I think you’re not seeing the whole picture about pushing back: It doesn’t happen in a vacuum. People have options to organize and push back but it doesn’t automagically make their demands possible. Companies also have options to push back, move the work to other locations, withdraw from markets that aren’t conducive to work, and now, look at automations.

Much of this unionization conversation has lot the plot about how unionization is about collective bargaining, but you still have to bargain. Both sides have options and you can’t come to the bargaining table with a belief that you can get whatever you want by threatening to strike or quit. There are limits to this and they’re decided by markets and technology.

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smallmancontrov an hour ago | parent | next [-]

and politics. The last wave of worker bargaining wins happened in the wake of the Great Depression when the last of the capitalist prosperity gospel promises were defaulted upon and the electorate finally became willing to consider alternatives other than giving rich people everything they wanted all of the time and hoping it would trickle down.

I'm hoping we don't need another Great Depression this time, a collapsing economy brought about by mistaken belief by those on top that they should have the right to keep it all... but that might be exactly what we need. We'll see.

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Aurornis an hour ago | parent [-]

Politics also doesn’t happen in a vacuum. You treat organization and politics like they’re neat tools that the populace only needs to wake up and discover, after which they get everything they want.

The Great Depression politics example is useless when we’re discussing AI knowledge work in a global economy. People in one country could organize to try to force companies to give them more money for less work that they can do with AI. They could try. It might work for a while. Then companies in every other country would jump on the opportunity to use the same AI to do the same work without those restrictions.

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smallmancontrov an hour ago | parent [-]

"Growth mentality" is only convincing if you're actually delivering the growth, though. If your threat is that demanding more will mean our billionaires have a lower number than their billionaires... your offer is not compelling. Take a hike.

	▲	Aurornis 11 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Where did “growth mentality” come from? I wasn’t making an “offer” either. I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m stating simple facts about how markets work. You could try to regulate to extremes that force companies (or your billionaire villains) to give everyone their money but without an actual sustaining market dynamic then it’s not going to get very far.

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an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

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