Middle Class

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The left continues to prattle on and on about the “war onthe middle class”, which is the label they attach nowadays to any serious discussionof government spending.       

For the moment, let’s put aside the rather obvious pointthat the middle class will be the first to be wiped out if the grown-ups don’t avertthe debt-induced economic collapse and currency debasement that looms.  Instead, let’s visit a country where the pro-laborpolicies our American unionists demand have already been in place for 80 years. 

This nation’s Federal Labor Law was enacted in 1932.  It sets not only basic minimum wage, but a differentminimum wage for each general category of employment, flexed upwards to accountfor education and regional cost of living disparities. Salaries must be increasedannually at a minimum set by law.  Take that, Scott Walker!

For every six days of work, employees get one paid day ofrest.  Overtime at double pay must bepaid for exceeding any 8 hour shift, not just a weekly total. No one can workmore than 9 hours of overtime in a week.  Screwyou, Chris Christie!

Every worker is guaranteed a minimum of 6 days of vacationwhen hired, and 2 days are added for each year worked up to five.  Employees get 25% premium added to their paywhile on vacation.  7 mandatory holidays,with triple time pays if worked.  How do you like me now, Jerry Brown, youhippie traitor! 

There is mandatory severance pay for both termination andresignation – three months plus additional 20 days for each year employed.  And the fired employee is entitled to sue forreinstatement at the employer’s expense; the law presumes wrongful terminationunless the employer can prove otherwise. Talkto the clenched fist, Rand Paul!

Employers must fund employees’ personal retirement accounts,as well as provide housing allowance, annual bonus, government health carecontributions, and other benefits totaling 29% of base salary.  Plus profit sharing at 10% of earnings mustbe paid to workers, with management excluded. Eat it, lousy Koch Brothers!

Labor unions must be recognized if just 20% of the workforceregisters.  Collective bargainingagreements are negotiated between the employer’s representative and therepresentative of the national union every two years.  Holy CardCheck, Batman, only 20%?  Wait until theother occasional dishwashers hear about this…

The entrenched national unions all back one political party,a democrat-socialist party which has held serve for 72 of the 80 years sincethese pro-labor laws were enacted. The politicians are pro-union, the judgesare pro-union, the government is pro-union and the law itself is pro-union.  Dude,where’s my passport?      

Can you guess this land of union plenty and middle-classabundance?  Mexico!  So when you see all those public union workersprotesting in American state capitals, here is the translation of theirwar-chant: “hey, hey, ho, ho, let’s be just like Mex-i-co!”  

After 80 years of the unionist stacked-deck, oil-rich Mexico’s nominal per-capita GDP is just $9,423 rankingit 64^th, just behind rioting-as-we-speak Libyaand economic juggernaut Uruguay.Eight decades of living the union dream has produced a living standard lessthan 1/5 of its union-busting, worker-be-damned Gringo neighbor to the north. Muchworse, actually, because $25 billion of Mexico’sincome is remittances sent home from the millions of Mexicans workingunion-free in the United States. 

The richest man in the world is Mexican, while 40% of hiscountrymen live in poverty.  Mexico’s incomegap is greater than ours; so too its urban/rural disparity. Mexico’s middleclass – and this is all about the middle class, remember – is ¼ the size ofours, proportional to population. 

So why haven’t 80 years of union privilege, strict labor laws,single party rule, and mandated wealth redistribution brought prosperity to Mexico?  For the same reason they won’t here and never have anywhereelse ever – you can’t redistribute skill.     

Celine Dion is wealthy because she has a beautiful voiceand has worked insanely hard her whole life to perfect her act.  While the state can force her to share her earningswith me, it can’t make that sound come out of my mouth. 

For me to get paid more than my singing is worth, she mustbe paid less than hers is worth.  That isthe simple zero-sum arithmetic of socialism; and it works the same for masons, teachers,engineers, accountants, plumbers, store clerks, managers, and machinists, too.     

And what does Ms. Dion do when she is paid less than sheis worth?  She quits singing, and we bothget poorer.  Figuratively speaking, Mexico’s 80 years of pro-labor, anti-business politicshas created a land of bad singers; ditto for Greece,Detroit and the Milwaukee Public School district, whereeven the Principals are unionized. 

If tough labor laws, pro-union government, and wealth redistributionwere the pathway to prosperity, then it would be Mexico building that wall on oursouthern border, not us.  Skills, not union propaganda, are the pathwayto the middle class; too bad our children are only getting the latter in the classroom these days.    

“Moment Of Clarity” is a weekly commentary by Libertarianwriter and speaker Tim Nerenz, Ph.D.  Visit Tim’s website www.timnerenz.com to find your moment andorder his new book, “Tooth Fairy Government.”