Hacker News Reader

Comment by fc417fc802 | Hacker News Reader

It's worth pointing out that these issues vary by the union. As with any type of organization some will be better than others. I don't think being anti-union is the right answer but rather pushing for systemic changes that would curb various problematic behaviors.

When it comes to construction you don't even need to involve unions to find corruption. There's all sorts of corruption (or borderline corruption) surrounding zoning laws in most of the heavily populated places in the US and that's in addition to the blatant political dysfunction.

View on HN

Sure but I think one of the huge issues is size and the simple fact that the union is by definition NOT pro country/greater good/citizen but pro Union member.

So yea when some CEO golden parachutes out with all the money we’re all rightfully pissed, but people weren’t thrilled with jimmy hoffa or state mandated monopolies that just don’t give a fuck either.

In my city the power company will just tell you to fuck right off no matter what your schedule was for opening your business, no matter how important you are. Hope you can handle your building being built 1+ months behind because “nah fuck you” while the government head makes a million + a year.

Scaling these things so they don’t fall to corruption and graft is very very hard.

In my county the head of the power "company" comes up for election every few years and everything works remarkably well. Still certainly not a perfect system given that as a voter it's quite difficult (just about impossible really) to make a decision between two unknown people. But if things are regularly breaking or overpriced or whatever and there's an absence of meaningful communication from the top it's straightforward to try someone new.

I guess it will be an issue for you if your preference doesn't match the majority of your neighbors who would rather cheaper but lower quality service. But TBF that would be the system working as intended.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com