If a retailer lives on 5% profit and raises prices 5% which in turn loses 5% of sales then the retailer ends up back in pretty much the same place — because the retailer is working from profit on gross income (100%).
If a labor union forces the retailer to raise prices 5% which in turn loses 5% of sales then the labor union is way ahead — because labor (in this example) represents only 10% of retailer costs. Total sales drop 5% but labor’s price is up 50%.
OTH, if the retailer can squeeze (unorganized) labor back to 5% of costs while maintaining the same price level then the retailer will double his (formerly 5%) profit.
So, I would advise anyone here who has the opportunity to join a labor union.
To my knowledge most labor contracts do not negotiate for a 50% pay increase. I was happy just to get the cost of living or inflationary increase that we all need from time to time. Even with that you will not keep up because all the government measures are incorrectly measuring inflation and unemployment. The deck is stacked against having any real wage elasticity. So the average American wage earner is in a loose loose situation so getting ahead is dead.
Well, a $15/hr minimum wage increase would be 100% raise for a lot of people. That’s doable only because today’s federal minimum wage ($7.25) is now one-third less than it was under Lyndon Johnson ($10.93) even though per capita income has doubled in almost 50 years since.
To stick with the minimum wage for a second, a hike to $15 would only shift 3.5% of GDP (not sure if exactly the same fraction of income share — anybody?) to the 45% of the workforce who now take 10% of income share ($15 median wage) — about how much we grow every couple of years so the money is there somewhere.
In the same measure, most $300/wk jobs need to be $600 and most $400-500/wk jobs need to be $800 (like supermarket jobs were before Walmart started the race to the bottom for those unions. Today, the top 1% take 25% of income share while the bottom 50% take 12%. Wasn’t always so — around 1970 the top 1% took only 8% — so the money is there somewhere; just a matter of how to get it (even pretty much painlessly unless you sell real estate in Manhattan and even you wont do really poorly).
Just need enough labor unions to rearrange the landscape. In case you missed how to do it, see below.
[cut-and-paste]
Pew reports 55% of Americans under 30 years old approve of labor unions — only 29% disapprove. Even among Republicans under 35, approval edges out disapproval 45% to 44%. The propaganda hasn’t worked – the culture is ours.
All that remains is to add to labor organizing laws those itty-bitty structures they are so obviously missing: adult dentures. Using crushing economic pressure to obstruct employees from exercising a legally spelled out process to organize a collective bargaining unit is just as free market warping as anything the Rockefellers or the Carnegies ever carried off — while atrophying the political sinews of the 99% to boot. Baby teeth won’t do it — right now all that most organizing laws have left are what amount to gums.
Making union busting a felony at state level (job deprival not core injury — free market deprival is core) opens up the potential for federal RICO prosecution. 33 states have their own RICO laws.
“But when Pew sliced and diced its responses (which Gallup did not), it found that young Americans were unions’ most fervent supporters. While 46 percent of its respondents in each of its three older age groups (30 to 49, 50 to 64, and 65-plus) viewed unions in a favorable light, fully 55 percent of Americans aged 18 to 29 held a favorable view of unions, while just 29 percent held unfavorable ones. Pew even found that a slim plurality of Republicans under 35 thought well of unions: 45 percent held positive views, 44 percent negative. For that matter, 65 percent of Democrats (of all ages) thought favorably of unions, and given the towering share of Democrats (or left-of-Democrats) working in the media, new or old, the Gawker vote should have surprised no one.
”http://prospect.org/article/what-made-difference-gawker-boss
Today marks the 6th anniversary of the military coup in Honduras , supported by our “Chicago Boy” President. This doc video ( free viewing for the next two weeks ) gives a compelling account of the attempts by the Campesino Movement to reverse the coup and reclaim their lands :
Eco 001 time 🙂
“Marginal utility” of (un) organized labor?
