No, I’m not talking about the unions bringing down what used to be the biggest company in the United States, GM, but about how unions harm our public education system:
A $13.2 million, five-year grant from the National Math and Science Initiative, designed to add new Advanced Placement teachers, courses and exams for thousands of Washington […]
Archive for the 'Unions' Category
May8th2008
Feb20th2008
Education Revolt In Watts
Published by in Economics, Education, General, Unions and Vouchers. 1 CommentThere is no area in more desperate need of school choice than the ghettos of the United States. With high levels of gangs, drugs, and crime, just basic security concerns are enough to push parents to seek alternative venues. Yet even in these dire circumstances, the teachers union continues to stand in the way of […]
Sep27th2007
“Members of the UAW want job guarantees because outside a GM plant their skills will never, ever return anything close to what they make inside one. According to the Freep, wages and benefits for the average UAW worker run about $73. At a standard 40-hour workweek, that’s the equivalent of a roughly $100,000 a […]
Sep26th2007
Because of stuff like this:
However, 4,000-5,000 temporary workers at GM would be hired in as full-time workers and paid at the full, tier-one wage-and-compensation rate that is estimated at $70-$75 an hour once wages, benefits and pensions are included. To make room for new hires, GM would again offer substantial early-retirement buyouts for workers.
Getting these […]
Aug15th2007
The Politics Of Unions
Published by in Economics, General, Minimum Wage, Unions and Wal-Mart. 1 CommentGary Becker, Nobel Laureate in economics, writes:
Unions always favor increases in minimum wages, even when as in this case the minimum only apply to some employers. Any increase in the minimum wage would raise the demand for unionized skilled workers who would substitute for the less skilled employees displaced by the minimum. Unions have […]
Mar21st2007
Apple CEO On The Failure Of Our Public Schools - Teachers Union
Published by in Economics, Education, General and Unions. 11 CommentsApple CEO Jobs attacks teacher unions
By APRIL CASTRO
Associated Press
AUSTIN — Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs lambasted teacher unions today, claiming no amount of technology in the classroom would improve public schools until principals could fire bad teachers.
Jobs compared schools to businesses with principals serving as CEOs.
“What kind of person could […]
Dec20th2006
The Illogic Of Creating Jobs vs. Creating Wealth
Published by in Economics, General and Unions. 1 CommentExplained by Milton Friedman:
While traveling by car during one of his many overseas travels, Professor Milton Friedman spotted scores of road builders moving earth with shovels instead of modern machinery. When he asked why powerful equipment wasn’t used instead of so many laborers, his host told him it was to keep employment high in the […]
Dec13th2006
Quote Of The Day
Published by in (modern day) Liberalism, Economics, General, Minimum Wage, Poverty and Unions. 0 Comments“As a means of raising people from poverty or near poverty, the minimum wage is distinctly inferior to the Earned Income Tax Credit, which compensates for low wages without interfering with the labor market…So why are the Democrats pushing to increase the minimum wage rather than to make EITC more generous? Three reasons can be […]
Nov28th2006
“An increase in the minimum wage has several distinctive negative effects on the economy. While the wages of some low skilled workers would improve, it would reduce employment opportunities for teenagers and other lower skilled workers. They are pushed either into unemployment or the underground economy. A bigger minimum also raises prices of fast foods […]
Oct17th2006
Dynamic Capitalism By Edmund Phelps
Published by in Capitalism, Economics, Europe, General and Unions. 0 CommentsEdmund Phelps, the winner of this years Nobel Prize in economics, has a very good article in the Wall Street Journal on Dynamic Capitalism, of which he compares the two different flavors of capitalism, the US model vs the Western Europe model.
He writes:
Dynamic Capitalism
Entrepreneurship is lucrative–and just.
BY EDMUND S. PHELPS
Tuesday, October 10, 2006 12:01 […]
Oct2nd2006
E-Tutoring On The Rise And Unions Want None Of It
Published by in Economics, FreeTrade, General and Unions. 4 CommentsYahoo News reports:
BOSTON (Reuters) - Private tutors are a luxury many American families cannot afford, costing anywhere between $25 to $100 an hour. But California mother Denise Robison found one online for $2.50 an hour — in India.
“It’s made the biggest difference. My daughter is literally at the top of every single one of her […]
Sep27th2006
What Happens If A Company Pays Engineers The Same As Technicians
Published by in Books, Economics, Education, General and Unions. 1 CommentWhat would happen if an engineering company decided to pay engineers the same as they pay technicians? You would get technician level engineers, that’s what would happen.
The same is true with regard to our public education. Because of unions, our public education system pays science teachers the same as english teachers, and given that science […]
Sep4th2006
“Labor unions do not even know how to raise real wages. All they are concerned with is raising the money wages and protecting the jobs of the members of their particular union. Since labor unions do not control the quantity of money or volume of spending in the economic system, the only way that they […]
Aug29th2006
Toyota and Volkswagen ALSO Have To Pay For Employees Health Care
Published by in Economics, Europe, General, HealthCare, Myths and Unions. 2 CommentsLiberals are fond of saying that the reason General Motors and US based companies in general are having so many problems competing is because Toyota and Volkswagen, located in Japan and Germany respectively, don’t have to pay health care costs and US based companies do - putting GM at a disadvantage to foreign competition.
Megan […]
Aug28th2006
Democrats’ Shameful Wal-Mart Demonization
Published by in Economics, General, ModernPolitics, Unions and Wal-Mart. 2 CommentsThat’s the title of a recent editorial in the Los Angeles Times. Here is the article in full:
Democrats’ Shameful Wal-Mart Demonization
Presidential hopefuls only hurt themselves when pandering to unions by bashing the country’s largest employer.
WITH ONE EYE ON 2008 and one on their labor union base, Democratic luminaries are canvassing Iowa and other states this […]
Aug25th2006
Defending a Vilified Wal-Mart
Published by in Economics, General, ModernPolitics, Unions and Wal-Mart. 2 CommentsThe New York Sun has a great article on Wal-Mart and the Democrats campaign against it:
