Let me just comment that US Democrats are a little right of right, and nowhere near "far left". It's a small point, but as the discussion resolves around global comparisons, it's an important one.
I also find the extreme feelings towards organized labour in the US somewhat bemusing... what's the alternative? Waiting for fast food chains and supermarkets to decide to increase pay, sick days and holidays, and reduce hours out of "efficiency reasons"? Or maybe wait for invisible hand-me-downs?
You know, having worked for a union in my youth, I was gobsmacked by the... I guess you'd call it indifference to the quality of your work. Your production has nothing to do with your job.
Then sampling the cutthroat nature of capitalism on the 'management' side of things, I understood what the unions were fighting for. (Even if I think they fundamentally fucked things up along the way.)
And now, as a vaguely paternalistic employer, I try to enact the kinds of things which unions would try to do (reasonable work hours, good wages, respect for the people working for me and their efforts on our collective behalf), and eliminate the failings of the union system (mostly by ruthlessly culling dead weight-- verboten in a union).
And all in all, I find myself concluding that management is an art, not a science. It can't be process-ized, or bound up by rules. The tyranny of Wall Street excel spreadsheets in bleeding workers dry is wrong. The indifference of unions to the economic output of the companies that employ them is wrong. And the people who can square that circle are not interchangeable cogs that can be replaced at will.
I also find the extreme feelings towards organized labour in the US somewhat bemusing... what's the alternative? Waiting for fast food chains and supermarkets to decide to increase pay, sick days and holidays, and reduce hours out of "efficiency reasons"? Or maybe wait for invisible hand-me-downs?