Teacher Union Influence

The powerful teachers’ unions have influence because they always have a good marketing ploy. Who wants to turn down funding for the kids?

A good portion of that cost goes for teachers. And those costs can be budget-busting. Yes, the public probably knows how much is spent per student. But how about salaries and pensions? And all for part-time, nine months of actual total work?

The same holds for other government employees. Especially the ones who retire well before age 65, and are double dippers on grandiose pensions. ( See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Government Unions

Unions control government.

Federal, state and local government unionization outlays for wages and pensions are about triple what they are for comparable private industry jobs.

With their political contributions and the ability to close down government operations, along with their control of budgets because of their size.

The problem will persist until politicians are no longer beholden to unions for funds and getting out the vote. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Tax Credits for Hiring?

Damaging to business is recurring taxes, not the need for credits. Research often has shown this but left-leaning politicos love to hand out tax credits under pressure, as they cannot abide permanent tax relief.

Experience shows that the idea of giving business tax credits for hiring does not generally work. Businesses would eventually hire anyway in most instances.

So politicians continually talk about temporary tax credits, to impress potential voters. Moreover, if the public is unfamiliar with business, politicians get away with it. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Lawyer Over-Supply

When you cannot cope with science or math, it’s far easier to become a lawyer. It helps explain why we have too little doctors, scientists and mathematicians. Therefore, we have too many lawyers graduating college.

You could become a lawyer years ago without going to college. You took the bar exam after clerking in a law office. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Public Employee Union Assistance

The two major public employee unions have influenced left politics on a national scale. A good portion of the Obama administration’s so-called stimulus went to states for budget gaps that had to be filled to safeguard those states’ unionized jobs.

That’s why the stimulus did not produce the jobs it supposedly was intended to do, but instead had another purpose.

That supposed government aid to the economy proved to be more a slush fund than a stimulus. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

U.S. Manufacturing Weakness?

The talk of U.S. manufacturing decline is wrong but the media persists in its repetition. The Federal Reserve estimated that the value of U.S. manufacturing output was about $3.7 trillion in 2008.

Today's worker in manufacturing is productive, so much so that the value of his average output is three times higher than it was in 1980 and twice as high as it was in 1990. That means more can be produced with fewer workers. So there has been a drop in resulting in manufacturing jobs, a drop in about half from 1979.

Still, manufacturing productivity makes it a major factor and the U.S. is a major producer of essential services. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)

Business Productivity

Business productivity has become a matter of fashion and less what it’s intended to be. The idea is constantly marketed by consultants as business management break-through.

Well-known more recent attempts are referred to as Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma systems. They are simply just old-fashioned quality control procedures.

But everyone is in production or process improvement or quality control, whatever label he puts on them. A good business manager inherently knows this without the labeling.

The trick is in implementation. Motivation is essential in sticking to such programs on an ongoing basis. Boredom always is the problem, so periodic appraisals are essential. Furthermore, management needs to employ in-house or outside experts to check on processes and results.

Forget the titles. (See the Earl J Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)