Posted on 03/14/2011 9:04:02 AM PDT by Doctor 2Brains
I’m distressed by the fact that the emerging narrative on unions, (even among conservatives, and this is horrifying for what it means for the future of the country) seems to run like this,
“Public sector unions are REALLY bad. There are some bad things in private sector unions, too, but they aren’t pure evil like public sector unions. Private sector unions, especially at the turn of the century, were actually pretty good.”
This is pure BS! It is very, very, very scary when, even here on FR for Pete’s sake, people do not recognize the following two things:
Unions can ONLY!!!! exist because of government force applied selectively against private property owners (evil, rich people),
ALL UNIONS REPRESENT GOVERNMENT SANCTIONED THEFT OF PRIVATE PROPERTY FOR THE PURPOSE OF BUYING DEMOCRAT VOTES.
I expect ignorance of these facts elsewhere, but here on FR??????????????????????
Here’s how the purely evil, anti-American, communistic, welfare-begging private sector unions work…..
I set up a business, using MY PRIVATE PROPERTY (my capital and/or cash money). I pay for the space, using MY PRIVATE PROPERTY. I pay the taxes using MY PRIVATE PROPERTY. I supply the parts and inventory, using MY PRIVATE PROPERTY. I pay for the insurance, using MY PRIVATE PROPERTY. I pay the labor, using MY PRIVATE PROPERTY. I recruit, hire, and advertise, using MY PRIVATE PROPERTY. Oftentimes an entire life’s savings (MY PRIVATE PROPERTY) is at stake. My future, my standing in the community, my credit, and MY PRIVATE PROPERTY are all at stake. If I fail, I stand a good chance of being economically crippled for life.
One day, on MY PRIVATE PROPERTY that I own and acquired using MY PRIVATE PROPERTY, one of my employees, who is only in my presence because of the risk of MY PRIVATE PROPERTY, comes to me and says, “Here’s the story, Bub. From this moment forward I am going to begin organizing YOUR OTHER EMPLOYEES, to work AGAINST YOUR PRIVATE INTERESTS and do everything in our power to TAKE BY FORCE AS MUCH OF YOUR PRIVATE PROPERTY AS WE CAN GET OUR HANDS ON. We are going to spend a great deal of time and effort ORGANIZING AGAINST YOUR INTERESTS TO DO EVERYTHING IN OUR POWER TO GROW STRONGER AT YOUR EXPENSE, IN ORDER TO TAKE YOUR MONEY. You might as well have your business competitors working here on the shop floor. If you do not agree to our demands, we will go on strike, make your life miserable, harass and threaten and/or MURDER IN COLD BLOOD anybody you may want to hire in our place.”
Now the one and ONLY way that such a thing could EVER take place is for the government to step in and say, “Mr. Employer (rich, white, capitalist, male), if you fire this union man, you are going to jail.”
Plainly and simply, no union could ever exist in a free society. Yes, in a free society, you should be able to form and join a union of any type at any time for any purpose whatsoever. AND YOUR EMPLOYER SHOULD BE ABLE TO FIRE YOUR HAPPY ASS IN A HEARTBEAT FOR DOING SO.
FREEDOM IS A TWO WAY STREET.
I find this ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. Truly. A man strolls onto the PRIVATE PROPERTY of another man and tells him how he will employ his PRIVATE PROPERTY going forward, OR ELSE!, and hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people the world over think that the first man is not only somehow better than sub-human filth, they actually see him as a hero! To me, this is one of the most perverse and mystifying examples of twisted human thinking the world has ever seen. I can’t say it enough; you come onto my PRIVATE PROPERTY, and bargain with me, using the THREAT OF GOVERNMENT SANCTIONED FORCE, about how much of my PRIVATE PROPERTY you will allow me to keep! And this is somehow acceptable?
As I say, even conservatives, (who have escaped the liberal brainwashing that begins when we are still in the womb on guns, race, US history, etc., etc., and do not subscribe to the easy notions that are so readily picked up by the unthinking) seem to fall for this trap. Seem to believe that…
“The work place is filled with mean managers and mean bosses who were/are really mean to kids and women and workers and paid them pennies instead of the legitimate millions that they were REALLY worth, making evil white male capitalists even richer, and they enslaved them and coerced them and made them work real hard and were really, really mean. THANK GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! for the government stepping in and saving women and children from mean bosses and really mean white capitalist men.”
Needless to say, each and every single word of that narrative is as totally false and ridiculous as the liberal narrative on US history, or bad guns, or evil white men. If you know people who believe that stuff, you cannot help them. DO NOT waste your breath on them, DO NOT do their research for them; have them read Sowell or Williams or von Hayek, or von Mises, or Friedman, or even Stossel when they write of “sweatshops” either in today’s 3rd world or in America at the turn of the century.
