Homines libenter quod volunt credunt
Posted in Institutions, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Nov 16th, 2009
The President is calling on all citizens to participate in our nation’s recovery and renewal by serving in our communities. Well, everyone but the Boy Scouts: In pursuit of an Eagle Scout badge, Kevin Anderson, 17, has toiled for more than 200 hours hours over several weeks to clear a walking path in an east […]
Posted in labor markets on Nov 5th, 2009
Seriously. When I was an economics graduate student at Cornell, I was being asked to join the UAW. That’s because us poor graduate students were being exploited by agreeing to work as Teaching Assistants and Research Assistants in order to have our free tuition and continue to receive a stipend to go to school. You […]
Posted in trade on Aug 27th, 2009
Ben Hogan set up a golf club company in 1954. Before it had barely produced and sold a single set of clubs a union organizer came to the Ben Hogan Company plant. When the workers called an organization meeting, Hogan spoke first: I understand that all of you fellows want to organize my business here […]
Posted in Corporatism on Aug 24th, 2009
Here is the whole thing. Below is the “top” 20: I honestly do not know what to say. 12 of the top 20 “donors” are unions. The top 20 “spent” nearly $600 million during this time. Part of me is shocked at how … little … this amount is, given the trillions of other people’s […]
Posted in Socialism on Jul 16th, 2008
Mr. Stern’s “middle class” spin would be more believable if the SEIU did more for its own members, especially their pensions. Public records based on the SEIU’s own filings show that the SEIU National Industry Pension plan – which covers some 101,000 workers – was only 75% funded in 2006. Put another way, the plan […]
Posted in Corporatism on Jun 20th, 2008
In the city of Olean, NY, a law is being debated that would forbid any private individuals from employing the services of friends or neighbors to do any plumbing work, however minor. Any work that is to be done will be required to be completed by unionized plumbers (“licensed master plumber or a journeyman (apprentice) […]
Posted in Regulation on Apr 2nd, 2008
It is a well-known fact that union membership and coverage has declined substanially over the 20th century. For exampe, in 1973 nearly a quarter of all wage and salary workers were unioin members (it was far higher in earlier years – for example it seems to have hit 37 percent in 1960, but the data […]
Posted in You Can't Have it Both Ways on Sep 15th, 2005
The irony of this story is so yummy that I find it hard to believe it’s actually true. The Las Vegas Weekly is reporting that the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union is hiring temporary workers for $6 per hour with no benefits to stand in a blacktopped Las Vegas Wal-Mart parking lot protesting […]
