The Age of Public Sector Unions is Over

An maybe other unions too.  But first, these thoughts from Doctor Zero at Hot Air:

Another item that must be on the table is the abolition of public-sector employee unions. The entire concept is ridiculous, a system that transforms taxpayers into serfs for a pampered aristocracy that hates them. Public employee unions produce a cycle of demand, despair, and violence that begins with fingers bitten off, and ends with murder by arson in the streets of Athens. Much of the loot from Obama’s $800 billion stimulus heist was used to pay off public unions. All talk of government “austerity” is meaningless babble until these organizations have been dissolved.

The titanic federal payroll surged with incredible speed under Obama, even as private sector employment crashed. This trend must be reversed, quickly and forcefully. A government reduced to playing Parcheesi with census workers to inflate employment figures has drained far too many resources from the private sector. Reducing government payroll will cause unemployment to rise in the short term, but releasing both workers and capital into the private sector is the only way to improve the long-term health of the economy. Those terminated government workers will have to live without their gold-plated benefit packages and bloated salaries, and they’ll need to make do with the same health-care options as the rest of us… but we will find good use for their talents, beyond the imagination of central planners.

The state religion of environmentalism goes on the table, too. The lawless, unelected bureaucracy of the Environmental Protection Agency must be dissolved. Further attempts to divert public funds into the global-warming fraud should be prosecuted. No more rogue government agencies with limitless power, bottomless budgets, and fanatical agendas. No more forced tithe to the primitive spiritual beliefs of our arrogant elite.

The time has indeed come to put many things on the table. All of them are dusty, overpriced relics of discredited statist theories and collectivist ideology. How long has it been since Americans were allowed to tackle anyserious problem by enhancing their liberty? Who can remember the last time we approached a situation by reducing the burden of regulation and taxation on our private citizens, unleashing their energy and creativity? When was the last time we were allowed to view a crisis as an opportunity for the private sector, rather than the State?

Unions were a wonderful thing when there was no such thing as OSHA or work rules and safety regulations, but for many years about all they've done is raise costs for consumers and put their employers in financially precarious positions. The auto industry in the US pays a ridiculous amount of money for assembly line workers, and we now have two of the Big Three automakers in government control as our market share sinks.

The unions are feeling the pinch too and desperately need new members. That's where "Card Check" comes in, the method promoted by Democrats that would eliminate the secret ballot from the process of unionizing a business. Unions want to be able to strong-arm potential members by getting them to sign commitment cards in person and under the watchful eye of the union goon. That's why the SEIU and other unions pour huge amounts into Democrat campaigns. Without "Card Check" unions will continue to lose their money and influence.

The age when it made sense to have unions is over.