hostess
okay so as near as i can tell, the situation with hostess, makers of twinkies and ho hos, is something like this: the workers want higher pay and more benefits. the owners are offering lower pay and less benefits. workers say they'll go on strike. owners say they'll shut down the business. okay. more/less classic positions. the interesting bits is the feeling that the owners really will shut down the business. why the fuck not? they're seriously rich. they don't need the money from the business. nor the hassles that come with running it. and they don't care that they look like assholes. workers believe the job they had will be hard to replace. but the job they're being offered will be easy to replace. which is probably true. for now. you know, i predicted this a while ago. this is exactly the kind of thing you expect when wealth becomes concentrated. hostess will go out of business. the former owners will be totally happy with that. the workers will find new jobs. they won't be as good as the old job. but they'll be better than the offered job. and the cycle will repeat. again and again. it won't take very many cycles until the workers are "happy" to take a job that isn't as good as what the hostess assholes were offering.