Thomas Sowell: Union Myths

[Joe Contrarian]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Union Myths[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]By Thomas Sowell [/FONT]
<table width="100" align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr><td width="10" nowrap="nowrap">
</td><td>
</td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2" height="15" nowrap="nowrap">
</td></tr> <tr><td>
</td><td align="center">
</td></tr><tr><td>
</td><td align="center">

</td></tr></tbody></table>
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]The biggest myth about labor unions is that unions are for the workers. Unions are for unions, just as corporations are for corporations and politicians are for politicians.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]Nothing shows the utter cynicism of the unions and the politicians who do their bidding like the so-called "Employee Free Choice Act" that the Obama administration tried to push through Congress. Employees' free choice as to whether or not to join a union is precisely what that legislation would destroy. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]Workers already have a free choice in secret-ballot elections conducted under existing laws. As more and more workers in the private sector have voted to reject having a union represent them, the unions' answer has been to take away secret-ballot elections.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]Under the "Employee Free Choice Act," unions would not have to win in secret-ballot elections in order to represent the workers. Instead, union representatives could simply collect signatures from the workers until they had a majority.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]Why do we have secret ballots in the first place, whether in elections for unions or elections for government officials? To prevent intimidation and allow people to vote how they want to, without fear of retaliation.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]This is a crucial right that unions want to take away from workers. The actions of union mobs in Wisconsin, Ohio and elsewhere give us a free home demonstration of how little they respect the rights of those who disagree with them and how much they rely on harassment and threats to get what they want.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]It takes world-class chutzpah to call circumventing secret ballots the "Employee Free Choice Act." To unions, workers are just the raw material used to create union power, just as iron ore is the raw material used by U.S. Steel and bauxite is the raw material used by the Aluminum Company of America.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]The most fundamental fact about labor unions is that they do not create any wealth. They are one of a growing number of institutions which specialize in siphoning off wealth created by others, whether those others are businesses or the taxpayers. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]
There are limits to how long unions can siphon off money from businesses, without facing serious economic repercussions.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]The most famous labor union leader, the legendary John L. Lewis, head of the United Mine Workers from 1920 to 1960, secured rising wages and job benefits for the coal miners, far beyond what they could have gotten out of a free market based on supply and demand.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]But there is no free lunch.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]An economist at the University of Chicago called John L. Lewis "the world's greatest oil salesman."
[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]His strikes that interrupted the supply of coal, as well as the resulting wage increases that raised its price, caused many individuals and businesses to switch from using coal to using oil, leading to reduced employment of coal miners. The higher wage rates also led coal companies to replace many miners with machines.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]The net result was a huge decline in employment in the coal mining industry, leaving many mining towns virtually ghost towns by the 1960s. There is no free lunch.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]Similar things happened in the unionized steel industry and in the unionized automobile industry. At one time, U.S. Steel was the largest steel producer in the world and General Motors the largest automobile manufacturer. No more. Their unions were riding high in their heyday, but they too discovered that there is no free lunch, as their members lost jobs by the hundreds of thousands.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]Workers have also learned that there is no free lunch, which is why they have, over the years, increasingly voted against being represented by unions in secret ballot elections.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]One set of workers, however, remained largely immune to such repercussions. These are government workers represented by public sector unions.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]
[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica]While oil could replace coal, while U.S. Steel dropped from number one in the world to number ten, and Toyota could replace General Motors as the world's leading producer of cars, government is a monopoly. Nobody is likely to replace the federal or state bureaucracies, no matter how much money the unions drain from the taxpayers.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]That is why government unions continue to thrive while private sector unions decline. Taxpayers provide their free lunch. [/FONT]

 

[Joe Contrarian]

Re: Thomas Sowell: Union Myths

The great Thomas Sowell provides calm sobering analysis in a crowd of hysterical sheep. :thumbsup

 

[Joe Contrarian]

Re: Thomas Sowell: Union Myths

5 Reasons Unions Are Bad For America

By John Hawkins

3/8/2011

At one time in this country, there were few workplace safety laws, few restraints on employers, and incredibly exploitive working conditions that ranged from slavery, to share cropping, to putting children in dangerous working conditions. Unions, to their everlasting credit, helped play an important role in leveling the playing field for workers.

