Time To Reform Big Labor

Who knew that the UAW owned and operated a lavish country club in Michigan?

If anything, this story causes me to revisit one of my presumptions about Big Labor, which is that its members don't despise rich people as much as they despise that they themselves aren't, and are unlikely to ever become, rich.  

If the wealthy can have their limited membership country clubs, well, why can't they?  Big Labor feels entitled to the living the king's life without having to jump through the necessary hoops to earn it.  Big Labor wants to be compensated like management despite the fact that, unlike management, they don't take their jobs home with them.  Nor are they responsible for the operation and global competitiveness of the company.  Big Labor wants more and more power in how companies operate, but they have no obligation to the shareholders.  Big Labor wants management to sacrifice salary and benefits during tough times, but never suggest that they forego their own perks, which happens in this case to be a country club.   

The origin of the American labor movement was predicated upon a noble purpose.  

Once upon a time, the movement championed some basic rights and remedies necessary to end the abuse and exploitation of workers.  Pictures of such abuses have been novelized in such works as "The Grapes of Wrath" and "The Jungle."  The authors of these works, particularly "The Jungle," may have taken some literary license here and there, but the existence of the exploitation described within these books was very real.  

Having been successful in ending this once-existent exploitation, the labor movement became institutionalized and morphed into the creature known as "Big Labor." The Big Labor beast continues to use the language of exploitation and unfairness to manipulate huge concessions from corporate America.  

Big Labor actually undermines an essential ethos of American capitalism.  

The ambitious pursue the necessary education, training, and experience to win notable achievements and advance in the world.  This ambition serves as the engine that drives our economy.  Wider ambitions leads to achievements and, consequently, broader wealth creation.  

Big Labor convinces people that another route to advancement exists.  This route, however, decouples ambition from achievement. The strategy encourages organization and agitation aimed at a group extraction of something that should be earned through individual effort and merit.  To help facilitate this extraction of wealth, Big Labor pays off the political class to implement laws that lend themselves to additional future extractions.

Big Labor needs to be reformed, not bailed out.

GOP Must Say No To A Detroit Bailout

I just wanted to say that the Scottish Right blog is officially and adamantly opposed to any bailout of Detroit automakers that doesn't involve a managed bankruptcy.  This is a gut-check vote for Republican legislators who supposedly believe in free markets.  It would be beyond disappointing for GOP "leaders" to cave into the Democrats and UAW on such a significant issue. Furthermore, any GOP votes in support of a multi-billion dollar loan to "buy time" should be viewed as nothing other than an inexcusable lack of principle.

Now there's bailout money for transit agencies in the House version of the bill?

Democratic Sen. Max Baucus of Montana announced he was against the measure because of a provision to bail out transit agencies. The bus and rail systems could be on the hook for billions of dollars in payments because exotic deals they entered into with investors — which have since been declared unlawful tax shelters — have gone sour.

This is a typical government spending orgy and an outrage!  Good to see that the Senate Republicans are holding firm...for now anyway.

Here's an even bigger outrage:

At the White House, Deputy Chief of Staff Joel Kaplan told reporters at a late-morning briefing that the administration had yet to read the fine print of its "conceptual agreement" with congressional Democrats.

However, he indicated clear support, saying Bush would personally lobby Republicans.

Nice attention to detail.  Oh well, they were going to support it anyway!