re: #102 Obdicut

I think a lot of it is a basic misunderstanding of business. Glibertarians and other folks with rose-colored glasses claim that in the competitive free market, companies will treat workers well because it gives them a market advantage, turnover costs companies money, etc. This ignores the obvious reality that many places— like Wal-Mart— have systematized things so that turnover impacts them a lot less, and have taken the market position of being exploitative of labor. It’s a viable economic position, just like selling shoddy merchandise that doesn’t work that well is; some people will work the shit jobs because they can’t get anything else or don’t realize they can get something else, some people will buy the cheapest stuff on the market because they can’t afford anything else or they’re poor judges of quality or whatever.

It’s this whacked out illogic that says “They won’t do away with these things because too many people would make a fuss.” It’s the same strain of stupidity that says that major corporations can be deregulated because, if they do something that will cause a lot of people harm, the people will rise up and hold the company responsible. Or at least until “tort reform” gets passed that replaces lawsuits with arbitration, where the company holds all the cards and can force the injured parties into accepting peanuts.