The General US Politics Thread

A lot of grocery store and restaurant employees echo that sentiment, but they're forbidden to do so because the corp.(s) believe that by distributing excess food instead of trashing it they'll decrease demand and lower prices.

I remember seeing something called a "Known Loss Foodbank Donation" form floating around the office of the last store i was at, around the holidays, so it's possible that my company does engage that practice at certain parts of the year, e.g. figuring out what they've overstocked and moving it before it becomes unsellable rather than later. Eh.

In some non-union companies, the mere threat of unionization keeps corporate from trying anything too funny. I remember my dad said for his steel-forging company (which is non union and works hard to stay that way) once tried to make the company picnic into a "bring your own food" affair, and apparently the union cards were circulating the next day, and by the next week, the company picnic was restored to its former glory.

It really depends on the company culture, and the industry itself. Some companies are just fine to their workers, and in other cases, if they're in a hotter industry where talent is hard to come by (high unemployment, yes, but a lot of the unemployed are low-skill or don't have skills fit for the present market) then the company has to keep you happy for fear that you'll jump ship. In other cases, even high-skilled workers can end up like slaves (like in the CG Special Effects business in Hollywood: huge operating costs and razor-thin profits due to intense competition with foreign companies lead to hideous hours).

So labor unions are better focused on areas where the market or adverse company culture has created bad conditions, which is in a smaller sector of the market nowadays.

I'd also argue that labor unions represent an older mindset, too. Time was a factory job was something you'd take for life, from high school to retirement, and union structures are meant to reflect that. In our modern world of a very liquid labor pool that may be moving between multiple jobs or through different times and places, it might be that the union is no longer the power structure it needs to be.

In the US at least, that's measurably untrue. States that crack down on unions and pass right to work laws pay workers a good deal less on average — on the order of $1500 a year of straight payroll in addition to significantly less benefits.

Like it or not, right now businesses are so outright evil that unions are an unambiguously better choice.

edited 12th Mar '14 6:42:57 PM by Pykrete

Nate Silver: Two-Thirds of America’s Columnists Are ‘Worthless’.

U.S. judge dismisses charges against Indian diplomat who was strip-searched.

Senators Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) criticized Amtrak on Monday for offering free rides to writers.

edited 12th Mar '14 7:26:52 PM by DeviantBraeburn

Only two thirds?

Tom Coburn should be R-OK, Braeburn.

Not a fan of Toomey, but i'm glad he's not Coburn...

Dammit, my bad. Fixed

More than 1,600 acres of beach, river and forest lands along the Mendocino County coast was declared a protected national monument by President Obama at a ceremony in Washington, D.C.

edited 12th Mar '14 7:37:59 PM by DeviantBraeburn

Unions have a tendency to be jackasses in one direction or the other, either being captured by the business interests or becoming power blocs in their own right to the detriment of both business and workers (the latter is a problem whenever you get professional managers and organizers anywhere, as our resident anarchists would not hesitate to remind us). However, without them, business interests go completely unchecked.

That said, any union that goes outside the remit of representing its workers (Teamsters, Screen Actors' Guild) should be busted with extreme prejudice IMO.

edited 12th Mar '14 9:23:38 PM by Ramidel

In terms of political influence, one Koch brother is worth 515,000 union members.

New Jersey becomes the third state to ban Tesla's direct sales model. Some commentary from tumblr:

I doubt union rules are compatible with 92-year-old employees. A union worth its name would have a retirement plan.

Also, the way unions work in the US seems way different from the way they work in Europe.

From my own experience with a union it's more like the house gets sixty, the girl gets forty and then has to pay twenty to the union in the form of dues.

The White House is reversing course and protecting ObamaCare's cost-sharing subsidies from cuts under the across-the-board budget sequester.

In my experience I pay 5 bucks a month, less than an hour of my working pay, and I was paid higher than state minimum wage right off the back, which likely had something to do with unions.

@trickster your in the wrong union then. Allot of my family works with unions, they don't hand over half their pay.

I make more at the non-union store even before taking dues into account, though i moved from a very low-rent small town to a major city, which might have something to do with it.

Apparently some US states have (effectively) banned Tesla (a company that makes electric cars) from selling there.

Am I the only one who smells Big Oil lobbyists?

Actually, it seems to be collusion among car dealerships that don't want the competition.

Free markets: you're doing it wrong.

But, our FREEEEEEEEDOM!!!!

Sometimes I think US conservatives just play this video over and over in their heads, except they're shouting at things like gun accidents, infrastructure disasters, climate change, and income inequality:

edited 13th Mar '14 1:45:31 PM by Achaemenid

I do think it's more likely auto dealerships trying to block the direct sales method. It's less about the tech behind it and more about market incumbents fearing new sales styles and so trying to legislate or litigate against it (think RKO v. Sony, or the multifarious RIAA lawsuits and laws like SOPA and PIPA).

Besides, actual big oil tends to be more environmentally forward-thinking than we give them credit for, especially because who do you think are the biggest alternative energy investors? Who do you think will make the electricity to power all those Roadsters?

It's got to be an auto company or dealership thing.

Big Oil isn't that innovation-friendly; they buy up all the patents and start-ups who are working on alternative energy mainly so they can sit on them and dole them out if/when they think they could profit from it.

The Senate voted 97-1 Thursday to pass a bill that improves child care for low-income working families.

The Senate reached a bipartisan deal on Thursday that would renew unemployment benefits for five months.

House passes bill making it easier for Congress to sue the president.

@The Last One

Wow that is so shallow I'm pretty sure that it is air now instead of water.

edited 13th Mar '14 2:29:05 PM by theweirdKiddokun

And anyway, what laws are Obama really failing to enforce, where the failure to enforce can't be traced back to the House?