Correlation

I wish someone would run a correlation between the volatility in the market and the number of talking heads they try to cram on the CNBC screen at the same time… I am starting to think we can call a bottom in the market whenever the number of commentators screaming at each other is greater than 9…

Real problem with the bailout – it doesn’t get rid of the unions

Think of an industry where unions are involved and there is innovation and growth and (hold your breath) profits…

Any luck? Didn’t think so.

I always wanted to go back to get my Ph D and spend a full year uncovering the harm unions have done to the nations economy. The number of businesses they have crippled. The number of jobs they have single-handedly sent overseas (what they argue they are fighting against).

Think about it. Automakers. Airlines. Teachers. Truckers. Food processors. All held back based on unions. The United Auto Workers, the Teamsters, the UFCW.

I was one of those employees a few years back. I took a position in a company that was unionized. Forced to hand over $25 a paycheck as “union dues.” Never mind that I was not asked if I wanted to join. Nor if I supported what the union positions. If I wanted the job, I had to pay the dues.

What did the union do for me? It held me back. I could not advance in the company as long as more senior individuals were there. If I worked harder, longer, or smarter it made no difference. My career path was dictated more by who else in the company had worked their longer than by which employee had more initiative, more skill, or more brains.

The industries that are infected by these parasites will never reach their full potential as innovation and being productive is not rewarded – and simply clocking in and not pushing the boundaries is. There is no reason for an autoworker to shorten the amount of time it takes to assemble a fog light on an F-150 pickup truck, since it will only mean he assembles that many more trucks in a day and he is not paid on production – the union made sure his pay is tied directly to his tenure.

Why would a college professor or a teacher change the lesson plans they have been using for the past 10 years, even though the world around them has changed? Their jobs are safe, since they have passed the decade mark and are now safe from being fired by school administrators. Never mind that the students that they are influencing are worse off than had they been in a classroom with a younger teacher who is trying their best to reach the students.

I know that not everyone is like this. I know that some teachers are outstanding and innovative even until they are reaching retirement (both of my parents were teachers), I know that not all autoworkers are leeches on the system. But my argument is that the unions themselves – their policies and their litigation – are a drain on the companies off which they feed. And as long as the unions have their fingers in the automobile industry, the bailout plan is doomed to fail since it doesn’t address one of the key issues that has made our domestic automakers lag the foreign competition for the past 20 years.