Well, It May Be Time To Face The Fact That We Need Labor Unions...

[FarCenter]

Henry Blodget

I've always instinctively hated labor unions.

...

But we've now developed a bigger problem in this country.

Namely, we've developed inequality so extreme that it is worse than any time since the late 1920s (just before the Great Depression).

Leaving aside fairness, what this inequality does is hurt the main purchasing-power engine of the US economy--the strong middle class.

(Although the 1% likes to think of itself as investing the capital and "creating the jobs" that employ the rest of the country, this is a consensual hallucination. Jobs in this economy only exist because there are customers who can afford to buy the products. And customers can't buy products if they don't have any money. See: Finally, A Rich American Destroys The Fiction The Rich People Create Jobs)

So, for the sake of the economy, we have to fix this inequality problem.

And although correlation is not causation, the chart below suggests that labor unions might be able to help with that, at least in some industries.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/well-it-may-be-time-to-face-the-fact-that-we-need-labor-unions-2012-6

[Egalitarian Thug]

1. Ya think? n/t

[Booster]

2. File this under "Duh"

[Starry Messenger]

3. Is this from The Onion?

Unions create an us vs. them culture? Um, who was shooting at whom during the Ludlow Massacre and that's just for starters.

Unbelievable. Cry in your towel after the corporate class has ripped union strength away for the working class, which *surprise* makes everything else suck too and suddenly little 'Enry Blodgett has a come to Jesus moment.

[leftyohiolib]

4. unions have always been necessary.

from the article "Jobs in this economy only exist because there are customers who can afford to buy the products. And customers can't buy products if they don't have any money". that's the thing they dont care, they, the ptb, have decided that the new buying power will be in india and china. they will be the middle class and so the ptb will need wage slaves to create the crap that will be sold to the these new consumers and that's where america comes in. they will break this country so that we will be fighting in the streets for, a job that pays 1dollar a day, to live in company factories and get paid in company script.
organize, unionize for the sake of your children

[diane in sf]

5. WE NEED A GENERAL UNION THAT IS UNHOOKED FROM EMPLOYMENT--sorry to shout.

We need a union for middle class and poor people to push for minimum wage, single payer, maternity leaves, general destiny control issues. Your health care should not get lost when you lose a job.