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Show The Paper That Dares To Take A Stand May 27, 1976 The Utah Independent Page 3 NEVER TAKE A FREE BUS RIDE MARILYN MANION ON STRIKE Several weeks ago, the buses and cablecars in San Francisco stopped running. Meanwhile, back on the East coast. New York was poised on the brink of a strike by bus and subway employees. Citizens across monopoly. There is only one police department, only one fire department, and Only one public school system, and if there is a strike there is no alternative source of supply. On the other hand, there are four the land have been major automobile to strikes by subjected collectors, school teachers, policemen and firemen. In every case, of garbage course, these public employees want more money and more fringe benefits. Must resign we sit back and ourselves to such events as part of the normal state of affairs? companies. If Ford goes out on strike, you can buy a Chevrolet, and if the workers at Standard Oil go out on strike, you can buy gas from Sunoco. But the main reason why we shouldnt have collective bargaining in the public sector is that public decisions are political David Denholm doesnt think so. And, as Executive Vice decisions. They are made by government in a political President bargaining relationship completely destroys the of the Service Research Public Council, he proposes to do something about it. Here is what he told his Manion Forum radio audience: The basic problem is a fallacy that has been foisted off on the people and on the government by the union leaders who have profited greatly from it, and that is the idea that collective bargaining is the proper relationship for employe relations in the public sector They do this because they think that this will bring about harmony; that this will bring about stability in the labor force. Unfortunately obviously - - and this is not the case. In the states where they have legalized compulsory public sector bargaining, the number of strikes has increased dramatically. Michigan passed such a law in 1965. In the years before the passage of that law, there were only a few strikes -less than ten and in three - years after the passage of that law there were more than a hundred strikes. The law itself precipitated this strike situation, because in a collective bargaining relationship the union goes to the table to make and when the demands aren't met the only resource they have left is to go out on strike. Once you have forced a collective bargaining relationship, you have set up a situation in which strikes are absolutely inevitable, and no law prohibiting a strike is going to be of any effect. The public sector is a demands, context. A collective normal concept of democratically elected, representative government. The two systems are completely incompatible. Collective bargaining leads to strikes. When there is a strike in the public sector ' in a monopoly service, overwhelming political pressures on the public officials are created by that strike. Their only choice is to settle the strike. And the only way of stopping it is to cave in to the union. The Public Service Research Council, through its action arm, which is Americans Against Union Control of Government, is engaged in an education and lobbying effort. Also, we send out bulletins to people all across the country bringing their attention to the fact that the unions are attempting to grab power in the government through one legislative device or another; that now is the time for them to get in touch with their elected representatives and to insist that they not vote for legislation which would compel government to bargain, which would legalize public employee strikes, which would bring compulsory, binding arbitration into public policy decisions and all these other apparatuses that the unions are looking for in terms of gaining control of the government decision-makin- g process. American Way Features Readers comments and questions are welcome. Please write us at " The American Way Features , P.O. Box 1098, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee 37863. Acting on wrong knowledge, no one, however well intentioned, can be more than partially right. Aldous Huxley Never take a free bus ride, Clinton R. Miller, Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate from Utah, admonished the members of the Senior Citizens Speech Gub of Salt Lake City. The most expensive bus ride you will ever take is a free one Miller said. There is no such thing as a free ride. When we ride free, someone (else) has to pay for it. The free ride to Socialism is a ride to Communism. Miller called the Utah Transit bus system one of the most socialized, and therefore immoral, bus systems in America. When we cast our vote for a demogogue who promises us a free meal, free med ical service, Tree pension, Tree housing, and free bus service we are simply legalizing a government to steal from the industrious and give to the spendthrift and indolent," Miller said. The smallest acts of immorality teach children and grandchildren to be immoral. None of us would think of getting on a bus with a loaded gun and taking our fare from a young man who had earned it by delivering papers, Miller said, yet, somehow we have rationalized that when we elect a demagogue who will tax that paper boy to give us a Tree bus ride, somehow this is moral and good." The older we are the wiser we should become," Miller said. To explain this point Mr. Miller had every member put a nickel into a tin cup. He then asked the members to start taking out two nickels each. Only half of the group received two nickels. The rest received nothing. You cant take more from a system than you put into it," Mr. Miller explained. It is immoral to try to take out more than you put into life, or your government." Voluntary charity with your own funds, to those in genuine need, is one of the greatest of all virtues. It is diametrically opposite to socialism which steals from others to give to yourself and others," Miller said. THE WAR WE DONT KNOW ABOUT Weve got to learn that all these petty political differences within and between Free World nations are just that: Petty! Petty in contrast with the vital differences that matter. Weve got to learn that it is the