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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bearcatbob who wrote (116489)	7/25/2009 7:58:32 AM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 542201

To discuss these answers would take us much further afield, Bob. But I'll note my disagreements and why. Unions are like any large institution. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Our labor laws allow monopoly unions - eg a single UAW negotiated with three auto companies - one at a time to extort unsupportable contracts. The result was inevitable. The same is coming for public employee unions whose retirement plans are unsupportable. I gather, then, you blame the unions for the demise of the US auto industry. It seems to me there are two other culprits: the US notion that healthcare costs are work centered; and the ineptitude of auto executives. On the cap and trade points, I simply don't see it as destructive as you do. Just one more cost that will get apportioned in the usual way, the result of which will be to make some gains on the global warming front. We'll just have to wait and see. Again, on the legal front, you are back to, as in much of the above, reasoning in terms of contrasting absolutes. If the country doesn't go your path, it will lead to a catastrophe. I simply can't see it and nothing you've written makes the case.