Right on the Money: Doug Casey on Economics, Investing, and the Ways of the Real World with Louis James

Chapter 4

Doug Casey on Labor Unions

March 2, 2011

Louis: Doug, last week we talked about turmoil arising from the clash between labor unions clinging to wages from the fat years and bankrupt governments facing lean-year budgets. You saw that as a sign of more imminent chaos—a warning worth giving—but we didn’t really get into the subject of labor unions themselves. Knowing your philosophical bent, I’d bet your views on them might surprise many people.

Doug: My take is that there’s nothing inherently wrong with unions, as long as they are voluntary associations of people; they’re just associations working in certain trades or in certain places. It’s natural. Sure, why not?

But there are problems with the way unions exist in reality today, particularly when membership is made mandatory. That’s a violation of the human right to work. When you can’t work unless you join the union, and union membership is limited—often to people with political connections or family relations with union officials—it’s clear that the union is not a defender of the little guy, but a kind of protection racket. It’s a fraud.

That doesn’t just harm the individual worker who may wish to enter a unionized field; it has broad economic consequences. When only union members can work, the union can set wages at whatever level they want. That makes the product or service in question more expensive for everyone in society. In other words, unions don’t help the average working man; they only help those who can get ...