23rd
Whoa, what country do we live in all of a sudden? What world, even?
Not that I’m saying unions are universally a force for good over evil, but it’s refreshing to see working-class Americans stand up three years into a recession caused by the rich collectively fleecing the rest of the country and announce that they’re tired of being kicked around. And it’s hard to argue against collective-bargaining rights for groups like teachers and prison guards — we’re collectively screwed if those folks aren’t being properly compensated, having their time protected, and staying healthy. Talk about thankless jobs.
Thing that confuses me: there’s still large-scale political discourse about economic competition between states within the USA. Call me a Federalist, but don’t we have bigger fish to fry? Like China? Seems to me that encouraging competition within the country is more likely to drive down wages and product quality than improve the job market for a majority of Americans. But what do I know! I am a theater major from Taxation-Without-Representation Land (which is the only city where unemployment has stayed relatively calm, thanks to the government jobs and the market around them), so these statehood matters probably elude me entirely.
That’s a point. But consider this: When the second industrial revolution came around in the second half of the 19th century, and there were big gains to be made in things like steel, electronics, and chemistry, you know who came out on top? Well, the US, because we had boundless land and resources where as Europe was vastly overpopulated, at least relatively. But also Germany, especially where chemistry was concerned. All of the important chemical advances in things like synthetic dyes that are ubiquitous in everything we wear/produce today and fertilizers that have allowed the world population to skyrocket were made by Germans. Note that this is also how Germany was able to hold its own from a supply-chain standpoint during World War I despite being blockaded: vastly superior chemists.
Why is all that relevant? The reason why German chemists were world-beaters was because Germany had the best universities, which was a direct result of it being a recently unified clusterfuck of tiny states. Each one of these states had had its own university, and even after unification there was tremendous competition between them for the best faculty and the brightest students. The result of this inter-German competition was the runaway highest quality university system in the world; you weren’t a serious aspiring chemist if you hadn’t studied in Germany. Point being, sometimes intranational competition is a badass thing.
