..and here is where unions go off the flywheel into Marxist Dream Theory and economic idiocy; the fixed cost of an item is 'x' because the labor to produce said item is added to the cost of the raw materials used to produce it. Add some profit and taxes and you have the final, moderately flexible total cost of an item.
Lower labor costs usually means lower costs for items. To whit, WALMART - and it's US comsumers - benefit from this arrangement with cheap labor in China and SE Asia. In relative terms and over time, raising the cost of labor would mean that everything is more expensive (even where it is produced; cars aren't any cheaper in Detroit) and we're back to where we started since the only thing achieved is to raise the bar on the cost of everything.
Unions are *NOT* the answer in bad economic times - especially for professionals with brains and creativity.
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Re: Another way is to raise wages around the globe, and one way to accomplish that is to support labor organizations overseas. American unions should be doing everything they can to support strong labor laws in Mexico and other places.
Lower labor costs usually means lower costs for items. To whit, WALMART - and it's US comsumers - benefit from this arrangement with cheap labor in China and SE Asia. In relative terms and over time, raising the cost of labor would mean that everything is more expensive (even where it is produced; cars aren't any cheaper in Detroit) and we're back to where we started since the only thing achieved is to raise the bar on the cost of everything.
Unions are *NOT* the answer in bad economic times - especially for professionals with brains and creativity.
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by docwatson223.
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