However, as the laws changed, there was less and less need for unions.

Because of that, union membership shrank. In response, the unions became more explicitly involved in politics. Over time, they managed to co-opt the Democratic Party, pull their strings, and rewrite our labor laws in their favor.

As Lord Acton noted, "Power tends to corrupt," and that has certainly been true for the unions. Unions have become selfish, extremely greedy, and even thuggish in their never-ending quest to take in as much as they can for themselves, at the expense of everyone else who crosses their path.

That's why today, unions have changed from organizations that "look out for the little guy" into the largest, most rapacious special interest group in the entire country. Where unions go, disaster usually follows. Just to name a few examples:

1) Unions are severely damaging whole industries: How is it that GM and Chrysler got into such lousy shape that they had to be bailed out? There's a simple answer: The unions. The massive pensions the car companies paid out raised their costs so much that they were limited to building more expensive cars to try to get their money back. They couldn't even do a great job of building those cars because utterly ridiculous union rules prevented them from using their labor efficiently. America created the automobile industry, but American unions are strangling it to death.

Unions also wrecked the steel and textile industries and have helped drive manufacturing jobs overseas. They're crippling the airline industry and, of course, we can't forget that...

2) Unions are ruining public education: Every few years, it's the same old story. The teachers? unions claim that public education in this country is dramatically underfunded and if they just had more money, they could turn it around. Taxpayer money then pours into our schools like a waterfall and....there's no improvement. A few years later, when people have forgotten the last spending spree on education, the process is repeated.

However, the real problem with our education system in this country is the teachers? unions. They do everything possible to prevent schools not only from firing lousy teachers, but also from rewarding talented teachers. Merit pay? The unions hate it. Private schools? Even though everyone knows they deliver a better education than our public schools, unions fight to keep as many kids as possible locked in failing private schools. In Wisconsin, we've had whole schools shutting down so that lazy teachers can waste their time protesting on the taxpayers? dime.

Want to improve education in this country? Then you've got to take on the teachers? unions.

3) Unions are costing you billions of tax dollars: Let's put it plain and simple: Government workers shouldn't be allowed to unionize. Period.
Why?

Because you elect representatives to look out for your interests.

It's obviously in your interest to pay as little as possible to government workers, to keep their benefits as low as possible, and to hire as few of them as possible to do the job. However, because the Democratic Party and the unions are in bed with each other, this entire process has been turned on its ear. Instead of looking out for your interests, Democrats try to hire as many government workers as possible, pay them as much as possible, and give them benefits that are as generous as possible, all so that union workers will do more to get them re-elected.

In other words, the Democratic Party and the unions are engaged in an open conspiracy to defraud the American taxpayer. There's no way that the American people should allow that to continue.

4) Unions are fundamentally anti-democratic : How in the world did we get to the point where people can be forced to join a union just to get a job at certain places? Then, after they're dragooned into the union, they have no choice other than to pay dues that are used for political activities which the unwilling dues-paying member may oppose.

Add to that the fact that the Democrats and the government unions collaborate to subvert democracy at the expense of the taxpayer and it's not a pretty picture. Worse yet, unions have gotten so voracious that they even want to do away with the secret ballot, via card check, so they can openly bully people into joining unions. The way unions behave in this country is undemocratic, un-American, and it should trouble anyone who cares about freedom and individual rights.

5) Government unions are bankrupting cities and states: Government unions have bled billions from taxpayers nationally, but the damage they're doing on the local level is even worse. We have cities and states all across the country that are so behind on their bills that there have been genuine discussions about bankruptcy. There are a lot of irresponsible financial policies that have helped contribute to that sorry state-of-affairs, but unquestionably, the biggest backbreakers can be directly traced back to the unions.

As the Washington Times has noted, union pensions are crushing budgets all across the country.

Yet it comes as little surprise that the same profligacy that pervades the corridors of federal power infects this country?s 87,000 state, county and municipal governments and school districts. By 2013, the amount of retirement money promised to employees of these public entities will exceed cash on hand by more than a trillion dollars.