Only I can decide what is an integral part of my company, and I should be able to fire a union guy at any time I choose. Unions don’t create the adversarial relationship — welfare begging bums who think they are entitled to the property of others create it. Unions just empower it.
Waaah. Waaah. That's the whine from defenders of unionism. They're ready to repeat the usual tearful tale of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire which has been amplified and distorted over time by leftists to advance their anti-American agenda.
And pop culture has played a role with films such as "Norma Rae" tugging on our heartstrings with ersatz pathos.
The reality is that from their very inception, labor unions have been filled with Communists, Socialists and anarchists (many of them foreign). Today, look at the wasteland of Detroit. The cause? Unionism! My hometown of Pittsburgh, once the steel capital of the world, is now the home of rusted, abandoned mills along the Mon. Why? Unionism!
Public employee unions are a wholly separate problem from private sector unions.
The problem of private sector unions is solved by right-to-work laws.
Public employee unions must have their power limited by law as was done last week in Wisconsin.
You are 100% correct.
But Katie Couric says managers are mean to people, so we need unions, and assault rifles are REAL deadly, so we gotta get rid of them. So I don’t know what to think.
I was a union member for 32 yrs. As time went on, I became more disenchanted with the whole union concept. They don’t give a damn about the “working man”. If they did, the union would support tax cuts for the middle class, which they always oppose. No, unions are all about power for the few, not unlike dictatorships in communist countries.
I agree with the key point of the article that all unions are indeed bad. Realistic pragmatism does require that we focus on public sector unions such as the SEIU. I'd like to see every single union die a rapid death but if government unions can be eliminated, I think natural progression will lead to all of them shriveling up and becoming irrelevant.
There will never be an ABSOLUTE right for property owners to use their property as they wish, it would result in anarchy, the exact opposite of intent.
Also, we will never be rid of government, so the logical solution is equal protection under the law.
Government favoritism is the union advantage. Without it, unions would have to offer contribution rather than obstruction, to elicit agreements.
Both business and unions seek government favor and protection, and both deserve neither.
Government and government favoritism are the problem, and when the favoritism goes, the market will correct the balance.
Unions will continue, as long as they supply a product of value, a highly skilled, trained, productive worker, (though they will probably call themselves "associations" rather than unions, and skills would not include tenure or seniority).
Its always possible, just not always preferable or practical.
Government sanctioned theft is a slogan that allows for not having to make an actual argument. Anything anyone doesnt like thats related to the govt can be govt sanctioned theft.
The whole premise of liberty and freedom is people are free to make bad decisions. If we go against that freedom, how are we different than the collectivists?
There may never be an absolute right to one’s property, but firing a bum who’s trying to steal from you is a FAR FAR way from absolute.
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Really? Let's take a look...
Your first statement...“Mr. Employer (rich, white, capitalist, male), if you fire this union man, you are going to jail.”
Your second statement..."It is against the law to fire people for being in a union or going on strike"
Nope, sorry, two completely different statements.
I had a neighbor once who felt he needed two of everything...had two dogs, neither barked...had two cars, neither started...had two businesses, both failed...had two brains...you said it.
I changed nothing. Keep trying, keep trying real, real hard. You can do it. Maybe.
In my working life, I have been a member of two unions, and I have seen this happen more than once in real life, with results in both directions, great success and absolute failure.
It was the men the attitude and the market that determined who succeeded.
UNIONS are NOW obsolete.. was good for a time.. BUT that time has passed..
Unions have become political machines.. for sheep being FARMED.. FARMED........
You can’t escape the reality that employees are a necessary part of your company. WHICH employees should be entirely yours to decide, I agree. But if you concede that you share a goal with your employees — a healthy, viable company — then there is no need for the us-versus-them mentality unions bring to the table. There will always be those pro-union forces for whom no symbiosis is adequate, just as there will always be those slave-galley businessmen who treat their employees worse than vermin. In most cases the free-market solution is the best. But I can see an argument for collectivism as well. The latter does not inherently constrain the free market.
The latter DOES inherently constrain the free market IF I am not FREE to fire any employee for joining a union. There is nothing FREE about the government forcing me to hand over my private property to a man on my private property who is working against my private interests.
Are you familiar with the arguments of the writers I cited? Those arguments shoot down the “unions WERE needed at one time” theory. Those arguments go WAY beyond “The employee can quit if he doesn’t like it.”
Employers don't like it, they can shut down and start up elsewhere. Free markets don't require kind-hearted and fair workers, either.
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