The railroads are shut down in Canada due to failure of the corporations and the unions to come to an agreement.\u00a0 As a result, the radio has nonstop talk shows where everyone gets to take a side and condemn the other side.\u00a0 I can tell that most people are relieved to have a pure “good guys vs. bad guys” conflict, whichever side they take.<\/p>\n
Here’s what I hear with my cynical ear:\u00a0 …<\/p>\n
Wait… first I have to define my terms and reveal my axioms:<\/p>\n
Our society is built on the premise that it is the duty of all corporations and the right of all individuals to expect a profit<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0in their transactions.\u00a0 I define a profit<\/em> as a transaction in which you invest<\/em> in something and get back more than you invested<\/em>.\u00a0 \u00a0For the sake of argument I will measure all investments in dollars, understanding that there is bound to be disagreement about the dollar value of most intangibles (like an hour’s work or a decent meal or safety on the job).\u00a0 Nevertheless, those who make such investments have a right to get back more than they put in — that’s what we believe in hereabouts.<\/p>\n So… what I hear is the corporations saying, “We need to get more work out of our employees than we pay them for.\u00a0 That’s the only way we can turn a profit!<\/em>” and the workers saying, “We need more pay for our work.\u00a0 We don’t care about your corporate profits!<\/em>”\u00a0 Meanwhile, all the “innocent bystanders” whose lives are affected by the strike are saying, “I need those services and goods to make a profit in my small business.\u00a0 I don’t care about the unions or<\/strong> the corporations!<\/em>”\u00a0 So basically we all agree: “More for me!\u00a0 Screw you!<\/em>”<\/p>\n I don’t think there are any “good guys” in this confrontation.\u00a0 It’s just another battle for a bigger share.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n (24 Aug 2024<\/em>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The railroads are shut down in Canada due to failure of the corporations and the unions to come to an agreement.\u00a0 As a result, the radio has nonstop talk shows where everyone gets to take a side and condemn the other side.\u00a0 I can tell that most people are relievedRead More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rants"],"gutentor_comment":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=879"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":881,"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879\/revisions\/881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}