So, what happens when these pensions can't be paid? They will come to the taxpayers with their hands out. When they stroll forward with their beggar's bowl in hand, the American people should keep their wallets in their pockets. That may not seem fair, but the public sector union members have gotten a great deal at everyone else's expense for a long time and if somebody has to take a haircut, and they do, it should be the union members instead of the taxpayers they've been bilking for so long.

 

[tank]

Re: Thomas Sowell: Union Myths

Real simple!!If you want half the wages and benefits then stay non union.But do not whine and cry and be envious and complain about the union members who wanted a better life and fought for it!!You FASCIST PUSSIES can keep crying to your masters and complain all you want but no thinking person is going to cut their own throat buying the garbage you Fascist pukes push.Get the hell out of my country with your Fascist shit you puke.
BTW are you going back to your trolling spam fest crap??I knew you would but you did make it at least a few months!!:LMAO

 

[tank]

Re: Thomas Sowell: Union Myths

5 Reasons Unions Are Bad For America

By John Hawkins

3/8/2011

At one time in this country, there were few workplace safety laws, few restraints on employers, and incredibly exploitive working conditions that ranged from slavery, to share cropping, to putting children in dangerous working conditions. Unions, to their everlasting credit, helped play an important role in leveling the playing field for workers.

However, as the laws changed, there was less and less need for unions.

Because of that, union membership shrank. In response, the unions became more explicitly involved in politics. Over time, they managed to co-opt the Democratic Party, pull their strings, and rewrite our labor laws in their favor.

As Lord Acton noted, "Power tends to corrupt," and that has certainly been true for the unions. Unions have become selfish, extremely greedy, and even thuggish in their never-ending quest to take in as much as they can for themselves, at the expense of everyone else who crosses their path.

That's why today, unions have changed from organizations that "look out for the little guy" into the largest, most rapacious special interest group in the entire country. Where unions go, disaster usually follows. Just to name a few examples:

1) Unions are severely damaging whole industries: How is it that GM and Chrysler got into such lousy shape that they had to be bailed out? There's a simple answer: The unions. The massive pensions the car companies paid out raised their costs so much that they were limited to building more expensive cars to try to get their money back. They couldn't even do a great job of building those cars because utterly ridiculous union rules prevented them from using their labor efficiently. America created the automobile industry, but American unions are strangling it to death.
:LMAOWhy was GM the most powerful company in the world until the recession?The unions do not design and market the cars and when gas went over $4 Gm continued to build SUV's that people did not want to pay the gas for.

Unions also wrecked the steel and textile industries and have helped drive manufacturing jobs overseas. They're crippling the airline industry and, of course, we can't forget that...
A for rewriting history.The steel companies left because of regulations and those poor textile workers could not compete with slave labor.Go ahead and blame the unions though since the Fascist pukes like to push that one .

2) Unions are ruining public education: Every few years, it's the same old story. The teachers’ unions claim that public education in this country is dramatically underfunded and if they just had more money, they could turn it around. Taxpayer money then pours into our schools like a waterfall and....there's no improvement. A few years later, when people have forgotten the last spending spree on education, the process is repeated.
No Child Left Behind dumbass.Don't blame Bush since that goes against the Fascist doctrine but let's have a few more million illegal alien kids crowd the school system paying no taxes and watch it go down hill blaming the unions all the way.Great Fascist line there but it is funny you are not calling them lazy and uneducated .Why not???????:LMAO

However, the real problem with our education system in this country is the teachers’ unions. They do everything possible to prevent schools not only from firing lousy teachers, but also from rewarding talented teachers. Merit pay? The unions hate it. Private schools? Even though everyone knows they deliver a better education than our public schools, unions fight to keep as many kids as possible locked in failing private schools. In Wisconsin, we've had whole schools shutting down so that lazy teachers can waste their time protesting on the taxpayers’ dime.
Of course Fascist puke!!!

Want to improve education in this country? Then you've got to take on the teachers’ unions.
Sure privatize it and pay the teachers less and when you have unqualified teachers doing a bad job and no one wants to do the job for less pay who are you going to blame???Fascist pukes like you make me sick.Get out of my country with your Fascist shit you sick fucking puke!!!

3) Unions are costing you billions of tax dollars: Let's put it plain and simple: Government workers shouldn't be allowed to unionize. Period.
Why?
Of course not.Fascism is the only way right you sick fucking puke??

Because you elect representatives to look out for your interests.
With Fascism you don't have to worry about this right you sick puke!!

It's obviously in your interest to pay as little as possible to government workers, to keep their benefits as low as possible, and to hire as few of them as possible to do the job. However, because the Democratic Party and the unions are in bed with each other, this entire process has been turned on its ear. Instead of looking out for your interests, Democrats try to hire as many government workers as possible, pay them as much as possible, and give them benefits that are as generous as possible, all so that union workers will do more to get them re-elected.
And then whine and cry for just one great leader right you Fascist scumbag??

In other words, the Democratic Party and the unions are engaged in an open conspiracy to defraud the American taxpayer. There's no way that the American people should allow that to continue.

4) Unions are fundamentally anti-democratic : How in the world did we get to the point where people can be forced to join a union just to get a job at certain places? Then, after they're dragooned into the union, they have no choice other than to pay dues that are used for political activities which the unwilling dues-paying member may oppose.
Of course none of them want the benefits of a union just ask them, better yet let's just listen to Fascist pukes like him and Joe who know what is better for all of us according to the Fascist playbook.Hitler loved fools like you two.

Add to that the fact that the Democrats and the government unions collaborate to subvert democracy at the expense of the taxpayer and it's not a pretty picture. Worse yet, unions have gotten so voracious that they even want to do away with the secret ballot, via card check, so they can openly bully people into joining unions. The way unions behave in this country is undemocratic, un-American, and it should trouble anyone who cares about freedom and individual rights.
Say's the Fascist puke!!!We know who the un American pukes are just reading your crap!!!So you want us to give up our 1st Amendment rights to please the Fascist pukes in this country huh???Get the hell out of my country with your shit you scumbag.

5) Government unions are bankrupting cities and states: Government unions have bled billions from taxpayers nationally, but the damage they're doing on the local level is even worse. We have cities and states all across the country that are so behind on their bills that there have been genuine discussions about bankruptcy. There are a lot of irresponsible financial policies that have helped contribute to that sorry state-of-affairs, but unquestionably, the biggest backbreakers can be directly traced back to the unions.
Ah and the tax breaks are not right Fascist scumbag??

As the Washington Times has noted, union pensions are crushing budgets all across the country.

​

So, what happens when these pensions can't be paid? They will come to the taxpayers with their hands out. When they stroll forward with their beggar's bowl in hand, the American people should keep their wallets in their pockets. That may not seem fair, but the public sector union members have gotten a great deal at everyone else's expense for a long time and if somebody has to take a haircut, and they do, it should be the union members instead of the taxpayers they've been bilking for so long.

Why haven't the states been putting money in the pension funds????Oh those tax breaks for the rich and the corporations .Keep your Fascist crap out of my country.

 

[Joe Contrarian]

Re: Thomas Sowell: Union Myths

tank moore's response to everything: "fascist pigs!" "sick fucking puke" blah blah blah...

Can't stomach reality, huh?

Let us know when you have anything intelligent to add to the debate.

 

[tank]

Re: Thomas Sowell: Union Myths

tank moore's response to everything: "fascist pigs!" "sick fucking puke" blah blah blah...

Can't stomach reality, huh?

Let us know when you have anything intelligent to add to the debate.

Intelligent to your union rant thread that you are trolling with?????:LMAO:LMAOI knew it would not be long before you was back to trolling and spamming away with your Fascist anti union shit.Manny said it would be less then a month but I thought you was on good med's and could make it 2.I won!!!!:LMAO
BTW I exposed your anti union shit in the post above but like usual since you are wrong about everything you will not or cannot reply to it like usual.Just keep trolling and being your spambot self.

 

[Joe Contrarian]

Re: Thomas Sowell: Union Myths

Intelligent to your union rant thread that you are trolling with?????:LMAO:LMAOI knew it would not be long before you was back to trolling and spamming away with your Fascist anti union shit.Manny said it would be less then a month but I thought you was on good med's and could make it 2.I won!!!!:LMAO
BTW I exposed your anti union shit in the post above but like usual since you are wrong about everything you will not or cannot reply to it like usual.Just keep trolling and being your spambot self.

