By Warner Todd Huston ——Bio and Archives--May 11, 2011
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If we were to use a conservative figure of $50 per month for union dues, in 2010, unions collected $735,000,000 per month in union dues from America’s unionized workers. Multiply $735,000,000 by 12 months and you get a whopping $8,820,000,000 that was collected in union dues in 2010.But don’t forget, government union bosses think you are selfish for not wanting to give them millions to allow their members to retire in their fifties (unlike the rest of us), to have better healthcare than the rest of us, and to have generous pensions that we have to pay for through our taxes. Still, it is interesting how unions want to point to the salaries of industry executives claiming they are somehow illicit yet the dues they’ve stolen from millions of workers could pay the salaries of so many thousands of Americans who are now out of work. Which is excessive again? The salaries of people actually creating wealth and job or those simply stealing it for union thuggery?That is a lot of cash, indeed. Now let’s see what could have been done with all that money:Divide $8,820,000,000 by $33,227 and you’ll find that if unions did not take union dues from workers in 2010, 265,447 workers’ jobs could have been supported.
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Warner Todd Huston’s thoughtful commentary, sometimes irreverent often historically based, is featured on many websites such as Breitbart.com, among many, many others. He has also written for several history magazines, has appeared on numerous TV and radio shows.
He is also the owner and operator of Publius’ Forum.