Americans are in a time of rising labor unrest and activism, including multiple unionization campaigns, regulatory and legal changes to make it easier for unionization efforts to succeed, the “Fight for $15” minimum wage agitation, and the Hollywood writer’s strike. However, such discussions and campaigns seldom approach the issues involved from a
After narrowly failing to make it through the California Assembly last year, AB 257 has been put back on the Sacramento agenda this year. Backers—unions and their Democrat operatives—think they can succeed this time. Now crunch time for that hypothesis is approaching, as the bill passed the state senate’s Labor, Public Employment and Retirement
Leonard Read, founder and longtime guiding force of the Foundation for Economic Education, was completely committed to the belief that liberty and the private property that enabled it were both more moral and more productive than any alternative. He thought that if people could just “see” what he saw, liberty’s cause would be advanced. That is why
American law protects what is called the “right to strike.” However, Leonard Read found no moral code that permits such action. Original Article: “There Is No Moral Right to Strike”
Not satisfied with putting thousands of people out of work with its infamous AB 5 legislation, California lawmakers now are going after fast-food businesses. Original Article: “ AB 257: Another Antieconomic California Boondoggle” This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher
The special legal status of unions is what harms workers. Not the so-called “scabs.” Narrated by George Pickering. Original article: “Scabs” Are the True Labor Day Heroes .
An audio version of this article is available here . As long as I can remember, unions have attacked as “scabs” those willing to accept work for wages and conditions those unions reject, even if it involves crossing union picket lines. In fact, that usage goes back centuries, from English slang for a mean, low, “scurvy” rascal or scoundrel. As
There is an old lawyering adage that says “If the law is on your side, pound the law. If the facts are on your side, pound the facts. If neither is on your side, pound the table.” It also has an alternate ending which says, “When neither is on your side, pound your opponent.” This adage could be restated as: When you have a good argument, make it
When I started writing popular articles about economics, one of my major motivations was to demonstrate to my undergraduate students that it didn’t require advanced degrees in economics for them to competently evaluate economic policy issues and claims. They could get a long way simply by using careful, logical thinking, and consistently-applied
When unions are in their justifying-their-existence mode, they quickly turn to false claims, such as asserting that higher union wages benefit other workers. In fact, unions actually actually reduce the availability of union jobs, and force workers elsewhere, increasing labor supply and decreasing wages for those jobs. At a more basic level,
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.