Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Libertarian View of Unions

Will Wilkinson has a nice post on *a* (I won't say *the*) libertarian view on unions.

Not sure why Will can't spell "labor," though. Or "favor."

6 comments:

Chris said...

Because in the civilized world, that's how you spell "labour"!

Gerardo said...

That is, the aristocracy thinks there is a "u" in labour, but not an "I."

Mungowitz said...

And....Gerardo shoots from 3-point land...AND HE SCORES!!!!!

Tom said...

The metaphor of "an equalising thumb on the scale" is daft. Imagine an assayer with thumbs on both sides of a balance and saying "this will come out well." Worse, the weight of each thumb is subject to politics!

Anyway, Government doesn't use a thumb; it uses a mailed fist.

The experience of the past 100 years is of unions using their "freedom of association" to deny such freedom to others. They use both government sponsored and more direct violence to prevent The Boss from associating with whom he will.

John said...

I don't believe it's fair to hold the charge of violence against unions in general. Sure, some have used it, but not all. I imagine I'm sensitive to such generalizations, because I often face them from fellow libertarians about a different voluntary association that I am a part of: a church. But yes, the law should be on the side of free association and also freedom of contract between individuals.

John Covil said...

Whoops, logged in with wrong Google account. That was me^