Reply #8: Organization is subtle and the better-organized win

[jsmithsen]

It would be interesting for a Labor Economist to analyze the relationship between inequality and organization/power (relative to more commonly noted factors such as education, skill, or work dangerousness).

I'm not (only) referring to the differences between labor and management, but between different groups of workers.

In some cases this is due to unions. The better compensated members of the "creative class" are highly organized into unions.

In some cases this is due to professional associations (e.g. the AMA or the ABA).

In some cases this is due to subtle use of regulations. Accounting on Wall Street is not outsourced to anywhere near the same degree as IT. Why - "we need US accountants to directly interact with US regulators - it is the law". Similarly for other countries.

In some cases it is due to groups of Mafia-like gangs. Many economists have noted the power of employees at Wall Street companies. Wall Street is filled to the brim with gangs of (mostly) men who exploit the consumers of financial products, run circles around the regulators and throw spitballs at upper management. There are many "strikes" on Wall Street, as when a group of 100 people threaten to leave from one firm to another the day after a key project goes into production. "People's capitalism" was a cruel trick resulting in the theft of the savings of the American worker by Wall Street.

And is some cases it is due to the market and/or political power of the companies themselves, as in those companies which are tied into one "X-industrial complex" or another; and/or are "too big to fail".

The American meritocracy is a game which most workers are designed to lose.