Walter Block: Why We Must Support the Union Thugs

Sunday, February 27, 2011
Walter Block: Why We Must Support the Union Thugs
Posted by Robert Wenzel at 10:44 AM

This is not likely to make it into the union's PR packet of economist professors supporting the union, but Block has it correct, this is a battle of two thugs:

More than a few people have asked me where I stand on the controversy between Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and the public employee unions against which he is contending.

I favor the union thugs, not the government thugs. For me, it's like Stalin versus Hitler: a pox on both of them. But, I like to root for the underdog, the weaker of the two bad guys, and that's the union in this case. I do so because I want the fight to long continue, so that both are weakened as much as possible. The state has more guns, better public relations (they have bought off more journalists, intellectuals, clergy, and others of Hayek's "second hand dealers in ideas") than the unions.

So, if we want the battle to weaken the both of them, we must support, ugh (no, double ugh!) organized labor. Also, it is my judgment that the government is a worse violator of human and economic liberties than are the unions, bad as are the latter.

The essence of Block's argument is that this is not a battle of less government versus more government, but a battle over who controls the loot. There is a strong anti-public employee union stance by advocates of freedom, which is great, but somehow this anti-union attitude is being transferred into support of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. Despite heavy propaganda otherwise, Walker is not a free market guy.

During Walker's tenure as Milwaukee county executive, according to AP, "overall county spending ... increased 35 percent".

With regard to the agriculture industry, Walker has stated:

My administration will build on this history by strengthening public/private partnerships that will incorporate 21st century innovations into best practices standards to ensure that the next generation of farmers can produce even more than we do now.

You know what that means. Crony deals between the Wisconsin government and government favored ag corporations.

He also wants to direct infrastructure money to "help the farmers":

We must also continue to invest in our state's infrastructure to ensure farmers can move their products to market for years to come. In the last eight years, Gov. Doyle raided $1.3 billion from Wisconsin's Transportation Fund. This is money that could have gone to fixing our state's rural roads, highways and bridges. I will protect the Transportation Fund by ending the raids and supporting a constitutional amendment to protect it from raids by future governors.

Huh, Block may also have something to say about the Transportation Fund.

Back to Walker.

He is certainly not against public education and appears to have no clue that innovation comes about via the private sector and not via a bureaucracy. He says:

We will also create a new class of highly qualified, well-paid teachers who will be given the opportunity to advance in their career. These highly qualified teachers will be called on to mentor other teachers, while still devoting most of their time to classroom teaching.

Bottom line, as Block makes clear, there is no strong reason to cheer the activities of either of these groups. Let's hope they destroy each other in this battle.

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2011/02/walter-block-why-we-must-support-union.html