No shit

You have to remember that Ronald Reagan undermined the power of labor unions, so workers lost a lot of power. I doubt workers re really content, so much a they have no power to change things.

I agree ...

@snytiger6 Workers have unlimited power to change things, even without unions - they outnumber the bosses by thousands to one. The boss cannot sack you if you remove his power.

@Jnei It's a bit naive to think tht unorganized labor has any kind of real power to equalize their position(s). If the unions aren't organizing labor then they still need to get organized and work together or else management will divide them and starve them out.

@snytiger6 I very much disagree. Unions are useful only when management listen to them; when they do not, as seems to be the case in modern western capitalist societies. all that is required is a collective will that "enough is enough" and willingness to end the status quo by whatever means are necessary.

@Jnei Just curious... Have you ever read the expose novels "The Grapes of Wroth" and "The Jungle"? Without organization workers are treated like disposable garbage, and any attempt to organize or stand up to management gets workers unemployed and often black listed.

@snytiger6 I have indeed read The Grapes Of Wrath and The Jungle. Both played their part in leading me to the position I'm taking here - which is that unions can only improve the lot of the workers if management listen to what the union says. However, in any capitalist system, management will always seek to undermine and limit the unions; this has now happened to such an extent in many societies that management (and government) can and do treat workers as disposable garbage, knowing that the unions have had their claws clipped and teeth removed. When that happens, unions are of little use; instead, workers need to take control of the means of production.

@Jnei OK, It seems we are not really all that far apart after all. I agree that workers hve to work together, but up to this point, there hasn't been any way which workers have organized outside of unions that has bee successful. If you know a way to organize labor other than with labor unions, please enlighten me. The disorganized rising up cn happen, as was demonstrated by the French Revolution, but that was pretty chaotic .

I think just as the right wing used "right to work" laws to weaken the unions, we need to cahnge the laws to once again strengthen the unions... unless you know of another way to successfully organize labor. If so, plese enlighten me.

@snytiger6 I don't believe the laws can be changed, because it isn't in the interests of government and the bosses to change them and they're the ones that hold the power or have the contacts necessary to change anything. Sometimes, chaos isn't such a bad thing; sometimes, the best thing to do is destroy an irredeemably corrupt and oppressive system and start over.

@Jnei I can understand how you feel. To me life is too short to throw it all out.

@snytiger6 To me, life is too short not to. Right now, for the vast majority of people, life is little more than drudgery, giving up free time and risking bad health so that the boss can have a good life and a big house and fast car, because if s/he doesn't s/he might see to it that the last pay cheque you received really is the last. It can be better than that.

Yes, due to "vulture capitalism", people like Mitt Romney would buy out a company and sell off the pieces, and take the pension funds that were set aside for workers as profits for themselves.

A perfect example of how CEOs get away with almost anything - until profits fall. Before then Ghosn was an untouchable, Teflon man.

@Petter he was a French national icon. Without the courageous Japanese intervention he would still be it. For he 60th birthday he rented the prestigious Galerie de Glace in the Versailles Chateau. Well, guess what? He got the company to foot the bill.

@PontifexMarximus Precisely. ... and this at a time when Renault was faltering.