A New Task For Unions

There probably isn't one of us whose life hasn't been touched, in a positive way, by what the labor unions have accomplished in this country. Child labor laws, 40 hour work week, salaries, benefits, etc.

However, many of these "improvements", particularly over the past 15 years, have been increases in wages and benefits without a corresponding increase in production. So if you pay more for the same output, where does the money come from.

This blogger gets sick and tired of hearing that BUSINESS (whoever that is) is the bad guy, the root of all evil, the cause of all problems. Well, BUSINESS (whoever that is) isn't perfect, but just where do the products that we sell come from without them? And don't ever forget, you can have the best bankers and teachers and librarians and road repair crews in the world, but if nobody has a product to sell, there isn't any money to pay them.

Unfortunately, when the unions were running around rallying people to demand higher salaries, better health benefits and more comfortable pensions; they didn't anticipate one key factor.... the globalization of the economy. Countless jobs that the unions "improved" in the USA can now be sourced overseas at a much lower cost. You can say it isn't "fair" all you want, but if you want goods produced at a price that you can afford, "business" has no choice. Believe it or not, business is in business to produce a product that will sell in order to make a profit. Profits are distributed to investors who believe enough in the product to take a risk and fork over some money to fund the business. The money the investors contribute are used to buy labor and materials to produce the product.

There isn't anything evil going on here until someone expects to get something for nothing. If I'm getting paid $1.00 for each widget I produce and the union convinces me I should get $2.00 each, we go on strike and the "business" caves and gives us $2.00. Where does that money come from??????? Raise the price, right? Nobody wants to pay that price and big bad business finds out that they can get the widgets built in Indonesia for $0.75 each. It's either buy them there or go out of business. In either case the people making $2.00/widget are out of a job.

How do we get out of this mess? The unions have done such a great job raising the quality of life here, they now need to do the same in all parts of the world where there is competition for labor. If everyone in the world gets $2.00 per widget, it will be much easier to keep the job here.

Get ready to pay $500 for that new pair of Nike's though!!