Answer a few questions, due in 2 hours, easy I supply other student answers so just rewrite
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assignment_1_-_student_answers.docx(a) Do the striking Eastover workers like Lois Scott use selective incentives? If so, what are they?
The Eastover workers definitely used selective incentives, both negative and positive. Lois Scott was an inspiration to the women of Harlen County. She was very persuasive in getting the women to join the cause. She reminded them that in standing by their families, they would benefit from a U.M.W.A contract as well. Their participation would strengthen the chance of a contract guaranteeing safer working conditions and appropriate wages. On one occasion she expressed to some of the people who had not always been present on the picket line, they would be excluded from knowing where the group would be unless they showed up to a common meeting place in the morning. She also expressed that if people were not going to participate, they would not reap the benefits of her participation.
(b) How would Olson explain outcomes from democracy like those?
A democracy like this would be seen as ungovernable. When the government attempts to assert it's authority in matters such as these, the result can be disastrous. Eastover workers complained about the court system and the police treatment. This will only lead to a revolt by the people of Harlen County.
(1) After reading Chapter Three of Mancur Olson’s Rise and Decline of Nations, Watch Harlan County USA.
(a) Do the striking Eastover workers like Lois Scott use selective incentives? If so, what are they?
The Eastover workers absolutely used selective incentives. Lois Scott used coercion and the powers of persuasion to convinced the workers to strike. They started to realize that their working conditions were not acceptable, and decided to make a change. They had no health benefit options or options for retirement.
One of the characteristics of Harlan County that some of the labor organizers and strikers mention is that the government in Harlan County does not represent the workers’ interests. For instance, the “gun thug” who shoots Lawrence Jones gets off, the strikers believe that the sheriff treats the “gun thugs” better than they get treated, and the workers don’t respect the state police. Workers outnumber managers, so the democratic form of government seems to work in a counterintuitive way in Harlan County, Kentucky.
(b) How would Olson explain outcomes from democracy like those?
Olson would start by saying he disagrees with the way the company mistreats the workers. The amount of unethical behavior proved the injustice of the company’s workers. Law enforcement never arrested anyone in the Lawrence Jones shooting. Why would anyone have taken them seriously if their rights weren’t being properly represented.
(a) Do the striking Eastover workers like Lois Scott use selective incentives? If so, what are they?
Yes Eastover workers like Lois Scott used selective incentives by supporting the issues of the workers safety and success and even intimidating workers into joining the union.
(b) How would Olson explain outcomes from democracy like those?
Olson would explain outcomes from democracy in Harlan County as counterproductive. The worker outnumber the managers therefore in a democratic setting the workers votes will always rule.
A.) Yes, workers like Lois Scott use selective incentives to aid the Eastover workers striking. One must have means for a cause and selective incentive was the boosting power used to promote the strike. Scott while striking on the picketing line gets shot at and the government system at Harlan County does not do a damn thing. Instead they disregard it like nothing occurred, or as if it was a normal thing to have occurred. This shocked the workers and the town’s people, and reminded them they are all American Citizens and they have rights and the government cannot treat them as slaves. I was so shocked to see that this occurred not too long ago it was around the 1960’s. If these workers wouldn’t have striked, God knows if even we would have the luxurious rights that we have now. Because of these strikes and their warfare between government and the people of the town (including workers) we have labor unions formed. Lois Scott reminded its people to wake up get together and stand for a cause, their rights as American citizen, and their right for better pay. He claimed that they the town’s people must unite to fight against the entire system that included the judge the police the entire upper class, because the rich just wanted to get richer and let the poor get more poor. The rich didn’t care if the poor didn’t even have running water or lung cancer they were abusing the workers as Lois claimed. He said even before his generation workers fought for their wages to go up and conditions to go up and when they united and fought for a cause they were glorious. Lois used a lot of emotional incentives to promote the striking cause towards the workers.
b.) The President was unethical because he wiped out his completion Mr. Jones, he killed his family because Jones supported the workers and he didn’t agree with him. The only reason the police didn’t get violent was also because of the camera being present and the recording that were happening and God forbid the camera was not there it would have been a slaughterhouse. There was no fair judgment for the poor the money revolved around the rich this was against the morals of Mr.Jones and he was just fighting for the workers rights and he was ended up being killed. This is just one incident we know of imagine all the unrecorded incidents we have not seen yet. After seeing this video of Harlan USA I am glad we live in a more liberated society now where we have such a variety of opportunities.
(a) The Eastover workers used selective incentives, and one of the selective incentives used were coercion. According to Olson, "strong leadership and favorable circumstances will usually be required." (Olson) Lois Scott demonstrated the strong leadership and ability to persuade a group of individuals to assist with the strike by the coal miners. Another selective incentive used and also mentioned by Olson is social pressure and social rewards. The social interaction used to bring awareness to Harlan, Kentucky occurred when miners traveled to Wall St. in order to persuade brokers not to invest in Duke Power stock. Olson mentioned that this tactic will tend to me time consuming.
(b) One of the implications Olson used touched on this situation by stating, "The accumulation of distributional coalitions increases the complexity of understandings, and changes the direction of social evolution." (Olson) He explains that the fittest group or individual comes out on top, no matter what the obstacles are. The workers have a comparative advantage, and they must push on if they want to see change. Even if it takes a while longer, since there may be a governmental delay, since distributional coalitions tend to slow down society's capacity to adopt and to respond to changing conditions.
