Yes, that’s a provocative title, I know. But it is by design. You see, it’s not just that I’m one who vehemently opposes government unions as a matter of principle. I’m personally offended by what’s going on in Wisconsin.
Here’s why:
If we include benefits, the average teacher in Milwaukee, Wisconsin makes more than my wife and I put together — by far — topping $100,000. We’re no charity case. And yet my wife works as hard as any teacher in Wisconsin at her little school, probably harder and with better results. Each Wisconsin teacher works 180 days per year. My wife and I each work at least 240. Can you see why it might be difficult for someone like me to have any sympathy for the people who have descended upon Madison like termites upon our Republic’s timber frame?
My wife’s compensation — indeed, her very employment — is offered in exchange for her performance. If she excels, she gets a bonus. If she only meets expectations, she gets no bonus. If she fails to perform adequately? She loses her job. She agreed to those terms — all without any sort of third-party intermediary. If, at some point, she doesn’t like the terms, she can look for opportunities elsewhere. So can her employer. And this is as it should be.
I am a writer and editor. I like my job. The market helps to determines my salary. But ultimately, my employer and I negotiated my salary. There is an upper bound of my value to my employer and a lower bound of what I’d accept to work for him. We struck an agreement somewhere in between. Not goons. Not protesters. Not laws. Not collective bargaining gained at the expense of the rule of law. Just two people exchanging values to mutual benefit. It’s not complicated.
My wife and I work hard and we enjoy what we do. But the value of our labor is only as much as the value of the services we perform to help our organizations succeed. What other standard of value is there? We cannot protest, even vote, the value of our labor higher than it is — any more than we can vote the value of housing prices upward or gas prices downward.
Unions may be great for their members. But they are nothing but a labor cartel. And as you know, those outside of the cartel find it difficult, if not impossible, to compete. Milton Friedman explains:
</center> <p>According to the unions of Wisconsin and other states, the price of your labor should be determined by a mixture of political maneuvering and legal extortion. That’s sad. And the citizens of Wisconsin have to pay for that false idea with the fruits of their own labors.</p> <p>Enlightened self-interest does not motivate these people. It’s pure greed — the kind that once lead thieves to form a guild and the Court to greet the guild’s callers. These events also demonstrate that most progressives are not idealists at all, but professional hypocrites. That may sound harsh. But remember “fairness” used to be a progressive ideal.</p> <p>Wisconsin’s legislature cannot pull money for public special interests out of thin air. These goodies have to be plucked from the pockets of taxpayers. But the taxpayers are strapped. And that’s why these public sector employees have to learn to live on less–which you would think is better than losing your job.</p> <p>What’s more, the actions of some in the Wisconsin legislature are downright illiberal — as even Joe Klein <a href=”http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2011/02/18/wisconsin-the-hemlock-revolution/” target=”_self”>admits at his Time blog</a>:</p> <blockquote>An election was held in Wisconsin last November. The Republicans won. In a democracy, there are consequences to elections and no one, not even the public employees unions, are exempt from that. There are no guarantees that labor contracts, including contracts governing the most basic rights of unions, can’t be renegotiated, or terminated for that matter. We hold elections to decide those basic parameters.</blockquote> <p>While we should not make a golden calf out of democracy, it is at least a minimum requirement for the legitimacy of anything government does or doesn’t do. You can’t just pick up your marbles and go home to preserve the status quo. I guess to the unions of Wisconsin, the ends justifies the means. To the Democrats of Wisconsin, campaign funds (read: union dues) justify the antics.</p> <p>I don’t envy anyone who makes more money than I do, as I have explained <a href=”http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/opinion-zone/2011/01/celebrating-superwealth” target=”_self”>elsewhere</a>. I don’t begrudge anyone a big salary if that salary is gained, not through <a href=”http://www.aguanomics.com/2011/01/rent-seeking-unions-harm-society.html” target=”_self”>rent-seeking</a>, but through honest exchange. Public sector employees are, by definition, not in the honest exchange category. So I reserve the right to begrudge them their salaries, especially when I see bloat.</p> <p>Maybe it’s just me. I live a comfortable life. Nobody owes me anything. If I thought differently I’d have to admit I’m a parasite. Everybody wants to earn more money. But what I hear are complaints like that of teenagers with inflated senses of entitlement.</p> <p>I guess it just boils down to this: if you don’t earn your salary through either voluntary means or at least on terms you accept without undue political leverage — i.e. using state power to transfer resources to your own pockets — you deserve no sympathy. Why these greedy people are getting sympathy from so-called “progressives” is beyond me. I think it’s because progressives have made a golden calf out of government. (So much for the “reality-based” community.)</p> <p>Private employees have a right collectively to bargain — as long as there is no assistance whatsoever from government except contract enforcement. Public employees should not have that right, however. If you’re an agent of the state, quid pro quo with other agents of the state is more than dubious. Such arrangements are inherently corrupt.</p> <p>On Governor Walker’s actions, I agree with the venerable Amity Shlaes who <a href=”http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-02-21/wisconsin-s-war-with-union-represents-progress-amity-shlaes.html” target=”_self”>writes</a>:</p> <blockquote>Walker’s decision to reduce public-union powers isn’t rash. It is overdue. Teacher pensions do weigh down state budgets, both in Wisconsin and the other 49 states. And Walker’s move won’t necessarily hurt his career. It may catapult him to the national stage, or even the presidency.</blockquote> <p>There is no turning back now for this Governor. To compromise now would be to cede too many of Wisconsin citizens’ rights and resources over to a mob. To compromise now would be to abandon democracy itself.</p> <p><em>Max Borders is a writer living in Austin. He blogs at <a href=”http://freetochoose.net/ideasmatter” target=”_self”>Ideas Matter</a>.</em></p>
