Census Bureau: All rich US counties in VA

[Al B. Sure!]

Yikes! At least I know that can't happen in Virginia!

You can't imagine how huge unions are in Philly... and they're all tied up in the Democratic political machine that runs the city.

[Hauldren Collider]

Assuming that union membership is voluntary and that laws do not prohibit non-union employees in the specific industry, there is nothing un-capitalistic about unions

By your logic, Alby, we shouldn't have the FTC and the government shouldn't break up monopolies.
Hmmm, there might be something to that. Classical economics

(consider, a corporation is a 'banding together' of share-holders).

While you could describe it as a "banding together" since it is a means of distributing ownership to many people, it's about as far from a buyer's union as could possibly be. In fact, if I understand correctly, the way shares are bought and sold on the stock market is very close to an ideal market.

[Al B. Sure!]

http://www.phillymag.com/articles/the_last_union_town/

Philadelphia: The Last Union Town

The city has long been held economic hostage by trade unions that overcharge for everything from building skyscrapers to screwing in light bulbs at the Convention Center. Can a reform-minded mayor and a surprisingly feisty City Council stop them?

The lengthy article talks about how unions have held the city's economy hostage.


HOWEVER, that does not mean unions inherently are uncapitalistic or damaging to the economy; they just can develop into that under the right conditions.

[Elok]

Here we go.





Still can't find any "free-market pinup," "libertarian pinup," nothing. I guess it's just a difficult concept to convey in the form of a flirty chick. I'd try stars-and-stripes stuff, but that somehow doesn't seem properly equivalent.

[Cort Haus]

Well, that's a start, but it's the only relevant result for "Communist Cheesecake" I found on Google Images. Lots of pictures of actual cheesecake, along with a few furries. Yuk. Does anybody with better Google-fu care to contribute?

Elok, I for one appreciated this contribution to the thread very much. Do you have any other pictures of this intriguing lady in her rather fetching leather dress?

[Al B. Sure!]

HC, why did you ignore my main point:

If they truly are demanding compensation that is beyond the market wage, let them price themselves out of work! There will always be people willing to work for less than what the unions demand.

[Hauldren Collider]

I think what you're looking for is pictures of prostitutes, Elok. Negotiable affection, courtesy the free market.

[Hauldren Collider]

HC, why did you ignore my main point:

If they truly are demanding compensation that is beyond the market wage, let them price themselves out of work! There will always be people willing to work for less than what the unions demand.

A wonderful idea! Right to work states

However by the same logic, would you agree that monopolies like Bell or Microsoft shouldn't have FTC restrictions? After all, nothing is stopping other companies from producing competing products at lower prices.*

*Barriers to entry are the traditional argument in favor of antitrust

[Elok]

Elok, I for one appreciated this contribution to the thread very much. Do you have any other pictures of this intriguing lady in her rather fetching leather dress?

Turns out she's Sharon Tate. Try not to think about...that while viewing this blog.

[Cort Haus]

Negotiable affection, courtesy the free market.

Ah, Ladies of negotiable affection

Good to see that Pratchett is having a positive effect on your vocabulary, HC. Keep up the good reading. And when you've finished them all, read them all again.

[Elok]

I think what you're looking for is pictures of prostitutes, Elok. Negotiable affection, courtesy the free market.

The few prostitutes I have seen do not make a compelling case for free-market capitalism, I fear.

[Al B. Sure!]

Here's a classic case. I know it's long, but I highly urge everyone to read it. It shows how unions can run amok and it might make you chuckle:

Some business owners say certain unions — and not all unions are alike — run an efficient shakedown operation: If you don’t hire us, at three times the lowest bid, protesters with picket signs and insinuations might show up at your burger joint. In years past, such a union protest might have stopped Philadelphians from entering a business. But that’s changing; on the day the electricians picketed Five Guys — perhaps signaling a shift in public regard for the unions — diners filled the restaurant like any other day.

Other businesses claim similar encounters with Philadelphia unions. In 2004, the producers of MTV’s The Real World famously packed up and left town when confronted by the city’s unions. They returned eventually — after public demonstrations against the unions — but the debacle made Philadelphia notorious in the film and television industry. Likewise, the city’s reputation has long suffered among groups who book events at the Convention Center, only to encounter union entanglements. For instance, due to labyrinthine union work rules, multi-step tasks must be done in a certain order; masonry workers might stand around waiting for carpenters to build a new form to hold their cement, while the carpenters wait for laborers to demolish the old form, and they in turn wait for the electricians to shut off power. Meanwhile, everyone is paid. Even worse than the cost is the embarrassment for the city: In 2002, for instance, a carpenter and his union’s leader got into a fistfight on the Convention Center floor.

