Ban Public Sector Unions From Making Political Contributions


Imagine that you could "contribute" money to your employer, in return for benefits well beond the amount you pay them. It sounds like a good deal, until the company goes bankrupt. That's what would happen in the free market, but when the employer is a local, state, or the federal government, they raise taxes to cover the cost. This is the situation when public sector unions are allowed to contribute money to political campaigns.



In NY State, public sector unions hold vast power over the political process, and the state is going bankrupt. All of the politicians who appoint the people to negotiate with the unions are recipients of union money, and "support" in their elections. Does anyone else see anything fishy about this?



Citizens have the right to lobby the government, for any reason. Businesses, unions, and just about any group of citizens are allowed to contribute to, and lobby government officials for any cause. The problem is that whereas a union nornaly is in negotiation with a private company over wages and benefits, public sector unions are in negotiation with government officials.



Their involvement in politics is unethical. It's one thing for a business, an environmental, group, or a private sector union to lobby for beneficial regulation. It's different when the people you are lobbying are your bosses, and you hold political power over them.



There are many facets to this issue, of course. The title of this piece is one of many ways to control wasteful spending by our governments. I'll be exploring the merits, and problems of this position in future posts. I'll leave you with two excerpts from George Will's latest column:




After 1962, when New York City signed the nation's first collective bargaining contract with teachers, teachers began changing from members of a respected profession into just another muscular faction fighting for more government money. Between 1975 and 1980 there were a thousand strikes involving a million teachers whose salaries rose as students' scores on standardized tests declined...



...In 1976, for the first time in its 119-year history, the National Education Association, the teachers union, endorsed a presidential candidate, Jimmy Carter, who repaid it by creating the Education Department, a monument to the premise that money and government programs matter most. At the NEA's behest, the nation has expanded the number of teachers much faster than the number of students has grown. Hiring more, rather than more competent, teachers meant more dues-paying union members.




Indeed, public sector unions are the only "growth" that unions can claim, recently. NYS JUDGES are thinking of starting a union, for cryin' out loud!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Biden Record, and the Democrats Who Supported It, Pt. 4: How Biden Blew Up the Economy With Inflation

   The US economy is in chaos. This is not "spin," or "opinion," but a fact. Some people aren't feeling it as hard as others, because they were well-off before the inflation started. Unfortunately, the worst is yet to come, and it will affect those "well-off" people, to a greater degree than it does currently, as the recession sets in. It also will present a crisis for government, as the interest rates for the chronic borrowing that sustains all of their largesse double, triple, or even quadruple. How did we get here, after what was shaping up as a robust recovery from the pandemic response inspired recession?    When Pres. Biden was elected, almost every policy that had been in place was reversed. We've looked at the disatrous results of this on the southern border , but what's happened to our economy has impacted many more Americans. It started out on day one, when Biden killed the KeystoneXL pipeline, followed by freezing new federal leases ...
Read more

HATE FROM THE MOUTHS OF CHILDREN: AUTUM (AUTUMN?) ASHANTE AND THE GAEDE TWINS

Image
AUTUM ASHANTE LAMB AND LYNX GAEDE I hate to have to write this, but it has to be written. Beautiful children's minds are being corrupted with racial hatred, and their parents are profiting from it. The Gaede twins have a pop band, and Miss Ashante is a poetic prodigy. The parents promote their children's careers. These young girls are the true victims of racism, because they are predestined to continue this cycle of hate. Autum Ashante (-or is it spelled Autumn Ashante ?) is a 7-year old child, home-schooled by her parents (according to the NY POST -free registration required- see below for more on this). I heard it reported on MSNBC that they are members of the Nation of Islam, but I can't confirm that elsewhere. This young lady gave a recital of her poem, "White Nationalism Put U in Bondage." Some excerpts: "Black lands taken from your hands, by vampires with no remorse."..."They took the gold, the wisdom and all the storytellers. They took th...
Read more

The Biden Debacle Part II

  In my previous post, I wrote about Pres. Biden's disastrous policy at the border, as well as it's impact on the spread of COVID. I also noted his false promise of bipartisanship, and embrace of the far left agenda. This post will deal with some of that agenda, including it's impact on the economy, law enforcement, race relations, education and the military. They're all interconnected in no small way, and Pres. Biden is making a mess of them all. With the left wing ascendant in his own party, he has found it easier to go along with them, rather than work with Republicans, even when they propose policies that a majority of Democrats support. The economy was recovering before Biden assumed office, and yet he continues to push a long wish list of leftist policies in the name of "recovery." The extension of unemployment benefits is a good example of how they can backfire. While he denies that the extra payments were keeping people from returning to work, the sta...
Read more