print“If a union has the power to enforce uniform conditions of employment throughout the nation its power is comparable to that of a Socialist government.” (Barry Goldwater, The Conscience of a Conservative, 1990, p. 50.)
Almost.
Can you say legacy costs? In light of the liquidation of GM, rechristened “Government Motors,” we’d do well to remember that the crap cars the company made were also uncompetitive because of “pension liabilities and huge health-care costs that added hundreds of dollars to the cost of each vehicle.” This rather crucial information was buried in an article at The Economist, like an afterthought.
While the US taxpayers prop up the GM auto dealers and retirees and the few active employees, US sales of Toyota, Nissan, and Honda are dropping – e.g. the parasitical sick are taking down the healthy (and superior cars). GM and the unions made unsustainable and unfunded contracts and are relying on government-mandated theft to make good. Through NADA and corrupt laws, the auto dealers maintain a monopoly to charge thousands per car rather than permit consumers to buy cars online (test drive them by renting for the weekend rather than pay a dealer $2000). Whether one labels it socialism, fascism, corporatism, mercantilism, favoritism…. it is all coercive, collectivist, THEFT. Encouraging people to scrap cars with several years on it for new cars is actually environmentally wasteful. “I do not recognize anyone’s right to one minute of my life”, said Howard Roark in the Fountainhead – and that should apply to one dime of my property as well. Nowadays, the government coerces (or nudges) us into economic decisions, debts, taxes, and currency debasement based upon the corrupt whims of bought politicians responding to whatever union, dealer’s association, bankers, retirees, ethnic group, or lobby wishes to pick the pockets of others.
Powerful comment Myron. Whatever made me think that government was the answer to anything? Coercion is a good word and it seems like government is going to become more coercive as the Obama regime chugs on.
The “original sin” in giving labor unions coercive power is Fascist Delano Roosevelt’s Wagner (NLRB) Act:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Labor_Relations_Act. Of course, at least auto manufacturing requires WORKERS. The whining “Dealers” are the ultimate monopolistic parasites protected by statist coercion:
http://www.autosavant.com/2009/02/24/how-about-some-restructuring-in-the-auto-retail-arena/. While I feel some empathy for the pensioners who worked 30 years at the auto plants, a contract between (company) A and (retiree) B cannot be guaranteed by (taxpayer) C! In fact, that principal is a philosophical flaw in The Fountainhead movie where Roark holds the City Housing Authority to a contract that he made with Peter Keating to not change his design!