site banner
PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   1889 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 6, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

2
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

"Unions good" is a profoundly alien idea to me. What do you have in mind?

I don't have a source but what I'm told is that German unionists were heavily influenced by British ones who wanted to avoid making the same mistakes. The main idea was to avoid getting into the directly antagonistic relationship you see today in Anglo countries.

I was told that German unions tend to be more attached to individual companies, giving them more of an incentive to preserve their hosts and make agreements that are sane, but a quick search doesn't show any evidence for this. Wikipedia does say that strikes are very rare, and that companies and unions strive for consensus (and apparently achieve it most of the time). I'm not sure how this is achieved.

Perhaps @Southkraut or others would know more.

I've never had a union job, so I don't really have any insight into how the sausage is made here.

What I can confirm is that our unions are generally not very confrontational. Compared to the French, they're docile doormats. It's mostly public transport that strikes, i.e. rails and bus drivers, and the strikes are announced in advance, short in duration, and then negotiations drag on for a few years before the union employees get a one or two percent raise and some other nominal benefit. Other unions don't really strike a lot; they mostly just protest for this or that.

I'd say our unions are fairly cooperative overall.

I don't think unions are always good or bad, even if I tend to agree that on the net, they're tending towards a negative in terms of productivity and competitiveness. Germany has a form of corporate governance where labor union reps sit on equal terms with management, but I'm no expert on the finer details. I just think it's a common talking point that is worth addressing, even if to say it's not relevant in the end.

If your goal is specifically to increase blue collar compensation as a percent of corporate revenue, there's not really another way to do it.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats