The most recent re-branding of the Messiah after previous make-overs as Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln has been to conservative icon, Ronald Reagan.
Despite all evidence to the contrary, he refers to himself as "The Gipper" and regularly likens his administration and policies to those of the President who cut taxes, restored our economy after Carter and ended the Cold War. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
Remember this?
Now the governor and legislature of Wisconsin are struggling to deal with their massive budget shortfall and keep the state solvent. They were elected to do that and the job requires tough choices. In this case a major portion of the state's expenses comes from government employees compensation. The alternatives may not be limited to what is presented as either an increased contribution to retirement and healthcare costs or layoff of more than 6000 workers. There may be other choices, but it is clear that dealing with a union that represents government servants is not a viable consideration.
What Part of Federalism Don' t You Understand?
I've asked the questions before, but it is important to dissect the rhetoric once again. Government is the people. Public services are the role of government. There can be, by definition, no adversarial relationship such as might have been extant in early 20th century industrial society. It isn't workers fighting abuse against greedy plutocrats oppressing them for maximum profits. Government doesn't make a profit. They have no bottom line. There is no motivation to oppress.
Government is constrained by free market labor forces to offer a competitive compensation package. They pay what the market requires.
Is a union essential to public education? Absolutely not. There are more states running school systems without union rule than with collective bargaining. Is it essential to police and fire protection? Hardly!
The singular reason for public employees' unions is political. The unions demand dues from the workers in return for their extortion of the public's treasure then use those dues to support sympathetic pols who they will perpetuate in office through their parasitic relationship.
And no more obvious parasite is existing symbiotically with the unions than our own Messiah.
3 comments:
Exactly right. Governments do not have to make a profit. But they have a monopoly on raising taxes. So public sector unions can hold the voters hostage to demands and those in the government, to placate the unions, can raise taxes on those voters. Cycle will continue until either there is a revolution brought by a destruction of the tax base as people flee.
One thing I have been noticing on the more liberal boards is a conflation of private and public sector unions. Many seem to think the 1935 NLR applies to the public unions and Gov. Walker. Which they don't.
I remember well PATCO. My father is a now retired air traffic controller. He had about 16 years in when it happened. PATCO thought they could get higher wages and less working hours, that the government would never fire such critical people. People of today forget, when PATCO struck, the US economy was still struggling with the Carter induced killer inflation and gas shortages. Reagan made the correct call, he called the PATCO bluff. He gave the strikers 48 hours to return and all is forgiven. Only a few returned to work. So the rest were fired and banned by Executive Order from any government work. My father saw many friends with 12 or 14 year careers throw it all away because PATCO sold them a load of lies. My father stayed on duty, never struck, trained up the new controllers, and retired with 30 years.
So I have a natural aversion of public unions. Its called experience I guess. And that is one of the things Clinton reversed when he was president. He lifted Reagan's ban so these srtikers could get federal jobs again. Democrats love the collective power unions exert and Clinton's action in this matter has stayed with me, reminding me why Democrats are not really the workers ally.
Well said, Anna. I recall the period well as I was a professional pilot at the time and lived through the adjustment while the new controllers were trained. Service from ATC actually improved after the new hires were certified.
I believe this country is in desperate need of another Ronald Reagan.
With the exception of about 3 industries I can think of, unions really have outlived their usefulness. They definitely have no place in the public sector.
I was on the other end of the PATCO strike. I was one of the military controllers deployed to keep the system running.
We were Reagan's hedge on his calling their bluff. If we didn't work out he could let the striking controllers come back. PATCO forgot where most of them came from - the military.
About six months after the strike we were handling more traffic than before the strike.
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