Join a Union
November 12, 2008
– Comments (3)
This post was inspired by Varchild2008 posts on unions and by Fooluser17's post reminding us all to spend as our soon to be retired President instructed.
Varchild posted that Circuit City's employees were unionized and that they caused CC's downfall. However CC's employees were not unionized, blowing a gaping hole in the theory. There has also been a stunning uptick in the number of posts I have read here blaming unions for the downfall of GM and Ford. Then I read Fooluser17's post reminding us all to spend, and her comment that she meant to only spend what you have.
Central to the GM/Ford downfall theory is the idea that higher union employee costs forced GM to be uncompetitive, because it forced them to sell their cars at prices that were too high, and that no one could afford. This opened the door for Toyota to undercut GM pricing and created opportunity for Toyota to outsell GM. Unfortunately there is a flaw in this theory also. The flaw is that Toyota's car and truck sales fell off a cliff, just as GM's did.
So Circuit City could fail without a union, and Toyota could flounder without a union. And yet XOM and Verizon are doing very well with their unions while GM is not. Best Buy reports slowing sales, and they are not union.
In fact less than 14% of US workers are union members today. And we constantly hear about them on these blogs. "Overpaid gov't workers" and "overpaid Cops and teachers" "too may benefits" is what we hear about the few remaining union workers.
So I got to thinking about all this seemingly unrelated information, and when the smoke finally cleared, an idea had formed.
Sales of overpriced stuff are falling and something needs to be done. As Fooluser says, someone has to start buying, and start buying without credit.
Only overpaid workers can afford to buy overpriced Fords and Toyota's and Cadillacs. Or can afford to buy overpriced TV's and Ipods.
So what we need is more overpaid union employees with overly generous benefits that can allow them to keep buying overpriced cars and electronics even after they stop working and retire.
So from now on, insist upon being overpaid. Buy overpriced stuff. Restore the upward spiral to our economy.
Join a Union, Save the Economy.
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