Collective Baraining

I recently read a poll result indicating that sixty-one percent of the people support the right of Unions to collectively bargain on behalf of employees. I am always skeptical of polls. As a researcher and scientist I understand very well that any experiment can yield the desired results if a little effort is put into the data collection process. I have seen Federal funds pay for research which was pre-determined in its results (and the research data, although vague at best, indicated the desired results.... SUCCESS!) So when I look at polls I see the most easily manipulated form of research - OPINION.

So what's my opinion? Well, in general terms, I agree that if a person wants to surrender their individual freedom, power, self-esteem and dignity, then they should be free to do so by having a Union negotiate a common existence for all of its members (well, everyone except the Union leadership). The flip side that I did not see reflected in the poll is that if people do NOT want to surrender these things unto a collectivist organization - if a person wishes to maintain their autonomy and individual value - then they should have the right to opt out of a Union's collectivistic approaches. I didn't see the overwhelming numbers that the same participants would have revealed, had they only been asked this second, followup question.

Collective bargaining has that nasty word at the beginning of it: COLLECTIVE. Collective salvation means that I can't be saved unless and until we all are saved (you are dooming me, so get with it!) Collective religions require that all people of the world convert to the same belief; people who refuse to convert must die (sound familiar to anyone?) Collectivist governments say that all people are equal (except the leadership) and have "rights" to things that the government provides - such as food, water, shelter, and work. When the government runs out, its still your "right" but you aren't allowed to pursue it yourself. In reality the language has been manipulated so that peoples' "rights" have actually become privileges. We all have a right to food (and it is our own responsibility to obtain it). We all have a right to shelter (again, our responsibility to provide it). We all have a right to work (unless you try to enter a Unionized profession without a union card... oops, I guess that's not a right anymore, its a privilege that is controlled by a collectivist organization who does not support individual rights).

Rights are of the people... rights are inherently individual. Privileges are controlled by organizations... someone controls the access to the privilege. So when your right to work clashes with a Union's power to issue the privilege to work, you have lost your individual rights. I might not seek to work as an electrician (or a Broadway stage hand) but my right to pursue that kind of work is thwarted, pummeled and annihilated by collectivist unions who maintain power by controlling access to the work and profit at the expense of the individual who is coerced into surrendering a significant portion of their earnings to the union elite leadership.

I also recently saw the documentary film "Freakonomics" and I came to realize that economics completely explains power and government - collectivism and privilege. If I can benefit by restricting your access to something then why would I not continue to find more and more things to restrict access to? It reminded me of another use of the word "governor" which is a device applied to U-Haul trucks (for example) to keep them from going above a certain speed (again, for example, sixty-five miles an hour... do I talk from experience?). Governors (and governments) can only limit, contain, diminish, or constrain. No government can create anything without simultaneously limiting many other things. Our Federal government has "created" national parks by limiting the rights of the states and the people to use the same land. Some people see this as beneficial, but when Yellowstone National Park went up in flames due to national fire management policies we saw the impact of a restricting, collectivist approach to the broad damage to a natural resource. Had the power to manage the land been left to the three states that contain the park then we might have seen different results.

But of course, the Earth is much more powerful a land manager than any collectivist union or government and so today there is new growth throughout the land that was recently charred and smoldering embers. Likewise, it is possible for new individualist growth to reject the power, privilege and corruption inherent in collectivist unions and overbearing governments to restore individual freedoms to the people. Communism does not free the people, it enslaves the people for the benefit of the elite. True freedom requires less top-level government and more personal responsibility (self-government). Only that way can we truly be free.

Fight the power... by freeing yourself. Question all that you know... decide for yourself what your best course of action is in all things. Look to your neighbors and realize that they are your community - they, along with you, can be civil, self-motivated, self-governing and fully empowered human beings. Do not look to distant powerful elites to address and solve the problems of your community. Their only economic motivation to do so is based in a desire to pull more power away from you. Personal individual freedom is the antidote to large, invasive, distant and corrupt governments. Exercise your personal power through intelligent self-government. Once the people no longer need a massive, collectivist overlord it will wither on the vine, shrinking down to only the size and power that is required to support (not control) the multiple self-governing communities that surround it.