“Fair” Labor Union Wages and the American Social and Cultural Contract

A worker gets what he or she produces in a “fair” productive society, Labor has to be productive. If it is not, there is an eventual disconnect.

The perfect example is the downfall of the American automobile industry which priced itself out of business because of its labor costs. You can talk style and product non-competitiveness, But management was coerced into giving catastrophic labor contracts, in order to avoid immediate costly union walkouts.

The breakdown in schools can be attributed to the same cause. Here it is the avoidance of competition in the form of breaking the public-school-only monopoly of unionized teachers. A choice of vouchers would make for better productivity of teachers, and better schools.

Unfortunately, labor unions and real wage conflict have grown into the American social and cultural contract. They have been highly politicized by union campaign funding, so it will be almost impossible to rectify in the foreseeable future. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)