I originally downvoted that comment, but removed it based on this comment. It takes a lot of character to admit making rash generalizations. Kudos!
Back on topic, I think unions are like anything else; if they are not well managed/maintained, they can become top heavy and easily corrupted. The key (much like any other organization) is consistent involvement from membership to keep the top honest... and move leaders along that don't have the organization's best interest at the forefront.
While unionization is the formalized structure of collective bargaining, there is nothing keeping these individuals away from collective bargaining without forming an official union to do so.
> there is nothing keeping these individuals away from collective bargaining without forming an official union to do so.
I think this is the main reason why I just "don't get" unions. Why do we have to put a name to it? Trying to understand unions, I guess it provides some sort of legitimacy to the organization. Or perhaps unions are more efficient at bargaining multiple issues simultaneously. I guess I am just really hung up on paying a union money.
To set up a communications and decision-making structure.
> hung up on paying a union money.
Agreed.
Am open to unions, but their worst tendencies such as significant monetary collection and (everyday) work obstruction should be against the rules. Just as anti-employee corporate policy should as well.
Because without putting a name to it, you don't have the same level of organization. If you have a group of workers who organize collectively but don't have a real organization with a leadership structure, how do you vote and decide what your goals are?
I know someone who's in a union as a mechanic. Her union dues are $50 and she gets fantastic benefits, that more than pay for the union dues.
Probably because you end up reinventing unions from first principles. You start off with a group of employees organising together. Then they realise some of the things they need to do require money. Then they realise you need some contingency to pay for big expenses. Then you realise you can use your bargaining power to help members in other ways for example here unions offer lots of services, discounts and funds for things like education. We’ve also just been through a period of labour renegotiation with some strikes which has ultimately ended up with the government getting involved with promises of reform to resolve them.
Plus many countries have laws surrounding how unions can operate and protections for employees organising them. In a less enlightened society employers will just lay off anyone attempting to organise.
So in general Unions are typically formed explicitly because people have lots of existing evidence of the benefits.
It seems unlikely that the new group would be more moral, less easily bribed, and less self-centered. There's nothing unique to the generation of politicians currently in power.
Still running a Thinkpad x230t here. Outside the screen resolution while not docked, it has been great! It even survived a hard tumble down a flight of stairs 3 yrs ago; the only damage was a small gap along the seam of the external battery.
Ubiquiti's consumer stuff is kind of bad (AmpliFi). I like their small business grade gear however (Unifi, and EdgeMax). Definitely wouldn't recommend it to most consumers however, it is Prosumer/Enthusiast level or above.
Too complex to beat their easy-to-use competition (e.g. Google WiFi) and too simple to beat their feature rich competition (themselves in Unifi, Orbi, Asus, etc). Essentially the worst of both worlds. Plus the price is high without justification.
Why would I recommend AmpliFi over any of the half dozen alternatives on the market? Reality is that I simply wouldn't, and this coming from someone who loves Unifi/EdgeMax.
They also shipped a clearly not-ready product which took months to patch, not cool.
I had one of the early models of the AmpliFi. It was generally pretty solid. We have a really old house with a lot of brick and plaster and it did well at filling the house with wifi when other routers came up short. We got gigabit internet and it just sort of collapsed. I think newer versions are better equipped for that speed but ours couldn't seem to get past 100 mbps.
I thought their support was really good though. The main issue I have with it is that, for some reason, they were unable to identify my model number as being an older version that didn't support gigabit. They were super helpful but could have saved us both some time if they just paid closer attention to the model number.
I opted for the Netgear Orbi; good reviews and satellites capable of up to ~800 mbps in ideal situations.
While the Netgear Orbi has been far from perfect, it was a good step up for us with multiple floors and a lot of nearby WiFi congestion. Seems like they've worked out a fair number of earlier growing pains around keeping the mesh... well... meshed.
I had nothing but non-stop pain with the NetGear Orbi system. Even the most recent firmware was constantly dropping satellites and the Apple TV. It was one of the most aggravating products I've ever purchased. The firmware is also complete junk. For example it has a QoS tab that simply shows a link to a 3rd party speed test service... that's not what quality of service means. The whole system is like that.
I finally threw in the towel and bought a few of the new Synology Mesh routers.
That's where LastPass, et. al. come to the rescue. Minimizes the annoyance of multiple logins, while increasing overall security if they didn't already use a password manager.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19629513