Union employees are, in effect, taxed to support union political spending, as two centuries ago citizens were taxed to support the official state church, whether they shared that religion's beliefs or not. Needless to say, Al Gore has pledged never to allow union workers to control how their individual dues may be used for politics. This week the Sierra Club launched TV ads in New England aimed at George W. Bush, accusing him of polluting Texas, even though it never condemned Governor Bill Clinton for creating White Water by allowing his big contributors at Tyson Chicken to glut Arkansas rivers with chicken offal. Months ago, Sierra Club members voted not to oppose illegal immigration into the U.S., despite irrefutable evidence that this influx of immigrants is wrecking the fragile Southwest environment. Let's review a lesson all should have learned in Economics 101.
Socialism claims to serve people as workers, as producers of goods and services.
Capitalism serves people as consumers, as buyers of what others produce. Global free trade may hurt those workers who in the past, usually because trade barriers and government favoritism gave their product a marketplace monopoly, were paid more than a competitive price for their work. But allowing a competitive world price to prevail by tearing down trade barriers will benefit all of us as consumers. We will have more choices at lower prices. And we will avoid other economic poisons that government interference inevitably causes.