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by Mel Griffith
It seems that quite a few people have suddenly realized that governments really don't have an endless supply of money. At the federal level, this has so far resulted mostly in talk. Grand promises to cut $100 billion from this year's budget seem to have shrunk to $4 billion, though they will continue to argue about more trivial cuts for the rest of the year. At the state level, where money can't be printed and budgets must be balanced, there is serious attention to the problem. Some states, including Tennessee, have identified one cause of the problem as negotiations with public employee unions. In the opinion of some, there is a vicious cycle going on. Unions contribute to, and support, candidates for office. When elected, these officials make sweetheart deals with the unions that supported them. In return, the unions support them again and are again rewarded with favorable treatment. One of the worst aspects of this system is that in order to avoid the wrath of voters over high taxes, government officials make deals for generous benefits in the future without providing any means to pay for them. This tendency is not confined to union negotiations. Social security and Medicare are also examples of promises made without adequate funding.
It seems that those in power always have a hard time resisting the temptation to abuse it. Labor unions were formed because of abuse by companies, which 150 years ago, treated their workers any way they pleased. As most of the safeguards that unions worked for got written into law, union membership and support have declined. Many see unions as no longer necessary and many object abusive practices of unions themselves. Like the companies before them, they have frequently abused their power. For example, it is not unreasonable for the state of Wisconsin to want to stop collecting dues for the unions. That is not a government responsibility and it is an abuse of the system for the state to require workers to pay union dues as a condition of having a job.
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