Labor unions are monopolies on labor in a certain industry or factory. The workers come together and decide what the price of their labor should be, and then try to get what they want through refusing to work and keeping other people from working in the factory by physically preventing them through sit-in strikes, or picketing in lines around the factory to prevent strike-breakers from coming in to work, or they do it through intimidation or legislation. In this way, a labor union is no different than a large corporation with a monopoly on a certain good. Suppose a single corporation produced all the food in the country, and it could prevent other people from selling food by buying them up or by other means. They could then set the price of food higher than what it's worth to make a profit. This is exactly what labor unions do with labor, and it should be illegal. All monopolies should be illegal except for natural monopolies that have to be monopolies in their respective industries, and these should be regulated by the government. They restrict trade and mess with the system of supply-and-demand where everything is worth what people are willing to pay for the supply that is provided at the price that establishes an equilibrium.

__________________
.

"It is extremely difficult for our contemporaries to conceive of the conditions of free banking because they take government interference with banking for granted and as necessary"

-- Ludwig von Mises

EXCELLENT!

I'm really why labor unions came into existence in the first place and why they did not get rid of monopolies back in the 1800's. The people should have realized that these things do not benefit anybody other than those involved in the administration of those unions or monopolies.

__________________
.

"It is extremely difficult for our contemporaries to conceive of the conditions of free banking because they take government interference with banking for granted and as necessary"

-- Ludwig von Mises

ever been in a union?

ever worked for an employer who treated employees like crap?

__________________
“Mayor Palin fails to have a firm grasp of something very simple: the truth.”

[Frontiersman editorial, 2/7/97]

My dad is a union construction worker! And while unions definitely have their flaws(just like absolutely everything else in the world) they are a good thing!!

__________________
R.I.P. Molly, I miss you every day!!

Im a Tarte, what! you want some of this?


To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead. Thomas Paine

If your employer is treating you badly, then you can either sue him if he has done something illegal, you can quit and go find another job, or if you can't find a job where you can have an employer that treats you well you can start your own business in that industry where you treat the workers well and you will prosper as a result of that dedicated labor. It's a profitable, practical thing to do. Monopolizing labor is not. If you are going to argue that unions are a good thing, then you need to take in the whole picture, not just the lives of the workers in the union. Because they can implement price controls on labor by striking for higher wages, then they can create labor shortages in an industry that are not supported by the majority of the people and which restrict the rights of their employers to run their own business without interference. Labor shortages in an industry create shortages of that good in the entire economy, and depending on the industry, can shut down much of the economy and cause widespread poverty for both innocent consumers and the workers themselves.

__________________
.

"It is extremely difficult for our contemporaries to conceive of the conditions of free banking because they take government interference with banking for granted and as necessary"

-- Ludwig von Mises

Labor unions are the free right of citizens to assemble in groups. It is furthermore the natural response in a marketbased economy of employees to the implicit advantage of employers.

In Denmark some 90% of the labor market is unionized and has been for many, many years. And we are still as competative as ever. In fact we are currently booming and are in severe need of skilled laborers.

TAKE IN MORE IMMIGRANTS

__________________
Aint but three things in this world thats worth a solitary dime,
But old dogs and children and watermelon wine.
Tom T. Hall
http://www.obamatruth.org/

It should not be a right. Imagine if all the corporations in the US assembled into a group and decided to raise prices, because if they all assembled into a group, then there would be no competition and people would have to pay those heightened prices. Corporations are not different than people in the legal sense. A market-based economy, the theory of which was put forth by Adam Smith, explicitly gives the government the right to prevent the formation of these kinds of monopolies.

European economies. I am also not familiar with the laws regulating the activities of unions in Denmark. I am aware, however, that Denmark does quite well with a mixed-economy which may have something to do with its history and its size and relative interest groups that pertain to geographic differences. It is an exception in this category.

__________________
.

"It is extremely difficult for our contemporaries to conceive of the conditions of free banking because they take government interference with banking for granted and as necessary"

-- Ludwig von Mises

Good suggestion. I, for one, am very much for it.