Death By Union Agreement

Defending the unions is not going to make all your jobs come back -- because that is the reason the newspapers died, as the auto industry before them, steel, airlines, etc. -- before they realized they'd just monopolize government directly.

And you ask, Why should they? Government makes the rules dictating fairness for all workers, and if they aren't going to abide by them, and actually provide that leadership, then why should anybody else? No private enterprise is going to be able to compete with government -- because government has the ability to create whatever revenues they think that society will bear, before ultimately revolting against oppressive taxes, or simply dying without a whimper when all the private enterprises have been eliminated.

Then the only "industries" become the exploitation known as real estate speculation -- and make-work government projects, like the Rail, Boat, Natatorium, Convention Center -- all promising to create unlimited economic opportunities before the next great panacea.

What do the unions do that create the ultimate doom for any society? They eliminate free competition that rewards talent and ability in favor of seniority, towing the party line, maintaining and defending the status quo as the qualities that are most unquestioningly revered. That further drives out those with talent and ability remaining in that gene pool -- which was also true of the legacy publications, like the newspapers, as well as the university book publishers, who insisted everybody had to learn to read academic jargon instead of everyday vernacular. The Associated Press style became similarly obsolete -- in the age of interactive communications and information, with editors still insisting they alone should do the thinking for the whole community -- just like in the good old days, and always.

And that's why they are stunned now to see their captured audiences shrinking, or have not been there all along, but that was the delusion everybody "subscribed" to -- as the only game in town. So even as they thought they were being as "objective" as humanly possible, their union mentality shined through, as the reason they remained in the positions they did -- and not by the individual merit they thought they would command even in a free market of ideas.