The third wave: monopoly unions, monopoly government

June 15, 7:16 AMSF Politics ExaminerArthur Bruzzone

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the SF Politics Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

SAN FRANCISCO, CA  --- Monopoly power led to California’s fiscal crisis: monopoly government (single party rule), monopoly unions (government workers unions, including prison workers, teachers and nurses unions) producing unstoppable growing government expenditures leading to enormous liabilities, requiring new and higher taxes, leading to severe damage to the state economy.

The combination has already contributed to a 10 percent unemployment rate for the state, 12 percent unemployment for the once-rich Inland Valley.

California has exported this deadly formula to Washington, D.C., in the most direct way: Speaker Nancy Pelosi hails from San Francisco. Her city now faces its own monopoly game.

As California’s state workers’ unions control Sacramento, San Francisco’s municipal workers unions control local politics. When the economy was strong, and taxes flowed, taxpayers had other matters on their mind — like fighting global warming, banning plastic bags and blocking museums. All that has changed.

Now it’s a fully mature fiscal crisis. Here’s how it works.

he large government workers unions dominate the campaigns of legislators through PACs and disciplined volunteers. They help initiate single party rule; the ruling party is their party. Conveniently, union contracts are renegotiated just after the election cycle. As a result, in San Francisco and in Sacramento, the unions enter bargaining with very “friendly” legislators indebted to the unions for endorsements, PAC money and volunteers. The arrangement works, so long as the economy is flourishing, and taxes are flowing.

But when the economy contracts, higher taxes are the only remedy. Although both San Francisco and Sacramento are dealing with enormous deficits, very few government employees will be given pink slips. That’s intentional. Job safety is a prime by-product of monopoly unions, unlike in the private sector.

The recently enacted “stimulus package” is at its core a workfare program for federal and state workers. It passed in a matter of weeks because of the symbiotic relationship between a singl-party monopoly in Congress and a monopoly of federal and state workers’ unions.

It has taken just days for the Obama administration to follow California’s lead in calling for higher taxes — higher taxes in the middle of a severe economic downturn. Worse, California and Washington are about to tax those most responsible for creating the businesses and jobs needed to overcome the economic downturn. They’re going to tax the job engine of the country and state to pay for the high salaries and benefits of public sector workers.

This same formula eventually brought down governments (Eastern European socialist nations) and an empire (USSR). Given the fragile credit markets and the nation’s contracting economy, a fiscal crisis, with dampening higher taxes, will creates a perilous situation for the nation. It proves again, as goes California, so goes the nation. And soon, we’ll all be in the economic lifeboat together.

Or, perhaps, the taxpayers will wake up in time to recognize the powerful monopolies at work.