Marty Manley on economics, politics, technology, and culture

Labor

Lenin’s Rope: Universities Help Disrupt Universities

Lenin famously bragged that “Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.” It would surely gall him to learn that the art of destroying capitalists with their own products has been mastered not by a militant, vanguard-led proletariat but by entrepreneurial capitalists. It appears that even universities, finally, are getting the hang of [...]

Peak Apple: Understanding the Foxconn Deal

Apple has quickly raised worker wages to address the highly publicized problems with working conditions in its supplier network. The decision protects Apple’s pristine brand and costs the company next to nothing. It cleverly exploits the high-minded principles and low-level economic literacy of those of us who are its devoted customers. A series of well-researched [...]

Whatever Happened to the United Farmworkers?

On New Year’s Day, a friend mentioned that Frank Bardacke had published his long-anticipated history of the rise and fall of Cesar Chavez and the United Farmworkers. It was worth the wait, he assured me and “completely stunning. Just get it and read it. You won’t put it down.” He was right. Bardacke, a respected [...]

Public Unions 5: Can Unions Innovate?

This post concludes a five part series on public sector unions. The opening post argued that political attacks on public sector unions are more likely to worsen fiscal or political problems than solve them. The second article asserted that low public sector productivity is primarily a management failure. The third article noted that efforts by unions to [...]

Public Unions 4: Preventing Labor Capture

This is the fourth of a five part series on public sector unions. The opening post argued that political attacks on public sector unions are more likely to worsen fiscal or political problems than solve them. The second article asserted that low levels public sector productivity relative to pay is primarily a management failure. The third article noted [...]

Public Unions 3: The Price of Job Security.

This post is the third of a five part series on public sector unions.The opening post argued that political attacks on public sector unions are more likely to worsen fiscal or political problems than solve them. The second article asserted that low public sector productivity is primarily a management failure. The third article notes that efforts by unions to [...]

Public Unions 2: Management, Productivity, and Pay.

This is the second of a five part series on public sector unions. The opening post argued that political attacks on public sector unions are more likely to worsen fiscal or political problems than solve them. The second article asserts that low public sector productivity is primarily a management failure. The third article notes that efforts by unions [...]

Public Unions 1: Scott Walker’s Gift

This post commences a five part series on public sector unions. It argues that political attacks on public sector unions are more likely to worsen fiscal or political problems than solve them. The second article asserts that low public sector productivity is primarily a management failure. The third article notes that efforts by unions to [...]

Obama: Looking for Dumb Federal Programs? Kill 13(c).

Obama this week announced an effort to hunt and destroy stupid federal programs. As he well knows, these programs are easy to find but tough to kill. I learned this when I was put in charge of a really stupid federal program. I got agreement at the highest levels of government to kill it. The [...]

Five Thousand US Janitors have PhDs. So?

With a kid in college, I naturally wonder whether the cost is worth it. So take a look at the following BLS data on a couple of million people who went to college but did not end up doing work that requires a college degree: NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES WITH COLLEGE DEGREES   What is going [...]

Employees: Free to Choose?

As befits a vanguard organization. Espresso Workers Local One was ahead of its time. It was a project of the Industrial Workers of the World (the IWW, or Wobblies), a  bunch of colorful commies who took their class struggle fully caffeinated and with a healthy dose of sugar. We organized the local in Santa Cruz [...]

Can Ron Bloom Save the US Auto Industry?

As mentioned in an earlier post, I think very highly of Ron Bloom, the Steelworker Financial adviser just named by President Obama as the non-czar car czar. Ron and Diana Farrell of the National Economic Council will head up the task force that will oversee the restructuring of our car companies. Both are first-rate appointments. [...]

Money for Nothin'

Hollywood is a microcosm of the US economy: a tough place to make a living for most people and a place where it simply rains money for others. The current strike by the Writer’s Guild makes the difference clear, but with one problem. The union should attack not only the studios — they need to [...]

Your Father's Oldsmobile

Did you notice that our biggest industrial union went on strike this morning against our biggest car maker? You didn’t? Funny, investors didn’t notice either — GM stock hardly moved today — it was actually up for awhile. Unless you are walking a picket line or working in a Mexican parts plant, the GM strike [...]

Did we create a half million or 7.7 million jobs last quarter?

The undisputed gem of the United States Department of Labor is the Bureau of Labor Statistics. You can debate whether the rest of the place accomplishes much, but the BLS is pure gold — home to some of America’s smartest and most important data gatherers, knowledge makers, and statisticians. They work about a block from [...]

Outside of the Box

Nobel Prize winning physicist and genius quantum mechanic Niels Bohr once pointed out that "Prediction is difficult, especially about the future" — a fact that he demonstrated empirically with respect to subatomic particles. Former Economist writer and business historian Marc Levinson has demonstrated that the maxim applies to technology businesses as well in a business [...]

Protect Income, not Industries, Companies, or Jobs

Suppose we tried to improve our economic security and well-being by making it illegal for any employer to fire any employee for any reason. Over time, our strategy would backfire. We would become less secure because we would be less competitive as our companies lost out to foreign businesses with more flexible cost structures. As [...]

Competition Forever

When the union’s inspiration through the workers’ blood shall run There can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun Yet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one But the union makes us strong. Solidarity Forever! Solidarity Forever! Solidarity Forever! For the union makes us strong.   History’s most popular [...]

Honor Labor Day

If your teacher was like mine, she told you that Labor Day is our how we honor the American worker. True enough, but it is also a holiday that commemorates the failure of communism to take root in the American labor movement. Unlike any other holiday, Labor Day celebrates something that didn’t happen. You can [...]

Immigration Reform: La Causa or La Raza?

Why did the leaders of huge demonstrations for immigration reform
frequently invoke Cesar Chavez’s birthday this weekend? Chavez is an
unlikely icon for open borders and alien amnesty. Few people have sent
as many undocumented workers back home to Mexico as Chavez did
when he fought for La Causa — the cause of farmworkers