Quote:
Originally Posted by Willravel
You see unions and lobbyists as the same thing? I think you may be misunderstanding just what it is that unions and lobbyists do.
Lobbyists exist solely to sway public officials on issues and causes. It's what they do and all they do.
Unions, on the other hand, exist to give power to workers through organization. The central responsibility of a union is to, collectively, be the voice of the workers. Chief among the goals of unions is better working conditions and fair pay. While some unions do hire lobbyists to push for political agendas, that's not the central responsibility of a union.
In short, they're not the same thing. One can be consistent while still being honest.
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I agree that they are not the same thing the way an apple is not an orange, but both an apple and an orange are fruit. A corporate lobbyist is an advocate for the corporate interest that they represent, even in the political arena; and a union is an advocate for the labor interest that they represent, even in the political arena.
Just a concluding note for me on the topic of wealth creation to tie it in a nice little bow. Anyone who objectively looks at wealth creation will have to see that in the process of individual initiative that creates individual wealth through productivity gains (as opposed to fraud, stealing, cheating, arbitrage, etc) it follows that all benefit. History shows us that "trickle down" is real, history shows us the power of "supply side economics". Our next move forward, will require this process to occur again - organic growth in economic terms does not lead to standard of living improvements.