Chris
07-07-2015, 03:35 PM
Who really has the upper hand, the capitalist employer or the communist employee?
Altruism and Economics (http://capitalismmagazine.com/2015/06/altruism-and-economics/)
...An example of how altruism warps economic thinking is the concept of “unequal bargaining power.” This is a concept accepted by left and right. Remedying the unequal bargaining power of a solitary worker is the justification offered for “collective bargaining” and other atrocities. “In union there is strength”–strength to balance the strength of the rich employer, who can hire you or any of a number of other job-seekers.
But how do the same facts stand in a mind untainted by the creed of need?
First of all, the concepts of “strength” and “power” here package-deal productive power and destructive power–the power of the dollar offered and the power of the sidearm unholstered. That equivocation itself comes from altruism: to an altruist, withholding goods needed by others is theft (see my article “The Dollar and the Gun,” in Why Businessmen Need Philosophy).
And that leads to a startling realization. On egoist premises, the inequality goes in the other direction. It is the poor, starving worker, desperate to get a job who stands to gain an enormous value from it, and the employer who will get only the worker’s marginal product.
The “bargaining power” of one party to a trade is his ability to provide value to the other. You want to find, and trade with, the person or company that has the greatest “bargaining power over you”–i.e., the biggest value to you.
Can one with a high bargaining power exact stiff terms? That language is from the altruist morality. He can’t “exact” anything, he can only offer. And “stiff”? By what standard? Of the various offers available in the market, you take the one that gives you the biggest gain.
...
Altruism and Economics (http://capitalismmagazine.com/2015/06/altruism-and-economics/)
...An example of how altruism warps economic thinking is the concept of “unequal bargaining power.” This is a concept accepted by left and right. Remedying the unequal bargaining power of a solitary worker is the justification offered for “collective bargaining” and other atrocities. “In union there is strength”–strength to balance the strength of the rich employer, who can hire you or any of a number of other job-seekers.
But how do the same facts stand in a mind untainted by the creed of need?
First of all, the concepts of “strength” and “power” here package-deal productive power and destructive power–the power of the dollar offered and the power of the sidearm unholstered. That equivocation itself comes from altruism: to an altruist, withholding goods needed by others is theft (see my article “The Dollar and the Gun,” in Why Businessmen Need Philosophy).
And that leads to a startling realization. On egoist premises, the inequality goes in the other direction. It is the poor, starving worker, desperate to get a job who stands to gain an enormous value from it, and the employer who will get only the worker’s marginal product.
The “bargaining power” of one party to a trade is his ability to provide value to the other. You want to find, and trade with, the person or company that has the greatest “bargaining power over you”–i.e., the biggest value to you.
Can one with a high bargaining power exact stiff terms? That language is from the altruist morality. He can’t “exact” anything, he can only offer. And “stiff”? By what standard? Of the various offers available in the market, you take the one that gives you the biggest gain.
...