Rare Medium

Kudos to the State of Michigan, who today will approve a right-to-work law against the one-notch-less-than-violent opposition of the United Auto Workers.  Some of the teachers union members also cut school to support the melee.  So much for the best interests of the students.

Right-to-work, above all, is a queston of personal liberty.  If I do not support or wish to join a union, why should I have to pay dues to the union?  Among other things, more than 90% of all union political contributions go to Democratic candidates.  What if I’m a Republican, or a Libertarian?  Of what if I’m a political nothing who just doesn’t feel it is fair to force me to pay union dues to get a job?  Right-to-work answers all of these questions in MY favor, not the union’s.

At the end of the day, why is right-to-work any different than right to choose?  Why don’t workers have full control of their bodies (including brains) in the same manner that women are said to have that right for their bodies?  Personal liberty is the foundation of a free country.  Closed union shops are a distortion of the labor market, creating monopoly powers for unions to the detriment of their employers.  The irony is, of course, that when their employers suffer, so do the workers, eventually. 

Think of Michigan’s largest industry – automobiles.  A free market benefits all parties.  Right-to-work led Toyota, BMW, Honda, Mercedes, etc. to build their U.S. manufacturing plants in the South.  States have benefitted significantly, and worker compensation is actually higher, adjusted for the cost of living, there than in union Michigan.

Long live Adam Smith, support right-to-work, and go Blue!