[quote=CA renter]Just because the *employees* are paid more, it doesn’t necessarily mean that taxpayers are paying more for the services. Because they are public employees, there is no profit overhead.
Union employment usually means that the “profits” are spread out more among the employees, as opposed to being concentrated into a few hands at the top. This is far more beneficial to an economy, IMHO, because it keeps money **without a debt offset** circulating through the economy, as opposed to that money being used to hoard resources…causing workers to pay more for things (and having to “rent” as opposed to “own” assets), and getting into debt to do it. This *creates* better-paying jobs and provides for a much more stable economy.
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Cost of private vs. public schools [don’t have time right now, but will try to dig deeper into the numbers to make sure that the public school costs include capital expenditures and pensions, etc.]:
“In 2007–08, current expenditures per student in fall enrollment were $10,297 in unadjusted dollars. In 2007–08, some 55 percent of students in public schools were transported at public expense at a cost of $854 per pupil transported, also in unadjusted dollars.”
“According to the National Association of Independent Schools, the median tuition for their member private day schools in 2008-2009 in the United States was $17,441.”
You have side-stepped the point by trying to make this a public school vs private school discussion, which it is not.
It is a discussion about public jobs (school is a fine example) being served by union labor (monopoly) vs. non-union individuals.
For the same government job, there is no difference in overhead/profitability whether it is served by a union worker or by a non-union individual.
If you insert a “teaching contractor corporation” in between the employee and the employer then – yes – you will be paying profit overhead.
However, the cost is simply higher when you have to pay higher union wages than if you paid the employee directly. Take both the union and the private corporation out of the picture and there is no overhead at all.
I don’t buy for a second that those at the top of union structures aren’t in it for personal profit. Somehow unions have people convinced that they are for the public good. They are truly in it for themselves and behave exactly like greedy corporations. I don’t blame them for trying. It’s the American way, but when they unecessarily increase taxes under the guise of being lowly public servants, it is unacceptable and now comes the time for government employers to just say no to union labor.
