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Usually the musings of NYT's token Republican are soft and gooey RINO droppings; today's essay is a bit more pointed (comparatively speaking). Brooks gently prods the Wisconsin protesters ("amusingly Orwellian"), then lectures the New York Times' mostly-far-left readers (elitist lefty snobs) about the differences between public sector and private sector unions...

Even if you acknowledge the importance of unions in representing middle-class interests, there are strong arguments on Walker’s side. In Wisconsin and elsewhere, state-union relations are structurally out of whack.

That’s because public sector unions and private sector unions are very different creatures. Private sector unions push against the interests of shareholders and management; public sector unions push against the interests of taxpayers. Private sector union members know that their employers could go out of business, so they have an incentive to mitigate their demands; public sector union members work for state monopolies and have no such interest.

Private sector unions confront managers who have an incentive to push back against their demands. Public sector unions face managers who have an incentive to give into them for the sake of their own survival. Most important, public sector unions help choose those they negotiate with. Through gigantic campaign contributions and overall clout, they have enormous influence over who gets elected to bargain with them, especially in state and local races.

As a result of these imbalanced incentive structures, states with public sector unions tend to run into fiscal crises. They tend to have workplaces where personnel decisions are made on the basis of seniority, not merit. There is little relationship between excellence and reward, which leads to resentment among taxpayers who don’t have that luxury.

Structurally sound, Brooks, but I notice you didn't dare mention that ALL the unions, public and private sector alike, contribute ALL of their political donations to Democrats...something that doesn't happen with contributors to 'our side'. Corporations and the 'evil rich', groups Democrats so like to tie to Republicans, tend to contribute to Democrats as well as Republicans. You'd be hard-pressed to find ANY union that contributes to a Republican candidate (if you do, that Republican is likely of the Meghan McCain variety, and as vapid and useless as twit Meghan). I posted on this yesterday.

These public-sector unions need to be demolished nationwide. It's just not right for public employees to have their union dues monies taken from them without consent then spent on political contributions to only one party. Public officials are elected, and government employees are supposed to be indifferent as to the outcome of elections. But these government public-sector employee unions not only give monies to Democrats but also contribute on-the-job time and work for 100% Democrat-only candidates; that money and time adds up to that candidate owing the unions for whatever the unions demand, be it pay and benefits increases that are well above private-sector pay and benefits, and more subtle but just as troubling, they have an unfairly-constructed shield that private sector employees don't have for to shelter them from economic downturns.

As Brooks' NYT essay today 'splains, we should ALL be hurting. Unionists should not seek political shelter from economic downturns, using purchased Democrats, to create for themselves and their members unsustainable contracts at the expense of taxpayers.

So, today, we might find Wisconsin Senators (the Republican sorts who, you know, come to work) vote in the union-busting legislation by means of attaching it to another bill that doesn't require the cowardly Democrats to come forth (19 Republican Senators are on hand in the capital; 14 Democrat Senators are shivering under beds in Rockport, IL, at a Best Western; I hope the bedbugs are feasting well on their mangy asses). The Orwellian union thug - Democrat protesters still circle the capital in Madison (aka "Moscow West" and "Berkeley on the Prarie") trying to get their Egyptian - Tunisian faces on correctly. Inside, Republicans may well, and deservedly so, vote the public sector unions dead. Case closed, the people win, democracy is restored.

Move to the next state. Let's get this train rolling.

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