The last Saturday in February, demonstrators in every U.S. capitol expressed their solidarity with the public workers of Wisconsin. I spent the subsequent day reading the coverage.
I focused especially on reader comments posted to the various newspaper websites. From those who opposed the demonstrations, I sensed a great deal of anger. This anger is entirely justified. There is very much to bemoan today in the American political-economy. But in general, the opposition viewpoints were stunted by arguments without merit and a narrow assessment of the problem.
First, there was the common criticism that unions represent “socialism,” “Marxism” or, as sometimes stated, “fascism.” But the mere assertion of these terms says practically nothing. They do not constitute a reasoned explanation; they are slurs. An insult does not substantiate or supply evidence for a point of view. Rather, sloganeering of this sort serves to hide with rhetoric what is lacking in argumentative strength.
Second, Franklin Roosevelt’s antagonism to public unions was often invoked. Though not as empty as name-calling, quotations by Roosevelt likewise do not prove anything. Roosevelt had much to say on many topics, and most who now cite him would be aghast at some of his other statements.
Furthermore, no historical figure is an oracle. Roosevelt spoke nearly 80 years ago. A position he held may or may not be valuable counsel today, but this would require discussion and assessment. His words alone do not move the anti-union position beyond yet another rhetorical slogan.
Third, the budget crisis in Wisconsin and other states was cited. This of course is quite real, but it needs to be seen within the context of U.S. government policy and the U.S. economy more generally.
Take for example, the $5 billion government subsidy to Boeing for the production of its new 787 Dreamliner. This single shift from taxpayers to a corporation is equivalent to over 36 times this year’s Wisconsin deficit. And Boeing receives many additional subsidies thanks to taxpayers, such as some of the U.S. foreign aid given to Egypt, used in turn to purchase Boeing’s line of domestic surveillance equipment.
Not coincidentally, over the past five years, Boeing paid a total tax rate of 4.5 percent. Boeing represents just one example of the gigantic system of corporate welfare — funded entirely by tax dollars — that grotesquely dwarfs the fiscal costs of public unions.
This in turn raises, fourth, another oft-made claim, that public workers earn more than private-sector workers. The economist Jeffrey H. Keefe has shown that for full-time compensation (including wages and benefits), private-sector employees earn more at all levels of education except one — those without a high school diploma. A separate recent study by The New York Times came to similar conclusions.
Public worker compensation is a false problem. The real issue for working people of every kind concerns fair compensation and fair taxation.
In 2007, the bottom 80 percent of Americans accounted for 15 percent of the nation’s net worth and 7 percent of its financial wealth, according to G. William Domhoff of the University of California, Santa Cruz. The Great Recession has surely widened this gap.
And, as the Wall Street bailouts make plain, this distribution of wealth is not the product of a “free market”; it follows largely from government policy choices that favor large businesses and their ownership by those at the top.
People with angry voices that strike out for fairness and financial autonomy should direct their attention to the origin of this situation, not to those who, like themselves, are struggling within it.
Michael Lang is an assistant professor of history at the University of Maine, where his research and teaching focuses on the history of globalization.