Socialism and labor

JoAnn Ailes, writing in the Gary Post (July 24), is completely misguided on her thoughts about Socialism and trade unions. If you believe that Socialism and unions have a healthy relationship, just look at Cuba, where the union members (98% of the pop.) make pitiful government-set wages and remain well below the poverty line. What she fails to understand is that human greed is what fuels a successful economy. In the marketplace, this proves beneficial as it pushes entrepreneurs to develop new and more efficient technology and expand companies so as to create more jobs.

The unions have a necessary role to play in providing clean and safe workplaces. However, unions have a tendency to become more powerful than private companies and have in many cases done more harm than good. They put workers out of jobs by forcing companies to offer impossible pay and benefits and they often employ scare tactics and restrictive measures to keep non-union workers from finding employment in their fields.

What’s often forgotten is that companies are expensive to run. Not only does the employer have to pay the property tax and lease, but also wages and benefits and a number of other taxes just to operate in the US. Most significantly, employers have to pay the exorbitant US corporate tax, one of the highest in the world, at nearly 40%. This is the reason why companies move overseas: workers there will work for less, and most importantly, other nations have lower corporate taxes so companies can afford to hire employees.

The Isle of Man, a small island off the British coast will actually pay companies to relocate there and they enforce no capital gains tax on them. IOM is currently celebrating their 26th consecutive year of growth! Just goes to show that people prosper where corporate greed succeeds.