From his column today:
Senator Barack Obama recently said, “let’s allow our unions and their organizers to lift up this country’s middle class again.”
More...
Neither unions nor minimum-wage laws change the productivity of workers. All they can do is forbid the employer from paying less than what the government or the unions want the employer to pay.
When that is more than the labor in question produces, some workers who are perfectly capable become “unemployable” only because of wages set above the level of their productivity.
In the short run — which is what matters to politicians and to union leaders, who both get elected in the short run — workers who are already on the payroll may get a windfall gain before the market adjusts.
Amd that adjustment can mean more automation in the workplace--and fewer unionized workers--or competition from non-union operations.
And the result will be the same--fewer unionized workers.
He just doesn't get it.
Technorati tags: Obama Barack Obama politics 2008 elections Democrats labor unions economy
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