differences we all have with the Communist World that is the threat of threats to us all, to us each and all. If it is only that our government is not American enough to realize this, then we owe it to ourselves and the rest of the still Free World to get a government that is American enough or well soon end up where the Cambodians and Vietnamese now are, where all of the Captive Nations have been for too long. As the Cong, even as in Congress, got us to deny promised aid to South Vietnam, even as they are moving to cut us off from our Panama Canal and from Free China, Rhodesia, South Africa, Chile and Southern Europe, and pushing us to supply and support Red China, Cuba and the Soviets. As the Communists were the victors in War II and it took us years to realize it, so too, the Communists will be the victors in War III against us and we dont even know the wars on. th CLICHES OF SOCIALISM When a devotee of private property, free market, limited government principles states his position, he is inevitably confronted with a barrage of socialistic cliches. Failure to answer these has effectively silenced many a spokesman for freedom. Here are suggested answers to some of the most persistent of the Cliches of Socialism. These are not the only answers or even the best possible answers; but they may help you or others to develop better explanations of the ideas on liberty that are the only effective displacement for the empty promises of socialism. Private should businessmen welcome government competition. When a Castro commandeers property and takes dictatorial charge of one major industry after another, hardly anyone is fooled into believing that this is just another example of good clean competition. But let American business or professional people protest the entry of government into such fields as electric power, shipbuilding, and medical service, and immediately they will be charged with unwillingness to face the rigors of competition: Why shouldnt the government be allowed to compete? Isnt the government' just another business competitor another examfor enterprise (as claimed, ple. in advertisements of the Rural Electrification Administration) a yardstick" (as claimed for the TV A)? of that competitive private enterprise many persons do not fully apThere features are preciate. In the first place, open competition affords no room for force; it is contrary to the basic rules of voluntary exchange to compel anyone to buy or sell anything. Free trade occurs only when, and because, each party sees a gain to himself from the transaction. No one needs to rob or another to cheat or brow-be- at come out ahead when an exchange is voluntary. A man may buy or reject whatever is offered to him by any seller, and if he thinks all suppliers are asking an exorbitant price for any given item, he is free to enter the business himself. That is another basic rule of competitive private enterprise: force is not to be used to exclude competitors from any business. Thats what open to means open competition anyone who chooses to risk his own resources on his own responsibility. Protecting or defending the lives and property of peaceful citizens is the proper business of government. And if government is Tl to serve effectively to suppress and discourage private outbreaks of violence, fraud, deliberate injury to peaceful persons, then government needs to be the strongest force in the society. Government involves force a monopoly of legal force; and thats all it is or ought to be. To the extent that government functions properly and maintains the peace, individuals are free to develop their individualities and serve themselves and one another in optimum fashion through competitive private enterprise and voluntary exchange. Why shouldnt the government be allowed to compete with entrepreneurs in the market place? Because government is the police power, competent only to perform policing functions. It has nothing to sell except its power to use force. If government offers bread, it offers, in effect, to force taxpayers to grow the wheat and mill it and bake the loaf and distribute it. If government offers old age assistance, it offers to force creative productive taxpayers to care for the nonproducers. If government offers money, it offers to take that money or its equivalent purchasing power from productive individuals, by force, if necessary. If government operates a business enterprise, it first must force taxpayers to provide the plant and equipment and personnel; in effect, government must collect taxes or tribute from each private operator in a given industry before it can set itself up as a competitor." Nor is government bound by any ordinary tests of success or failure, profit or loss. As long as government can collect taxes, it can't fail as a competitor, no matter how inefficient its operation. . It can thus bankrupt and drive from business the worst and the best of all private operators. Government can, and sometimes does, monopolize a peaceful business, such as handling the mails; not because it is more efficient than private operators but because it is powerful enough to eliminate competition. It always tends toward monopoly. A businessman has every right to complain if government enters his industry as a competitor." How would you like to compete in private business with someone who could force you to provide his initial capital and send you the bill for all his losses? Competition, in the free market sense of the term, is a nonviolent, peaceful attempt to win a customers favor by serving him best. Government's only is role see that force is not to proper used against any customer or against any active or potential When government competitor. uses its force and power of taxation to enter the field of business, that is tyranny, not competition. Paul L Poirot 0D1M ,d.P.d.n, Salt Lake City, Utah The Utah Independent is published by the Utah Independent each Tuesday at 57 East Oakland Avenue, Salt Lake City, Utah 84115. Yearly subscription rate Is $10.00 by surface mall in the United States, $15.00 foreign. Second Class Postage -- nd 57 East Paid at Salt Lake City changa of addrcu lorma and correspondonca fo Oakland Avenue, Salt Lake City, Utah 84115 Utah's Largest and Fastest- - Growing Subscription Weekly . |