You started with the name calling because, like all union goons, you can't win the debate. "Fascist pukes" etc. In these parts, union goon incivility has a price.

 

[tank]

Re: Thomas Sowell: Union Myths

You started with the name calling because, like all union goons, you can't win the debate. "Fascist pukes" etc. In these parts, union goon incivility has a price.

Want to wager some money on that??Look where the anti union threads started.I have already mopped the floor with you on every thread and you have no answers...only copied and pasted replies from anti union hacks .You know nothing about anything only what you spam and troll with.That is why you have been kicked out of every forum are ignored on others eh Rich clem????

 

[Joe Contrarian]

Re: Thomas Sowell: Union Myths

 

[tank]

Re: Thomas Sowell: Union Myths

Sure Richclem!!Is it blue pill Tuesday???:LMAOMisty say's hi!!!

 

[Joe Contrarian]

Re: Thomas Sowell: Union Myths

Want to wager some money on that??Look where the anti union threads started.I have already mopped the floor with you on every thread and you have no answers...only copied and pasted replies from anti union hacks .You know nothing about anything only what you spam and troll with.That is why you have been kicked out of every forum are ignored on others eh Rich clem????

If you had any balls or brains, you'd go "across the street" and debate me there (can you guess my identity?). But you won't do that, because you'll be outmaneuvered and outgunned. Look how much fun the forum is having with vittard...and you're worse. :btj:

 

[tank]

Re: Thomas Sowell: Union Myths

If you had any balls or brains, you'd go "across the street" and debate me there (can you guess my identity?). But you won't do that, because you'll be outmaneuvered and outgunned. Look how much fun the forum is having with vittard...and you're worse. :btj:

I know all your handles Richclem and 2 other people know all about you too.Vittard is making clowns out of people so bad that rather then debate him they put him on ignore!!!:LMAOYou call that debating????????:LMAOThat is admitting defeat in most peoples book .They do not debate they ignore and do the usual blame, blame, blame and look very weak .They run for cover or do the usual attack crap and try ganging up.He has made clowns out of a lot of folks .Your still banned across the street too but nice try.Keep dreaming and hoping.

 

[Joe Contrarian]

Re: Thomas Sowell: Union Myths

So I take this to mean you'll be chiming in on the debate? Let's see how long you last. :LMAO

 

[tank]

Re: Thomas Sowell: Union Myths

So I take this to mean you'll be chiming in on the debate? Let's see how long you last. :LMAO

Debate???What debate???Copy and pasted articles from some whacked out blogger as your answer??Or across the street where if you do not hear the answer you want you put that person on ignore??Where the only thing they can do is call the person names?You call that debate???:LMAOI honestly do not know why Viterred wastes his time.Of course that is what the sheep want so maybe he is not going to give them the pleasure and keep making them look stupid.I don't know.Don't really care either.

 

[Joe Contrarian]

Re: Thomas Sowell: Union Myths

Debate???What debate???Copy and pasted articles from some whacked out blogger as your answer??Or across the street where if you do not hear the answer you want you put that person on ignore??Where the only thing they can do is call the person names?You call that debate???:LMAOI honestly do not know why Viterred wastes his time.Of course that is what the sheep want so maybe he is not going to give them the pleasure and keep making them look stupid.I don't know.Don't really care either.

Translation:



btw, what happened to your buddy manic manny? Drug overdose? More time in the slammer? Or a combination of the two? LMFAO

 

[tank]

Re: Thomas Sowell: Union Myths

Translation:



btw, what happened to your buddy manic manny? Drug overdose? More time in the slammer? Or a combination of the two? LMFAO

Like I said it is a waste of time when a spam bot troll like you just copies and pastes his answers from some whacked out blogger.One site here is enough Rich clem and I should just keep laughing but your free entertainment.When you do try to debate you stick out like a sore thumb and that is why I know you are not posting across the street.Every board you are on is the same but keep trying to act like you are normal.:LMAO