Friday, March 27, 2009

Why Super Smart Economists support EFCA?

Refusal of secret ballot voting is anti-democratic. Yet some of the finest economists have publicly endorsed Employee Free Choice Act(EFCA) which does just that(explained in the previous post) . So why are people with stratospheric IQ supporting such a dumb act. The main reason is they believe that strengthening unions will increase wages of working class that has for long stagnated  in real terms. To achieve this end they are willing to use any means including denying secret ballot voting which is the basic right of every worker. Jadgish Bhagwati, one of the best International Trade experts gives his line of reasoning for defending this act,though he accepts that denial of automatic secret ballot is hard to defend.

However, I am not convinced. It's a little presumptuous to say that once unions get this act passed they will no longer demand other things like restrictions on free trade. AFL-CIO has for long advocated that free trade hurts the working class and would surely do everything to make sure that trade talks do not move ahead unless they get significant concessions.

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