MORE UNIONS….Yesterday I said that unionization, especially in the service sector, was pretty much the only serious idea on the table for increasing low-end wage growth. Mickey Kaus responds:
The only idea on the table? How about restoring economic growth and creating a tight labor market, giving all workers (not just the unionized) greater bargaining leverage? That’s the traditional Clintonite formula, no?
This is a point Mickey has made repeatedly to me, both in print and in person. Unfortunately, he’s never explained just how we’re going to get to this paradise of perpetual high economic growth and tight labor markets — even though there’s a Nobel prize waiting for him if he does. The dotcom bubble managed to accomplish it for three or four years out of the last 30, but that’s about it. So until I hear the plan, I’ll stick with my support for unions, flawed though they may be.
