Unions are like gum: bubbles are fun to blow, but messy when popped

Ok, so, here's the deal. Today I read a story in the Washington Examiner, a daily I get handed at the metro station in the morning. It presents an issue that has begun to gain air time in the media, regarding the unions. Though the days of Jimmy Hoffa are in the past, and the Internet and other advocacy means are readily more available and effective than old style union organization, fading unions are on the move again, using more of their member's shrinking reserves to enlist new ranks of workers. The AFL-CIO (probably the most prominent union posterboy) has announce its gameplan outright: to grow their numbers in order to save the pensions of their retirees.

The heart of the new recruitment initiative is to emphasize the things a union can do for an aspiring young worker. One such thing is the removal of the secret-ballot system, which allows union members to cast vote without being watched or tracked. (This is the system we use in national elections, under the pretext that if you don't risk social derision for your heartfelt convictions, you are more likely to voice your actual opinion, resulting in elections that are more honest and reflective of society's values.) The rationale behind removing the secret-ballot system in the unions is that it will grease the wheels of the feedback mechanism, allowing more focus to be placed where organized voice is needed. i.e. identifying and deriding views unaligned with the unions' demands of higher pay, better benefits, and daily pats on the back by business owners.

The problem with this idea, though, is that it simply reimposes the organised body of power which unions were originally formed to dissolve. It provides access to a coercive force, with which it is more able to force business to capitulate to its demands. There is, however, a seed of hope planted in this issue, though a passive sense of hope. In order to provide the persuasive power necessary to lure new members, the unions have to offer benefits to the prospective members that will tip the scales in their direction, offering a loaded benefits packages along with promises of greater future payout. This they must do without causing an uproar among existing members, upset by the fact that their tenure has not afforded them the leverage of power.

The sobering point of that seed of hope, is that it may never take root and grow into anything more than a sapling, due to the predatory nature of unions, aiming to choke out any opposition. And the way this will happen, is in the form of another economic bubble. Even though people generally know that a bubble is bad, they are self-interested enough to also understand that if they can concentrate the benefits for themselves from the costs dispersed on others, they may end up with more than they started. (This idea is only possible 'ceteris paribus,' as all other things are held constant, which, in a dynamic social economy, is never the case.)

That is to say, though there may be a way that the unions can actually pull this off, which will take the orchestration of a ponzi scheme rivaling that of Bernie Madoff (or the Social Security program), it will come at the cost of huge loss in productivity and bloating of an already sagging economy. Only so many people can try to get more at the expense of others for so long; when it all catches up, it will spell disaster. That logic hasn't stopped that trend over the past few generations, so it may not stop in for a while still. One thing is for sure, though, eventually things will equalize, the GIANT bubble will pop. I, for one, don't want to be around when it does, even if I'll be able to say, "See, I told you so."

Often, there is little satisfaction in being right, when it comes at the price of lots of other people getting screwed, which is exactly what would happen to all the new union enlistees of my generation who are now promised soft clouds and lolly-pops for their retirement but who will receive, at best, steal bedframes and stale bread from all the dues they'd be paying. But we know what will ultimately happen if that many people simultaneously have the wool pulled over their eyes and the rug pulled from under their feet; they will come running/crawling/clamoring to government with the matter-of-fact air that says, "how could we have known? You GOTTA help us out!" And that will precipitously build an even bigger bubble on top of the bubble unions are currently aiming to develop, which is on top of the old generation's existing bubble. And from my days of BubbleYum as a kid, bubbles on bubbles on bubbles are not sustainable; you only end up with a sticky mess in your hair and a buzz cut to come!