1) Corporations have limited liability. This is government enforced limits on how much the owners have to compensate people for damages of various kinds -- including paying off debts.

2) Corporations are "collectivism" if anything is. Add to that the various forms of government protection they receive, then realize that it is a collectivism for the rich directed against the individual.

3) When people complain about how much people in unions are paid, without realizing this means they should join a union, I guess it's a form of Darwinism.

That ain't true, and hasn't been ever. The Myth of the Lone Frontiersman is used for one and one thing only - getting us separated from mutual interest groups, so that the big corporations can pick us clean.

As Anderson mentions, there are still examples that this isn't the case - WalMart in particular. The simple fact is, there are more people than jobs. An employer can post a job opening and receive 400 resumes in a matter of hours. When is the last time you, as a worker, had to choose between 400 job offers? If you had 400 job offers, perhaps employers would have an incentive to court you with the most attractive compensation package, but most people are lucky to get one job offer, let alone hundreds. Applying the rules of the marketplace to this situation, the laws of supply and demand, it becomes obvious that employers, left to their own devices, can set hours as high and wages as low as they want, and still find willing workers. This may involve leaving the country (where, let's face it, we're a lot more spoiled than people in third world countries) but the bottom line is, no matter how talented you are, your boss can always find someone to do your job for less than you will.

Negotiating power is just not balanced. For proof of this, consider what happens in a strike situation. How long can the average worker trying to support a family on minimum wage stand on the picket line? And how long can a factory remain closed before suffering terminal financial loss?

A union's only job should be to tip these scales to something approaching balance, in order to prevent employees from being exploited. A union should not be powerful enough to set the terms of contract, or dictate the company's direction. But they should be powerful enough to take a stand and say, "This wage is TOO low. These hours are TOO long." Left to the employment marketplace, there is no hitting bottom.

And while unions may be negotiating themselves into oblivion, consider what would happen without them, if there were no minimum wage, and if companies could hire the person willing to work for the least, be it in New Jersey or Bangladesh, and drive wages continually down. Consider what this does to your marketplace. Consider what happens when the people who make products can't afford them, and the people who don't make them have no jobs at all.

If the last labor union were disbanded, do you honestly think that working conditions (on any front) would improve? I doubt it. The structural forces that you mention would still be at play, but there would be fewer counterweights to them. Strikes me as a terrible prospect.

But whatever floats your boat.

It's evident that the unions have been doing a poor job of defending workers, and that they haven't adapted to the "retail economy."

But the very existence of Wal-Mart is excellent evidence that there's room for effective unions in this country. Just like the existence of the Republican Party of today shows that there's room for an effective opposition party.

Unfortunately, no signs of either yet, but I'm still lookin'.

Unions have outlived their usefulness. Just ask professional hockey players how the union has helped them. Unions are just another layer of bureaucracy that hinders economic growth. Let the worker keep more of his money and let him decide how...

Sorry, guys - THE END IS HERE!

You're kidding, right?

So, is everybody on vacaction of what? Here's what's caught my eye this morning: How's the Transportation Security Administration doing? Basically, lousy both from the standpoint of compliance with the law and in making us more secure. Bruce Schneie...

Gracious.