Big Labor [hearts] Big Government

Posted by Ivan Osorio

Government is the only area in which unionization is growing in America. Today’s DC Examiner features an editorial that explains one reason why:

It’s a lot easier to extract big raises and juicier benefits from politicians bidding for votes among politically active bureaucrats, who, unlike the private sector, don’t have to worry about the bottom line.

Yet it’s worse than that, because the politicians and agency administrators who negotiate with government employees aren’t paying government workers out of their own money. In the traditional collective bargaining model, employers and employees negotiate to extract the most for less, but in government employment, “bargaining” is nigh impossible when the two sides to the negotiations have the same objective in mind: to extract as much as possible from taxpayers (who aren’t party to the negotiation). Of course, no one familiar with public choice theory should be surprised, so we can expect this trend to continue.

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08/30/2007 @ 8:52 am | Economic Liberty, Politics as Usual | Comments

One Response to “Big Labor [hearts] Big Government”

  1. Posted by: Matthew Sinclair - 08/30/2007

    In the private sector unions risk making the firms they work for go out of business or otherwise lose out to foreign competitors if they strike too much. Those working for the public sector face no such restraint. If you want to see how bad it can get take a look at underground (subway) drivers here. They earn the equivalent of about $70,000 a year for a completely unskilled job.

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