It is only "true" because the companies have no checks. The "real world" used to - and, truthfully, still does- include unions.
"Greed" is probably a subjective word; a better one is "fair", "balanced", achieved through "compromise". These are ideas people in the "real world" have to deal with. I am the sole breadwinner in my house, and yet I can't just tell my wife what will and won't be done with the money, or in the house. We discuss it, so that our family survives. This is how business used to operate, and in places like Germany or Sweden, still does. It should never have changed here if it was all about people really being free (from poverty, from not being able to afford health care, etc.).
I see people outside of UPS complain all the time about their jobs and still work there. Have you seen all the stats about people "working part - time wishing to go full-time", or who'd "love to change their job, but won't because of the job market" or "they don't want to lose their benefits"? Have you looked at the FedEx side of this Forum? The difference is they can't do anything about their complaints; there are no better jobs and they cannot demand compromise and balance from their employer, something I as a union employee can.
I am going to guess you have useful skills outside of those needed to work at UPS. Good for you, and I wish you well in using those skills to get ahead. However, at one time in society even those without "skills" were still provided well for in the job market. You didn't have to spend $70k (on the low end) to get a $40k/year job. The gap between a "burger flipper" and a professional wasn't this large. And yet society (and business) functioned fine. Now, business functions well, but society - with parents working at least 4 jobs between them to survive, and kids receiving insufficient parental guidance as a result, leading to horrible schools, excessive poverty, etc - isn't doing so well. This isn't the real world, it's a nightmare.
To those who would suggest I am greedy, I'd ask them, "Why am I greedy? Because I demand - and have the means to at least get UPS to consider them without spending another $20k on a degree- to be adequately compensated in relation to the massive profits this company makes, that I help make possible? " How is that greedy? Because everyone else accepts less? In 1980 UPS compensated their employees to a certain degree relative to their success at that time. I should now accept a relatively inferior compensation package because everyone else does? That's akin to telling someone to not get a degree (so as to provide better materially for themselves) because everyone else in their poor neighborhood gets by without doing so. That's backwards, and definitely isn't living in the "real world".