It’s as if Philadelphia wants to host a fancy party, but the crazy-uncle unions always drink too much and soil the living room carpet.

A poll a few years ago revealed that only 17 percent of Philadelphia’s Convention Center shows chose to return to the city. The PCC commissioned a group of consultants to find out why. They reported back that “virtually every customer reported that PCC show labor was inefficient, hostile, or both. The PCC labor situation is perceived as the worst encountered anywhere in the country at this time.”

That is to say: The unions here are the worst in America. The Convention Center’s desperate administrators cry that the unions scare off customers, and — to give a sense of scale — all Center City feels the impact. Restaurants suffer. Hotels suffer. Movie theaters, souvenir shops, taxi drivers suffer. Taxpayers all.

A couple of years ago, Philadelphia witnessed one of the worst moments — or the best, depending which side you’re on — in the history of its labor unions. The day of disgrace — or, again, triumph — began with a claim to bragging rights. Thanks to the new Comcast tower, Philadelphia would boast the country’s tallest “green” building: 58 floors of ecological friendliness. The designers found special glass, special paint, special toilets and special carpet that would earn the building an official seal from the U.S. Green Building Council: a prestigious and forward-thinking achievement for the City of Philadelphia.

But about those special toilets.

They’re flushless urinals that require no water; gravity does the work, pulling the waste through a filter and then down a pipe and into the sewage system. It’s clean and efficient, and in the Comcast building alone, it would save the city 1.6 million gallons of water each year.

Not so fast, the city’s plumbers union said. Less water means fewer pipes. Fewer pipes mean less work. And so the union blocked the job, threatening the completion of the building, and in turn delaying all the business that would happen inside it. But worst of all was the prospect of losing the title of “tallest green building” to that most dastardly of cities: New York. The Comcast tower would stand 975 feet, only a bit taller than the 962-foot Bank of America building under construction in New York. And the Big Apple’s building came equipped, of course, with the special toilets.

In a stunning testament to the power of Philadelphia’s unions, the city twaddled in the face of the obvious choice: “We’re still looking into this,” the top building code official told the Inquirer at the time. “I want to make sure they’re safe.”

Sounds prudent, except that flushless toilets have long been installed at elementary schools elsewhere in the state, as well as in state government offices. And so far, both children and bureaucrats have remained intact.

One clue to Philadelphia’s paralysis lies in the city’s building code: Philadelphia is, for example, said to be the only large city in America that doesn’t call for PVC pipe as the standard plumbing material. It still calls for cast iron. PVC is cheaper, lighter and longer lasting. But one plumber can carry 10 lengths of PVC pipe; it takes 10 plumbers to carry a length of cast iron.

One reason for the political, financial and social strength of the building trade unions in Philadelphia is that construction — unlike textiles, say, or automotive work — can’t be outsourced overseas. So without competition in the market, the building trades maintain a powerful grip on one of the citizenry’s most basic needs: shelter.

Philadelphia’s unions have such a hold on construction costs in the city that they — unlike home prices, unlike job salaries and taxes — can disobey the market. So the city’s residents and businesses are squeezed between economic reality on one side, and unions on the other: lower home values, higher building costs.

Knowing the power of the trade unions, the developers of the “green” Comcast tower had little option but to strike an absurd deal: The Comcast tower got its new toilets. But only because it also got a full set of old-fashioned pipes, installed by union plumbers. The pipes run throughout all 58 floors, just like in any other skyscraper.

Except in the Comcast tower, they’re not connected to anything.

[Hauldren Collider]

Ah, Ladies of negotiable affection

Good to see that Pratchett is having a positive effect on your vocabulary, HC. Keep up the good reading. And when you've finished them all, read them all again.

I'm pretty sure I've read all the books, started reading them back in middle school. I actually got my copy of The Bromeliad Trilogy signed a few years back at the National Book Festival

Terry Pratchett

[Elok]

Uh, Al, in that example the union is actually doing something which appears to be in the interests of its actual workers (aside from negative PR).

[Al B. Sure!]

A wonderful idea! Right to work states

However by the same logic, would you agree that monopolies like Bell or Microsoft shouldn't have FTC restrictions? After all, nothing is stopping other companies from producing competing products at lower prices.*

*Barriers to entry are the traditional argument in favor of antitrust

I like Microsoft

Yes, barriers to entry can complicate matters. I did read a book in high school, HC, that you might be interested in. I'll see if I can remember the title but it was about the so-called Robber Barons and the emergence of anti-trust legislation and how in most cases, trust busting was unfounded and caused more problems (and that the so-called Robber Barons weren't actually so bad and corrupt).