union, that’s a choice, governments don’t always have the capacity to do its citizens best interests, I know that sounds illogical, but it’s reality, most of them are bureaucrats that live a totally different life than average workers, that’s why “good” unions are useful to force governments to do their job properly 

 and in other places? 

 In other places unions are corrupted, they are not really there to help workers just keep them calm so they don’t revolt 

 so you think they are gate-keeping worker rights? 

 In some cases yes, there are a lot of politics in unions 

 Not worker's rights. Just unions. They're like a government. "Let's pool all our money and power together and that'll make everybody safer," when in reality that statement should actually read "let's pool all our money and power together and expect that to not attract the most sadistic and self absorbed snakes and leaches in the human gene pool." It is counter intuitive in the long arc of history to expect security from the people who want the keys of power the most.  

 wow you really don't like unions. have you had a bad experience in one? 

 Just skeptical in a world that seems made of ulterior motives 

 you should be worried about the ulterior motives of anti-union lobbying   

 Por que no dos 

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