Friday's Destruction Of My Favorite Myths. "Unions Built The Middle Class."

I once attended a chess exhibition where the, at that time, reigning U.S. Champion, Alex Shabalov, played all comers simultaneously. The prize for anyone who could defeat him was $500. Anyone forcing him into a draw gained $300 for their personal use. Since he wanted as much practice playing Black as White, he alternated between the two positions in each of his matches. He played against 40 or so people, and no, the club owner did not pay out a single thin dime. there was something of interest that happened at one of the tables though. One player managed to take him beyond 30 moves, which I am led to understand is in itself impressive. This one player began so strongly that Shabalov actually pulled up a chair and spent the majority of his time at this one table. I looked over at Larry the club owner, and asked him if he was nervous, as it appeared to me that Shabalov might be in trouble. He laughed, and told me the skinny. The fellow playing Shabalov was one of Ohio's top ranked players, but not in the same league. He went on to explain that he simply read a few books on openings, and that Shabalov was merely being careful, so that he wouldn't blunder and lose the game due to some unforced error. He also added that once the game progressed past the point where merely studying from books would help, Shabalov would finish him off quickly. Guess what happened. When the challenger moved past his learned chops, the game was over within about 5 moves.

When ever I get into a debate on the topic of economics with some of the good people I know, I can always tell when their debating chops come entirely from reading and then parroting propaganda they've been fed. One of the most laughable of all of the standard lines is the ubiquitous, "Unions built the middle class," statement. The statement ignores history that a vibrant middle class existed several decades prior to the start of the union movement in our country, the fact that in those nations where the union movement started sooner, their development of a vibrant middle class was delayed by decades when compared to that development taking place here. It also ignores the fact that even at the height of union activity here in America, union participation in the private sector never grew beyond 12%.

Unions very well may do good things for their members, but people who are not members of those unions are all most always damaged by the results.

Rewriting history is nothing new however. We have all been taught in our governmentally run education system several things that are just not true. In this video, John Stossel takes on a few myths. As repeating history is a danger for those who choose not to learn, I find it somewhat disconcerting that we have allowed a false history to be taught with such regularity in our schools.

Franklin Roosevelt's policies did not pull us out of the great depression, they prolonged the agony for a full decade, where if we had just allowed the free market to work, it would have ended much sooner. Unemployment at the time never actually reached double digits until Herbert Hoover instituted the first of his stimulus packages. Unemployment remained at double digits until America entered WWII. Even after the war, our economy did not begin to come out of the malaise until the Presidency of Dwight Eisenhower, and his return to free market principles.

Part of the allure of accepting the mythology necessary to buy into the Keynesian school of economics is the belief that you really can be granted goodies from the public largess without consequence. Politicians get elected by making promises to enough small groups of special interests so that they may reach a coalition of at least 50%. Most of us know intellectually that the best answer for our country will be that rare individual who will stand up and campaign on a promise to eliminate all government subsidy, period. Unfortunately, such a person will never get elected. It is just psychologically more comfortable for people to believe that accepting the small economic discomforts which a free market system levies as a signal that change is needed can be permanently postponed.

The lens of history has been crystal clear on this point. The pain of ignoring market signals can never be put off indefinitely, and postponing the discomfort for a later date has always magnified that pain in an exponential fashion. Tweaking our education system to turn it into a Socialist reeducation system will not help either. As a matter of fact, now that we are on the beginning cusp of Ben Bernanke repeating Richard Nixon's practice of monetizing the debt, Barack Obama repeating the worst Keynesian spending binge since Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt, Barack Obama repeating the disastrous policy instituted by Jimmy Carter in Iran, with even more egregious forms of dhiminitude in Egypt, Tunisia, Sudan, Yemen, Libya, Algeria, Bharain, and God knows where else, I would say that getting the history right for future generations is even more important than ever.

If you have kids in school, I would make it a point to involve yourself at the local school board level to see that the curricula matches reality, lest your children join the long line of people who so confidentially know facts that just are not true.

Cross Posted from Musings of a Mad Conservative.

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Comment by JOHN DELASAUX on September 15, 2012 at 1:50pm: @John Wiseman

Textbook selection is most often done at the state level, to take advantage of volume discounts. School boards spend most of their time searching for new ways to get money from the taxpayers and wasting money on renovation projects to beautify the school campuses to attract the football crowd.

The interpretation of the textbooks occurs in the classroom, where the Liberal teacher has the most power to "adjust" the truth.

