Forum Overview :: Motherfucking News :: it really isn't

[quote name="jeep"][quote name="Roop"]It's really the union's fault. Unions are always going to support the Democrats. So Democrats don't really give a shit, they're always going to support us anyway, screw 'em. Republicans see them as the enemy, screw 'em. The way our system works now, you don't pick a side, you play both.[/quote] most democracies developed a party of capital and a party of labor because the interests of the two are so often at odds. historically in the us the gop was the party of high-labor-cost capital and the democrats by default would then get the support of labor in opposition to them. however due to the sheer amount of money here and the low value of an individual's vote ($10? $20?) there's really two business parties: high-labor-cost capital GOP (manufacturing) and low-labor-cost capital GDP (finance, pharma, tech). high-labor-cost capital hates the minimum wage and taxes. low-labor-cost capital hates taxes but doesn't give a shit about minimum wage. so the unions are picking lesser-of-evils and it puts them in bed with pharma and investment banks. (this is from Thomas Ferguson's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Golden-Rule-Investment-Competition-Money-Driven/dp/0226243176">Golden Rule</a>) there's a weird dissonance between union strategy and rank and file here, though: once all their extra benefits are gone the union membership leans to support the GOP. It's kind of a weirdly american thing, mostly people here vote the same as their company's ceo, and it's probably due to centuries of benefitting from the employer's exploitation of other groups of labor (slaves, indentures, overseas sweatshops) it's all kind of winding down now, though. things are gonna get really shitty here over the next 50 years. [/quote]