Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 12:00 pm
It was another sad day for the middle class yesterday as Republicans in Indiana passed a Right to Work for Less law. Eight lies were used as the faulty premise for this specious piece of Koch to the people. Follow the lies.
Republicans sell ‘right to work’ laws as a way to bring business to the state. This little lie (lie #1) doesn’t hold up under examination, as there is no empirical evidence to suggest that right to work laws make a state more attractive for businesses.
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However, as we have seen over and over again, the meme that corporations can’t make a profit if they have to pay workers is a lie (lie #2), and that is the premise of the first lie. Germany is a great example of what happens when workers and labor are valued and have a seat at the table, as exemplified in their “codetermination system”. This system requires, by law, the appointment of worker representatives to a company’s board of directors.
Now you might think, if you listen to Fox/Republicans, that any system where they let workers have a voice at the table would kill manufacturing. But of course, this is not true (lie #3). Forbes reported in December of 2011 that Germany, where they pay autoworkers TWICE what American autoworkers get paid, they make more cars and are very profitable.
WHAT?
Well, it seems that in Germany they operate “within an environment that precludes a race to the bottom.” And it works. Kevin C. Brown of the online e-journal Remapping Debate concluded that “the salient difference is that, in Germany, the automakers operate within an environment that precludes a race to the bottom; in the U.S., they operate within an environment that encourages such a race.”
So much for the idea that our manufacturing problems are a result of labor demanding too much money.
Yes, you think it’s bad now, but the debunking isn’t finished yet. Republicans also claim that unions are anti-business (lie #4). However, truth serum reveals that American unions reflect a decidedly “business union” ideology that supports the free market in contrast to the unions of Western Europe. As noted by Reference for Business, unions are not affiliated with any party in the United States (lie #5). “Although many American unions are active in the Democratic Party, they are not formally affiliated with that party. In fact, some unions regularly support Republican candidates, including presidential candidates.”
So much for the Unions being the Democratic equivalent to corporations, assuming incorrectly (lie #6) that unions had the financial power to be an equivalent if they chose to be one. Perhaps more unions are now moving to the Democratic Party, but then, when you shoot to kill, you can expect those you aim at to run away.
Clearly the Republican Party assessed union membership and realized it could afford to lose the support it gets from certain unions, much as they gave away the African American vote in courting Southern whites in the Nixon years. They’re slowly whittling their base down to corporations and the people they can scare into voting for them, but it was their choice to shove unions to the only party who cares about the middle class.
Get a side of freedom fries to go with this dose of reality, because it won’t do you any good when dealing with American Republicans who live in their Fox Bubble. The socialism and the czars! Oh my.
Now that we’ve debunked Daniels’ reasons for making Indiana a right to work for less state, we should recall that Daniels said while campaigning that he would not seek to make Indiana a right to work state (lie #7).He is not the only Republican to have made this promise and then betrayed it once elected.
What can we learn from his reversal? Once again, as the folks in Michigan, Wisconsin. Ohio and Florida can tell you, you cannot trust a Republican who runs as a “moderate” these days (lie #8). Let this lie be a lesson for 2012 (I’m looking at you, Mitt-let-the-auto-industry-go-bankrupt Romney).
Image: Union Eagle
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