Comment by John Henry Botkin on September 15, 2012 at 1:30pm: The conclusion to this piece, "I would make it a point to involve yourself at the local school board level to see that the curricula matches reality," does not itself accord with reality. Those states that have signed on to Common Core Standards (http://www.corestandards.org/in-the-states) to be issued by Arne Duncan's Department of Education will not have the option of allowing a local school board to strike out on its own. Look at Chicago schools where Mr. Duncan served as superintendent before moving to his present position to see how effective his education ideas will be. Other States, like my home state, Texas, have taken curriculum decisions away from local school districts and given them to state officials. Education has long been the tool of those who aspire to reform society. All living Americans have been educated under curricula formulated by ideologues who have drifted far from the divinely decreed natural law paradigm of our founders. New age schools seek to bring about a new world order envisioned by the founders of the UN. Much of what is taught in our public schools has long been derived from the sources of the UNESCO World Core Curriculum that has been openly followed since GHW Bush promoted Goals 2000.

It is encouraging to hear John Stossel's presentation based on good research by knowledgeable people. We have within our grasp an ability to bring a respect for accurately presented information supported by empirical data back into our schools thanks to presentations such as this one. The question is, "Can men and women possessed of true knowledge overcome the blind allegiance of most people to the unsupportable paradigm that has been foisted upon us since our nation was young?"

Since Harvard and other Ivy League institutions began to promote a European intellectual model incorporating the principles that made such a mess of the French Revolution, our nation has been led down that path that leads to contempt for our very foundational principles. Recent discoveries in the field of molecular biology support non-Darwinist, non materialist understandings. The discussion of the historical and economic record presented in this video promotes a non-Marxist understanding of history and economics. If the foundations of contemporary materialistic tyrannies can be undone, it will be undone by spreading unfettered truth and teaching our young a respect for honor in its pursuit.

Comment by Debrajoe Smith-Beatty on September 14, 2012 at 7:04pm: Thanks for the article.

Comment by Judy Lyford on September 14, 2012 at 6:43pm: It wasn't always the "good old days," but there were a few things better back then. I had old school books (sometimes 10 or more years old) to learn out of, but I did learn. A few years ago, I took some college courses. Every class had to buy new books at $100 plus. Teachers only got into a few chapters, sometimes none when the teacher would rather talk the lesson. The next semester also had to buy new books, because there were a few sentences that were different. Young people left the college unable to read or write properly, and they couldn't make change. In fact, my algebra teacher couldn't do long division. No wonder educations cost so much. Talk about waste!!!!!

Comment by John Wiseman on September 14, 2012 at 4:08pm: @ John Delasaux,

Absolutely, local school boards have the ability to affect the curricula taught in their districts, and most importantly the text to be used as class materials. They also have oversight responsibilities within the districts in regards to hiring and firing, unions not withstanding to block the latter.

Comment by JOHN DELASAUX on September 14, 2012 at 4:00pm: "....involve yourself at the local school board level.....".

That's a good idea, to get a handle on wasteful spending, but has little to do with the level of indoctrination which occurs in the classroom, to warp our children's minds.

The reason is, that the individual teachers have been brainwashed in their travel through the education system. They see everything through the lens of their Liberal Spyglass, so all their lessons are warped by their twisted ideas, for example, that the government owes us a free lunch (and even, sometimes, breakfast and dinner) at school.

The essence of the "Nanny State" pervades all the stuff that teachers lay out for our children. The "Nanny State" is a better mother and father than your real parents.

Hillary Clinton claims to have written the book, "It Takes a Village", and, in true Democrat fashion, failed to state that an editor, Barbara Feinmann, had actually written and edited most of the book.

When will we catch on to the simple fact that Democrats twist the truth or lie, to achieve their ends?

Comment by Herrmann Glockler on September 14, 2012 at 3:56pm: Unions always are looking for government protection to raise compensation for their members beyond what the open market values it. Unions in turn subsidize the election effort of those politicians who promise to protect unions. Nice cycle of corruption unions and politicians are involved here.

What I will not understand is that the little non-union guy, making half the salary of the union members, will support unions and their strike.

Does he not realize that he will pay deerly for the raises union members get when he buys products (cars??) union members produce???

Comment by Pat Chadwell on September 14, 2012 at 3:45pm: When kids get out of High School s today its the same level as the 8Th grader back before the 60`s and the hippies. Now you have to go to college just to get to the high school level before Nam...

Comment by Richard Curtis on September 14, 2012 at 3:33pm: Cars came before Unions, just as the Middle Class came before Unions. The unions are leading the way to the destruction of the Middle Class... Detriot, Steel Mills, Some Air Carriers (so far), the Education System, our Government, you name an area they got into, and I'll show you a defunct area or one on its way to destruction.