Wisconsin in Perspective on the Protest-Revolution Scaleby
Robert Wenzel Recently by Robert Wenzel: Krugman Explains the Wisconsin Power Game
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker appeared on FOX News Sunday and told host Chris Wallace that he did not want to see any public employees lose jobs. Say what? Yup, he wants to break the back of public unions, which will result in some loss of power by public employees in negotiations, but this should not be viewed as some kind of brave battle to cut the size of government by any significant degree.
President Obama gets a lot of his support from unions and this looks to me like a Republican attack on that base. In other words, government budgets, including that of Wisconsin, are way out of control. Wisconsin will eventually not be able to pay out the pensions and other benefits promised to teachers and other government employees, so why not take the knife to the unions along with the benefits? Getting rid of unions for public employees isn't a bad idea, but as far as serious cuts beyond what must be done, not a chance. When you hear talk that education and healthcare need to be returned to the free markets and that charity should be conducted by private sector charity organizations, you will know that the battle is for liberty. Right now, the battle is for who gets to control the shrinking, because of the recession, plunder. There's no way I can cheer for a bunch of government workers protesting against some of their perks being taken away. I'd like to see their jobs ended. But I can't cheer on a Governor who doesn't show the slightest clue that he understands that public education makes education a bureaucratic monstrosity that turns curious by nature children into bored stiffs (some of whom end up being treated for something called ADD, when the real disease that they have is GCE – government controlled education). But, of course, current upheaval in the world is not now limited to Wisconsin. February 23, 2011 ©2011 Economic Policy Journal
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