NFL rookies definitely have to get a rookies union, or at least a first three-yearers union, to force teams -- who could not operate without them -- to pay them closer to what they are worth. Where is the rookie Jimmy Hoffa?
I finally figured out for myself this morning (as many doubtlessly have figured out before) that labor -- or anything else -- is worth the MAXIMUM that it can extract from the market before the market says it is not worth it: (morally?) justifying the economic function of labor unions. Ownership getting labor for any lower price than it would be willing to pay because of labor bargaining weakness is the same as ownership collecting rent from labor (an all the market will bear minimum wage also comes to mind).
I suspect that (morally?) overpriced CEOs and ballplayers (seeming to contradict myself) are a product of lack of pressure on their incomes beginning right at the bottom of the income chain (did I invent "income chain" too?; good day's work for a cab driver) and works its way up the income scale until some bargaining pressure from labor's side of the table finally appears: if you squeeze a toothpaste tube on the bottom it comes out the top syndrome.
CEO incomes in particular would certainly be under more pressure from stockholders if corporations were struggling under maximum labor pressure for their share of the profit -- instead of dancing on American labor's grave and vacuuming up all the cream for ownership.
Perhaps corporations would have less money to pay ballplayers (through buying game TV commercials) if they were not floating in so much profit that the players agents sense the very much can be skimmed (not blaming players or CEOs -- blaming American labor for mostly all sleeping at the pressure switch).
Posted by: Denis Drew | November 17, 2007 at 01:03 PM
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