Down with Unions

Why do people still think that unions are good for the people? Unions are OUTDATED. Defunct. Irrelevant.

Sure, in the old days of industrial economy where the laws weren't as structured and the capitalists were somewhat evil, you needed to have the protection and power of the group. I would even say that unions helped to raise the living standards of the employees, which in turn made the country richer because now more people had more to spend. More to spend = more economy flow = stronger and better country.

What I propose is that it's now no longer necessary, and even HARMFUL, for people to form or join unions.

1) It is an outdated concept. We no longer need such individual protectionism from a group other than from the existing laws of the government. We're now in the information age, and the industrial aspects of the economy have been pretty much relegated to the third world countries. What matters now is not your strength, but your knowledge.

2) It makes the US economy inefficient. If unions FORCE businesses to pay higher wages while lowering the work hours (and hence potential productivity), businesses and their profts will suffer. They will find ways around it. How? They go to countries like China, India, Brazil, and Russia, where people WILL work more for less. (Unionized) American workers are complaining that the businesses are moving out of the country... BUT this is the reason why!

For example, a unionized construction worker that holds up a stop sign on roads near construction sites in NYC gets roughly $45 per hour (i saw this on 20/20), with time and a half for overtime. Now, is that fair? That's more than $100,000 a year in salary. Should he get paid 3x what teachers get paid? Does this worker really create $100,000 in value by standing there, with his gut sticking out, making rude noises at passing by ladies, and holding up a sign that basically a wooden POLE can do?

Another example, high tech industry in US by FAR the best in the world. I don't care what people say about China or India.. the biggest tech companies are in the US. Intel, Cisco, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Apple, etc etc. Why? Innovation, hard work, passion... and NO unions. This is true for the finance industry and any other industry where people are applying INFORMATION to make money. People in these industries are paid for performance and hard work, not some union telling them how many hours they can work or how much to get paid. Manufacturing (and other unionized) industries can't compete with their couterparts in rest of the world because of self-entitlement and unions that employees belong to

3) Creates more of self-entitlement. If people expect shit, they're not gonna go out there and fight for their fair share. The biggest reason why the US auto makers can't compete against the Japanese: that damn pension plan. Imagine you create a business for the sole sake of paying for your employees' retirement. Who in the WORLD would want to keep that business going? If I were the CEO, I would close shop, salvage whatever I can, and move on. Pensions are LIABILITIES that hinder the growth of the businesses. I would go as far as to say that the US auto makers are doomed, and so are the pension plans that go with them.



[ After thought ]


I can go on and on about how unions are basically useless and we should just get rid of them for once and for all. But I won't b/c I don't want to get ulcer.

Union bad. Business good.