The United States has a solidarity problem. The country is plagued by family breakdown, declining religiosity, and eroding trust in government, the academy, and finance. People increasingly behave as atomized individuals, rather than as members of families, parishes, or the other social associations that define a rich human life. Those intermediate institutions have atrophied as we have ceased to trouble ourselves to nurture that solidarity that creates and is created by our common interests and values. The connections that form among us when we live and work together improve our lives and provide support, as they confirm our dignity as individuals and the value of the work we do. But these networks of support have too often weakened, and the bonds that hold us together are in tatters.
It is no surprise then that, despite rhetoric of union strength, the American labor movement is also fraying. While some on the right see this as a good thing, they shouldn't. It may mean the dissolution of one of their political opponents' major power blocs, but this partisan view neglects to appreciate the way in which labor unions can act as a mediating force between the individual worker and the power of corporations and the state. It also neglects the positive, formative influence unions can have on workers' lives through the inculcation of certain democratic virtues. Moreover, unions act as economic-redistribution vehicles at a level far closer to individual workers' lives than the state — a form of subsidiarity that conservatives would typically support.
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