Good evening! This is Hayek speaking. I would first like to thank you, Ben, for awakening me from the dead this weekend, just in time for such an interesting point in history. I just got back from Wisconsin and spend a few hours observing the protests that were going on at the capital….and I spent a few more hours( about 10) driving back. You picked a perfect weekend to bring me back from the dead. After doing some research on this unreliable technology called the “internet”, I found some interesting information on the bill that the Wisconsin governor was proposing. This past weekend I saw Protesters at the Capitol to mark their opposition or support of Walker’s call to strip collective bargaining rights from public-sector unions to close the state’s budget gap. The state is in debt, and the unions are joining together to try and fight the cuts in their pay benefits. I also saw many middle class workers who thought the unions where getting a fair share and think the bill should be passed.
In my book, The Road to Serfdom, I said “That in a competitive society most things can be had at a price- though it is often a cruelly high price we have to pay- is in fact the importance of which can hardly be overrated. The alternative is not, however, complete freedom of choice, but orders and prohibitions which must be obeyed and, in the last resort, the favor of the mighty.” (p. 130) Meaning everything comes at a cost, and everyone should be equally a part of paying that price.
While on the internet, I found an interesting article. Robert Novy-Marx, who studies government pensions at the University of Rochester, states that “Either taxpayers will have to foot that bill or union members will have to take a haircut…So the unions are representing interests that are diametrically opposed to the taxpayers." The Unions already have a good deal, and Walker is asking them to only pay a fraction of what the private sector employees are paying.
After being in Wisconsin for the weekend, I have come to the conclusion that Wisconsin has a debt that needs to be paid, and that has to come at a cost for some people.
Now it’s time for me to go back to being dead. Goodbye all.
Let's all keep in mind that Wisconsin's taxes for individuals rank 11th highest in the nation, but corporate taxes come in at 40th place in the country. Instead of hurting more working people and creating an even higher income disparity (not to mention the attack on union rights, rights that working class people died for), how about we tax the corporations that are making millions of dollars? This is so unRandian, but I just wanted to say it.
ReplyDeleteFigures come from http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/topic/67.html