Oh man, the parallels with history here are strong…
Back in the day companies would use government to crack down on things like union strikes. So the unions started working with the Mafia for protection.
This didn’t work out well for the companies (executives getting carried off, tortured, and executed… That sort of stuff) so the government came up with a compromise: Strong labor laws.
Now we have the government itself violating it’s own laws (Bill of Rights), kidnapping harmless people, sending them to faraway prisons to become slaves. Hooking up with organized crime seems like a logical path 🤷
The best deal leaders could ask for is a strong social contract. They don’t have to look over their shoulders we don’t have to look over ours.
Also the ability to safely leave power. Jimmy Carter got to spend his retirement building houses for charity, Saddam Huissen got to spend his in hiding, Ghaddafi got to spend it being tortured awaiting execution by a mob of his citizens, and Hitler’s retirement was spent absolutely ruining a bunker toilet while going through withdrawal. I’d much rather rule with limits then step away safely.
It was more like the mafia realized that if they could take over the labor unions, they could use them to bully and extort money from unionized businesses by threatening labor actions like strikes. And they knew that unions would have a hard time turning down muscle, so they would make union leaders “an offer they couldn’t refuse”. Also the mafia was way more likely to torture a union boss who realized it was a deal with the devil than use violence against a wealthy business owner.
Oh man, the parallels with history here are strong…
Back in the day companies would use government to crack down on things like union strikes. So the unions started working with the Mafia for protection.
This didn’t work out well for the companies (executives getting carried off, tortured, and executed… That sort of stuff) so the government came up with a compromise: Strong labor laws.
Now we have the government itself violating it’s own laws (Bill of Rights), kidnapping harmless people, sending them to faraway prisons to become slaves. Hooking up with organized crime seems like a logical path 🤷
…as in: WTF did you think was going to happen‽
The best deal leaders could ask for is a strong social contract. They don’t have to look over their shoulders we don’t have to look over ours.
Also the ability to safely leave power. Jimmy Carter got to spend his retirement building houses for charity, Saddam Huissen got to spend his in hiding, Ghaddafi got to spend it being tortured awaiting execution by a mob of his citizens, and Hitler’s retirement was spent absolutely ruining a bunker toilet while going through withdrawal. I’d much rather rule with limits then step away safely.
It was more like the mafia realized that if they could take over the labor unions, they could use them to bully and extort money from unionized businesses by threatening labor actions like strikes. And they knew that unions would have a hard time turning down muscle, so they would make union leaders “an offer they couldn’t refuse”. Also the mafia was way more likely to torture a union boss who realized it was a deal with the devil than use violence against a wealthy business owner.
Those who don’t read history are doomed to repeat it.