He’s smart to stay away from private unions, because that’s the freedom of choice…but to note that when given a choice people tend to chose to stay away from unions.
But the Public Sector Unions are monsters that need to be put down. And it looks like that may be starting!
I disagree, mostly because I feel that people have a right to assemble and to redress grievances. That does not change merely because a person is drawing a paycheck. Instead, I would favor that employees in a public union cannot strike, and are not required to join the union. To simply outlaw public employee unions is to silence people in their first amendment right to assemble and redress their government for grievances.
After all, there is no real difference between the AARP punishing politicians for cutting social security, the NRA complaining about cuts to the CMP, Lockeed Martin lobbying for a new fighter jet, and a Union lobbying for a pay raise. They are all organizations that represent groups of citizens that are trying to gain favor with the government for their own benefit.
I suspect the real issue that Republicans have with unions is that unions are donating to the campaign funds of Democrats.
Great post! I follow your blog daily. I can’t remember if you had linked to this in the past, as it is over a year old but here is another fantastic video explaining more on the economics behind why public sector unions don’t work the same way as private sector unions:
http://youtu.be/tpCe79biR_8
Divemedic-
The primary difference between the public and private sector unions is that when a public sector union collectively bargains, there is no adversarial process. In a private sector situation, the business has definite costs and a desire to make a profit. In the public sector there is no adversarial position. The public union would be bargaining with the government, which has no real desire to rein in costs. And given that so many of the public unions donate heavily to the more leftist party, they tend to reward the unions with better contracts, leaving no way to bring down the cost of the public unions.