Friday, April 3, 2009

"No Obama tax cut for you!"

The Jefferson County teachers union got approval in March to force non-union members to pay teachers union dues.

5 comments:

Hempy said...

The dues are a fee for service. Non-union teachers get the same benefits as union teachers. All this does is to end the free ride.

There's no requirement that non-union teachers join the union. If they don't want to join a union, that's their right.

Anonymous said...

That is seriously wrong. I happen to be a member of KEA, but voluntarily. When we get to the point where dues are deducted involuntarily from my wages by some group of people, that is an organization that I wouldn't wish to be part of. We already have the US Gov't doing the same thing.

Hempy said...

Kathi:

That doesn't address the fee for service issue.

If an organization is going to provide you with a service, then there needs to be some mechanism for collecting those fees. Payroll deduction happens to be the most convenient method. You offered no other alternative.

If you don't want the US government deducting taxes, social security or medicare from you income, then you should be promoting Alexander Hamilton's proportional tax on the movement of all moneys.

I realize that's a revolutionary idea, but Hamilton was an American revolutionary. He was very prescient in his views on taxation. He seemed to have had an instinct for what was coming.

In Federalist Paper 12, he wrote:

The ability of a country to pay taxes must always be proportioned, in a great degree, to the quantity of money in circulation, and to the celerity with which it circulates. Commerce, contributing to both these objects, must of necessity render the payment of taxes easier, and facilitate the requisite supplies to the treasury.

Michael said...

Hempy:
While unions serve a purpose joining a union should be a personal choice. Unions should not be so selfish as to demand membership from anyone they believe profits from their work.

Hempy said...

Michael:

Unions aren't demanding membership. They are simply asking for a fee for service.

The fee would allow a person to become a member and have the benefits of membership, but it is not required.

Union contracts usually specify that the union has to represent all workers whether they are a union member or not.

If people doesn't want to join a union for whatever reason, that's OK. But there's nothing wrong with paying a fee for the services they receive.

The fee, taken as a payroll deduction, simply makes the payment easier. That's the way it should be.

It would be counterproductive to have an onerous fee collection system that wouldn't benefit either union or non-union persons.