Scott Walker and Public‐Sector Unions
Today POLITICO Arena asks:
Did foes of Scott Walker make a bad bet on the recall?
My response:
We’ll know soon enough whether foes of Scott Walker made a bad bet on the recall, but either way, Wisconsin made a bad bet years ago in initiating America’s public‐sector union movement.
The incentives thus established — with concentrated benefits for state employees and dispersed costs for taxpayers — have made it all too easy for politicians to cave in to union demands, resulting over time in government workers with benefits far exceeding anything a rational market would afford — or those who pay for the benefits (taxpayers) can afford. Not surprisingly, therefore, states with strong public‐sector unions — California, Illinois, New York — are today in economic disarray.
Bad enough that private-sector unions make businesses less competitive, the remedy for which is moving to right‐to‐work states or abroad. States can’t move. But their businesses and citizens can — and they do. Witness California over the past decade, and New York for several decades. Scott Walker has done us all a favor by crystallizing the issues facing so many states today.
