While I’m ranting on Unions, I came across an article at the UAW’s website, which seals my fate as an “anything-but-a-University-of-Minnesota-student” if I ever decide to pursue a PhD.

Richard A. Levins, professor emeritus of economics, argues that Unions cause the middle class to grow, and consequently, the decline in overall Union Membership is directly correlated to his perception of society’s problems and shortcomings.

“Sure, cheap labor can build cars, but only organized labor can build a middle class. In fact, the middle class is in some ways the most important of all the things unions build and maintain. For without a middle class, our whole economy is in trouble. That, unfortunately, seems to be exactly where we are headed.

Signs are everywhere that the middle class is getting weaker by day. Wages, even for college graduates, are falling behind inflation. The number of families in poverty is growing. The middle class debt load is off the charts and the personal savings rate is below zero. The costs of a college education, of health insurance, of energy for heating and driving, and of pharmaceuticals grow out of reach for ever more Americans with each passing day

Poverty, at least in this nation is a misnomer. Compared with the rest of the world, even the poorest among us have it pretty good. Not to mention, the definition of “poverty” is subject to political caprice and changes arbitrarily. It’s relative poverty, and it can’t be eradicated – especially as long as politicians seek to use it and manipulate it to their advantage, creating schemes and programs that encourage it.

Personal debt vs. the Personal savings rate = personal responsibility. Low savings and astronomical debt is no more a problem for the middle class, than it is for the über-rich or the unter-poor. These are not “class” problems, they are individual problems.

The remnants of his argument: the costs of inflation (the lovely hidden tax allowing government to finance everything on the backs of the unknowing masses), education, and health care, can easily be described as government failure. Given bureaucracy’s incentive system, given the way it works and what its designed to do, compared to the goals it’s trying to achieve, we shouldn’t be surprised with this sort of outcome.

Richard A. Levins is.