Are worker unions good or bad?

[Final-Fan]

fatslob-:O said:

Final-Fan said:

I advise you to double check the source that gave you this history lesson ... or a better source.  The notion that America's big push into industrialization happened in the 1960s is just incredibly wrong.  There was heavy industrialization going on in the late 1800s.  Take this with a grain of salt because I am going off memory here but I would say the situation grew increasingly intolerable in the 1880-1900 era and President Roosevelt (Teddy not FDR) helped usher in labor reforms that allowed unions to improve the situation for workers.  Instead of being gunned down by federal or state troops or private mercenary forces. 

While yes there was a heavy push into industrialization in the early 1900s and I don't deny it if you read closely in my second statement but it was not manufacturing which was the most common type of labour, it was still very much agriculture and farming ... 

Somewhere down the line american labour in manufacturing peaked within the century as well which became the golden age of industrialization. The situation wasn't all that intolerable since many of the Americans were still poor farmers and manufacturing was still growing in employment. It only got truly intolerable when the great depression hit where mass layoffs occurred and it stunted the growth of the particular industry for a short while ... 

Labour policy ultimately meant very little for the well being of the American worker in the end and most of the untold gains that they reaped was from the emergence new technology itself. Today we live in the golden age of information technology and tomorrow the next golden age will focus on enhancing human genetics ... 

Workers need to accept the reality that the value of their labour is only temporary since increases in productivity with newer technology means that they'll be paid less unless they offer something of higher value again. What are many of the existing unions today going to do in the face of mass automation ? It's an inevitable outcome that labour will get devalued which is why corporations are compelled to replace humans as much as possible hence why our working hours keep getting shorter ... 

Looking back, I think I may have misread your post.  Sorry about that.  When I read, "America saw an explosive growth in productivity with the rise of manufacturing", I took "the rise of manufacturing" to mean that the proportional number and/or influence of manufacturing jobs increased during that time.  But if you were just elaborating on your point that productivity rose, then my reply completely missed the point.  If so, my bad.