Import tariffs have never helped this country.
Reducing options to buy is what created the crap cars that came out of Detroit in the 70’s and 80’s.
Now, as far as unions go, good for you. They had their place. They had their time. But the ponzi scheme is over. It is collapsing.
What made America competitive was not unions, as much as your union bally-hooing would like you to believe. It was the fact that we could be competitive. It was an even playing field. The owner of an American manufacturing company did not have to pay exorbitant taxes, liability insurance, eco-taxes, and shakedowns from lawyers for not having handicap access and folks who claim to have carpal tunnel syndrome from doing repetitive jobs.
Labor costs are not a small factor when doing business in America, but they are a factor nonetheless, and many times, they are the straw that breaks the camels back.
I pay my guys from 15 an hour to 38 an hour, depending on their status, but my actual costs per employee are twice that per year.
We could have gone union when we opened this shop, but our guys decided not to, because our union was absorbed by the teamsters years ago, and promised pensions were cut in half. I said I can offer you either journeyman 28 an hour as a union shop, or you can take the extra money I have to contribute, and the extra hassle, and make an extra 10 bucks an hour, invest it yourself, put it in a bank, stick it under your mattress, or blow it on women and booze. They all went for the extra 10 bucks an hour.
I don’t need uncle sam forcing you to buy my product or my services. I need uncle sam out of my life. If uncle sam would stop regulating me to death, if every town and municipality didn’t want a pay off for me to work in that town, if every politician that comes through didn’t want a hand out, if I didn’t have to retain a legal team on stand-by for every John Edwards out there patrolling my parking lot, and if I knew what the hell they were going to legislate with the next breeze in the air, I could compete just fine with other nations.
As far as us ever going union. If they voted to unionize at this point, and took away my power to fire at will, it is after all my company, which I built, and I risked every damn penny year after year to keep, I would close the doors and retire. If you or any other union thug don’t like that, then go, mortgage your home, and start a company of your own.
The only “unfair” trade I see abroad is their lack of government interference. I am sure there may be more to the story, and Krugman or whoever can argue that till they are blue in the face to me. But that is the main obstacle in our country getting back on its feet. Everyone wants “green”, but only if it means hamstringing America, while they prosper. Everyone wants a “fair work environment”, that protects the lazy and inept, and this further hurts our manufacturing, and its getting worse. Union meat packing muslims who won’t handle meat? Union carpenters suing because they have asthma and cant’ stand dust? It is insane.
I am in Chicago, and to further my disgust of unions, you should see the work of licensed chicago plumbers. You would gasp. McCormik Place is all union, but our firm does work there (we are non-union) because the union card holders cannot do the jobs. They are unqualified, and must outsource, but they make an easy 180k a year for sitting on their asses. I wouldn’t have one of these political cronies wash my car with water, much less design or operate a high pressure boiler system.
This has nothing to do with ‘free trade’ or protectionism. It has to do with government interference in the free market that made this nation great. Yes, level the playing field, get rid of the notion of “card-check” (other nations don’t have that crap) and get Uncle Sam out of my business. Then we can compete.
When it comes to government, less = more.
Sorry for the long rant.
BTW, I’m not anti-union. I’m anti thuggery. Take the thuggery out of unions, and I’m all for it. I’m anti-liberal, get the unions to stop supporting the libs, and I might support them. Get the unions out of government, and we might talk. Government employees should not in any way have the right to unionize. They work for the taxpayer.
I hope you did not think that I was a union supporter. I believe that they all have their roots in communism. That said, there was a time up to the not too distance past when some businesses put profits ahead of working conditions and safety. The fear of having a union voted in often helped improve working conditions tremendously.
In my own shop I paid area scale, but I also expected top hands for top dollar. Generally it all worked out, and I still have some of those men calling from time to time to see if we have work. Regrettably, there is nothing to offer them now.