"On the Current State of Labor" or "How to be a Twinkie in a Ding Dong World"

The Twinkie is dead. At least for now.
Many on the right are placing the blame squarely on organized labor and I'm inclined to agree. Of course, there is some poor management to blame as well. But, to paraphrase one labor organizer, "they kept telling us that they were going out of business and they needed more and more money from us!" Well, buddy, I guess they were right.

To truly understand the downfall of Hostess and the current demonization of business generally, let's break business down into its most basic form: you.

Now, you may or may not run a business; don't be confused. Even if you are employed by a company (in fact, even if you are unemployed), you are your own business. You want something from your employer: a paycheck. Your employer wants something from you: your labor (physical, intellectual, or both). It's as simple a business transaction as they come.

To keep your business going, you have certain expenses such as food, clothing, shelter, etc, which are other business transactions you enter into.

Unfortunately, when we think of "doing business,"images of setting up shop, complicated paperwork, and selling products arrise. But that's not business at all. Business is simply two parties entering into an agreement of their own free will (i.e. "if you do "X," I'll do "Y").

So consider this: your employer is actually your customer. They are purchasing your product. As such, this adversarial system that we find in place today makes absolutely no sense. That's not how you treat a customer.

You give your customer good service and, if you are willing to barter on your price, you can always turn down a customer's offer.

In fact, that's what no one seems to accept: you don't have to work for anyone you don't want to work for! You can go someplace where you, as a "business" can demand a higher price for your product. And if you can't (i.e. your product isn't worth any more than what you're currently getting), that's not the businesses' fault. It's yours. Perhaps you should look to expanding what you have to offer through education. Or maybe you should even look to actually starting a business of your own.

I'm not being caviler about this. I understand how hard that can be. But this is America. The American Spirit isn't one of looking to the government or a union and asking for help. It's one of blazing your own trail and, through hard work, making it all on your own.


Further Reading:
Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged

H/T to Tim Hawkins for the second half of the title.