This is how Japanese companies have come to dominate the camera, motorcycles, and consumer electronics fields, to say nothing of automobiles. Contrary to the Business Party Line, this Japanese domination has benefited American consumers. If the government really wanted to help workers, it would give the billions to the workers as unemployment pay, for retraining, continued benefits, and early retirement, and let the obsolete industries go bankrupt. But Not You . Once again, business interests push this argument against the interests of employees.
Government workers are by far the largest single group of employees in the country.
Employers benefit by creating among the public a climate of opinion hostile to wage increases and strikes by this huge group. All workers are harmed by the presence in their midst of government employees who work for lower wages than those in other fields and are not as free as others to fight for higher wages. This helps keep down the general wage rate, and creates an air of suspicion of all strikes and demand for higher pay. The highest standard of living in the world is enjoyed in Western European countries, where both wages and taxes are high and most workers are unionized. Of all Western industrialized nations, only in the United States are public employees forbidden to strike.