When looking at the strike in Harlan County between the coal miners and the company we see a dispute that got out of hand fairly quickly. The poor working conditions and the lack of health benefits and retirement plans forced the workers to take action into their own hands. Because the union officials were so unreliable and so poor at handling relations between the company and its workers, the workers had no choice but to take physical action which led to a number of injuries and deaths. When we look at the incentives to make the society in which they operate more successful it completely out weighs the negatives. Simple things like the incentive to redistribute the income to workers would increase the efficiency and productivity of the company.
Olson would relate to the fact that distributional coalition slow down a society’s capacity to adopt any sort of new technology therefore reducing the rate of economic growth which would be the result of reallocating resources in response to changing conditions
(a)
The striking Eastover workers like Lois Scott used selective incentives by showing an interest in the worker’s safety, productivity and success. Lois Scott reached out by making speeches expressing how the company was treating the workers and the threats that were being made to whoever disagreed with collective action. Lois Scott stood up for the miners who was afraid they may be harmed and also placed confidence by letting the miners know they need to stand up for what was right and if they don’t have the heart too, to leave because it was a teamwork effort.
(b) Olson would explain outcomes from democracy like those by stating the injustice the company does by their workers. The injustice included the unethical acts where the shooting of Lawerence Jones was not taken seriously enough to lead to an arrest. This occurred because the working class did not have an efficient law enforcement which resulted in inefficiency for the working class. The working class would be considered the weaker group that had no representation.
It would seem that Eastover workers, particularly Lois Scott, used negative selective incentives to intimidate workers into joining the union. These incentives included the demonization of scabs, and inciting workers to take out frustration, sometimes violently, on scabs and other non-union workers. Though in some unions, negative selective incentives are largely ineffective, the climate in Harlan County made such actions particularly effective.
B. Olson would explain the democratic outcomes in Harlan County by saying that sheer numbers do not translate into more representation. Even though there are fewer managers than workers, the workers are in a much stronger negotiating position with officials (in terms of lobbying power and general influence). The relative positions of workers and managers in terms of lobbying power are so disproportionate that it outweighs the managers’ lack of numbers.
A. Yes the striking Eastover workers like Lois Scott use selective incentives. They used social rewards such as better pay wage and benefits and the union be recognized as a viable one to motivate the the strikers to continue and non strikers to join.
B. Olson would explain outcomes from democracy in Harlan County as ungovernable, it will encourage intransitive, irrational and cynical political choices. Law enforcement for the working class was not good and therefore the working class will suffer. Corruption prevailed amongst the government which will lead to corruption of the citizens.
(A)The strike in Harlan County shows the battle between the coal miners and the company engaging in a shootout that left numerous people dead. Conditions at the work place were bad, as well as medical benefits and retirement was minimal and unreliable with union officials not showing any concern. There are some incentives to make the society in which they operate more successful, the incentive to redistribute income to members by having an interest to increase efficiency and productivity of the company (in this case the mine workers). As stated in the reading for this chapter, when a company has secured selective incentives to maintain themselves it will often survive even if the collective good is no longer needed.
(B) Olson would explain that, distributional coalitions slow down a society’s capacity to adopt new technologies and to reallocate resources in response to changing conditions, therefore reducing the rate of economic growth.
(a) Do the striking Eastover workers like Lois Scott use selective incentives? If so, what are they?
The striking Eastover workers like Lois Scott uses the selective incentive of her voice. Her speeches were the motivation that told the truth about how the mining company treated the miners. She told them how Eastover thought of the miners as animals and hired gun men to assist in the silencing of who ever was in alliance with the union. But what exactly made this a selective incentive was that she was breaking down the hardships that the miners were living through to her club, giving them a voice and a total understanding of what was happening, thus why the club needed to stay along side with the miners. At approximately one-hour-and-six-minutes in the film, Scott also mentioned to the club about how she was able to “get one”, possibly referring to being able to stop a scab. Her idea was that she was able to stop one person, it might have not been many, but if all the members participated and got “one” each, they would be successful. She also began to directly criticize the members of her club by calling them out during a meeting at the time frame of about one-hour-and-eight-minutes in the film. She told the audience that whoever was not going to be dependable for the cause, to leave, because the group was not going out to risk their lives with flaky members. By doing this, Scott was able to strengthen and boost morale of the group and showing that every single member, who did not leave, was on the same side. Her last speech was about Lawrence Jones death for the contract and that it should not be in vain, because it was his willpower to fight for what was for the good of the miners. She then reassures the group that the fight will continue on even after Jones’ death and that Harlan County will be UMWA Coal.
(b) How would Olson explain outcomes from democracy like those?
Olson would explain this counterintuitive way of democracy with the powers of lobbying and collusion. Olson tells us that “...any lobbying power must be used in part to get favorable governmental treatment of the business activity…” on page thirty-nine. Although there was not any evidence presented in the documentary, there were many thoughts of questionable actions from the public service side. For example, the murderer of Lawrence Jones is free to walk and the sheriff’s nonchalant arrest towards Basil Collins. It seems that there is some type of collusion occurring here and that is the product of lobbying powers. There is also evidence that Olson would refer to his ninth implication and that is the weaker groups will suffer because they have no selective incentive for them to organize, but the great firms will have a simpler time to organize. Since there is a greater amount of representation of the stronger groups, through the ease of organizing themselves, the laws in which that are created are generally more geared to them because there is less representation of the smaller groups. This is evident in the film at approximately twenty-three minutes, when a woman stands up in the court to testify that the laws were not made for the working class (weaker group) but for people like Carl Horn (stronger group) who is the President of Duke Power Company.
(a) Yes, Lois Scott and striking eastover workers used selective incentives. In this particular case we can argue that they used negative selective incentives imposed on those who did not want to take part in collective action.
