I was chatting with my father about this the other day. He maintains UAW made our lives much better. But, here's the thing - it made HIS life much better. He always craps on about how much GM was making in profits and how much management took in pay and bonuses. I actually worked in management (not really but I was salaried). It is true that the manager of the plant I worked at (14,000) employees did get paid a lot of money. This was AC Rochester so they made a lot of components like filters and plugs. What no one mentions is that the last three directors died of heart attacks before the age of 55. Don't get me wrong, lots of line workers died of cancer. It's a tough business. Workers always frame it from their POV and manage from theirs.
I'd say of the two, the managers worked harder. It was pretty common to see line workers stoned, although over time UAW finally started giving in a little and firing these dead beats. Funny enough, in the end, UAW was almost as hard on the line workers as management. You hear line workers complaining about UAW more than management! Funny enough the UAW bosses had become a type of management - they hated the line worker probably more than the actual management as it ultimately fell on their shoulders to keep their workers in line. also, I think they could see the way things were going. The milk cow was about dead even when I worked there.
Not that it matters - it's gone. There are little if any jobs at GM in MI. If you do get a job, you'll be put on a contract separate from your fathers. Whereas they were on 80k thirty years ago, you'll be lucky t get $10 - 15 an hour. Americans just don't want to pay a small mortgage for a crappy assembled in the USA car.
My father retired at 49 and he probably makes more on his retirement than most people here will make in their actual jobs. His response to me complaining about how his kids (my brothers) lack the opportunities he had and he said Fuck Em, I gave you boys every opportunity in the world. Which is a total lie, he didn't do jack shit. He paid my mother $40 a week and that seems to have been enough to clear his conscious. My one brother sells Mary Jane and the other does odd end jobs. Both live in crack-haven. Both will be lucky not to be shot.
I personally think the root problem lies in the very currency we use as this level of abstraction (and money is already abstract enough) is so far removed as to almost make it nearly impossible to function in a beneficial manner. The next big problem is regulations, which are more about rent seeking than actually helping anyone. The last problem is the distortion of democracy. We have major structural problems as a result of democracy. I have come to believe that without a properly functioning currency democracy can not function properly. The two are reflections of one another. Your "'money" is your vote for what YOU want and unlike voting for a politician you express this vote in varying degrees. I also have no hope we'll be able to fix the problems we face instead we'll make problems much worse. It's an inevitability of the system. Much like the "People's Republic" the Civil "Servants" will also see the same problems inherent in democracy - their solution will not be to make us freer via competing currencies but instead to reduce our civil liberties.
It will be interesting to see just how much liberal conservatism (yes before demagoguery separating them those two terms went together like hand in glove) remains a part of our culture and social consciousness.
