Boy, does it suck to be in a battleground state. Since Michigan is in play, we have to deal with pandering candidates, a continuous stream of advertisements and those wonderful robocalls.
As a diversion, I've begun to notice the new ad campaign by the UAW. It's well done, and focuses on nice union folks telling us how they think that child labor is bad (DUH), how we should force other countries to be environmentally benign, and how folks in Vietnam only make 12 cents an hour which is just sooo bad blah blah blah. Certainly, we understand those are virtuous objectives.
But why would the UAW care about how the Chinese handle environmental issues or child labor? It's because they are trying to make things cost more for our international trading partners, and therefore hopefully retain more jobs in the US. While a nice objective, their commercials overlook one thing: those initiatives would have the result of raising costs for all the products that we purchase.
We already have options. If you don't want to buy some sneakers from China at Wal-Mart, you can buy union made American sneakers at another shop for twice the price. A huge majority of folks opt for the cheaper product, but you do have the option. It's called capitalism.
The UAW does not want you to have that capitalist choice, and would rather force you to make a decision favorable to them. It's just like the Teachers Unions who are trying to prevent vouchers, or the environmental wackos who got Congress to outlaw incandescent light bulbs.
The UAW has already lost the battle with the transplant car companies, and they are sucking air regarding recruitment. Their intransigence has contributed to the decline of our auto companies, and they have sold out their members on health care (see VEBA).
If the UAW and their members want to pay more for stuff, go head. But don't take away my options as a consumer. If I have to spend more money on various products, I might have to buy a cheap used Toyota instead of a more expensive UAW-built American car in a few years when the Oldsmobile gets retired.
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