If a retailer lives on 5% profit and raises prices 5% which in turn loses 5% of sales then the retailer ends up back in pretty much the same place — because the retailer is working from profit on gross income (100%).
If a labor union forces the retailer to raise prices 5% which in turn loses 5% of sales then the labor union is way ahead — because labor (in this example) represents only 10% of retailer costs. Total sales drop 5% but labor’s price is up 50%.
OTH, if the retailer can squeeze (unorganized) labor back to 5% of costs while maintaining the same price level then the retailer will double his (formerly 5%) profit.
So, I would advise anyone here who has the opportunity to join a labor union.
To my knowledge most labor contracts do not negotiate for a 50% pay increase. I was happy just to get the cost of living or inflationary increase that we all need from time to time. Even with that you will not keep up because all the government measures are incorrectly measuring inflation and unemployment. The deck is stacked against having any real wage elasticity. So the average American wage earner is in a loose loose situation so getting ahead is dead.
Well, a $15/hr minimum wage increase would be 100% raise for a lot of people. That’s doable only because today’s federal minimum wage ($7.25) is now one-third less than it was under Lyndon Johnson ($10.93) even though per capita income has doubled in almost 50 years since.
To stick with the minimum wage for a second, a hike to $15 would only shift 3.5% of GDP (not sure if exactly the same fraction of income share — anybody?) to the 45% of the workforce who now take 10% of income share ($15 median wage) — about how much we grow every couple of years so the money is there somewhere.
In the same measure, most $300/wk jobs need to be $600 and most $400-500/wk jobs need to be $800 (like supermarket jobs were before Walmart started the race to the bottom for those unions. Today, the top 1% take 25% of income share while the bottom 50% take 12%. Wasn’t always so — around 1970 the top 1% took only 8% — so the money is there somewhere; just a matter of how to get it (even pretty much painlessly unless you sell real estate in Manhattan and even you wont do really poorly).
Just need enough labor unions to rearrange the landscape. In case you missed how to do it, see below.
[cut-and-paste]
Pew reports 55% of Americans under 30 years old approve of labor unions — only 29% disapprove. Even among Republicans under 35, approval edges out disapproval 45% to 44%. The propaganda hasn’t worked – the culture is ours.
All that remains is to add to labor organizing laws those itty-bitty structures they are so obviously missing: adult dentures. Using crushing economic pressure to obstruct employees from exercising a legally spelled out process to organize a collective bargaining unit is just as free market warping as anything the Rockefellers or the Carnegies ever carried off — while atrophying the political sinews of the 99% to boot. Baby teeth won’t do it — right now all that most organizing laws have left are what amount to gums.
Making union busting a felony at state level (job deprival not core injury — free market deprival is core) opens up the potential for federal RICO prosecution. 33 states have their own RICO laws.
“But when Pew sliced and diced its responses (which Gallup did not), it found that young Americans were unions’ most fervent supporters. While 46 percent of its respondents in each of its three older age groups (30 to 49, 50 to 64, and 65-plus) viewed unions in a favorable light, fully 55 percent of Americans aged 18 to 29 held a favorable view of unions, while just 29 percent held unfavorable ones. Pew even found that a slim plurality of Republicans under 35 thought well of unions: 45 percent held positive views, 44 percent negative. For that matter, 65 percent of Democrats (of all ages) thought favorably of unions, and given the towering share of Democrats (or left-of-Democrats) working in the media, new or old, the Gawker vote should have surprised no one.
”http://prospect.org/article/what-made-difference-gawker-boss
http://prospect.org/article/what-made-difference-gawker-boss#sthash.dwJjdmMI.dpuf
Today marks the 6th anniversary of the military coup in Honduras , supported by our “Chicago Boy” President. This doc video ( free viewing for the next two weeks ) gives a compelling account of the attempts by the Campesino Movement to reverse the coup and reclaim their lands :
“Resistencia: The Fight for the Aguan Valley”
http://resistenciathefilm.com/