Are unions feasible today?

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
I'm pretty sure the poverty line is above the level where one is actively dying.

They don't count food stamps and government paid housing. So yeah it is, here's the actual table how they divide it. And shockingly Dark Cloud seems to be correct. 14% of people actually fall under this line (which at first glance seems at a reasonable line).

http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/data/threshld/thresh09.xls

Originally posted by Tha C-Master
Also paying people more and more money doesn't mean the money has more value. If everyone gets paid more and more, the cost of everything will go up to.

Exactly. But income is more evenly distributed.

People being paid more evenly around the world isn't necessarily a bad thing. Americans are worried they won't have the 2 cars with the big house and picket fence, but there will be less people starving as well.

I believe unions are vital in a democratic society. Do we want to go back to 1870?

Yes. 😛

And btw, we mentioned how they had their usefulness, but got out of control. So I acknowledge that they do have some purpose, but just that in a global market their usefulness decreases.