Detroit Public School Teachers Strike (Again)

August 28, 2006

In Detroit, the annual parade is in full force and effect. The public school teachers have gone on strike, and are picketing. Now, as taxpayers, don’t they work for us? Aren’t they providing a “public good,” you know, the type of good that is so important it can only be provided through theft and bureaucracy? The article mentions that many people were honking in support of the teachers demands. Maybe all of those would-be supporters could volunteer to pay more taxes next year to alleviate the budgetary shortcomings, but I doubt it. Moral support won’t fix a broken system. But then again, neither will throwing more money at it.

If the public goods argument held - Detroit would argue that the Northern suburbs aren’t contributing enough, and that we should subsidize their lousy public schools. I mean, that follows logically from the argument that “we all need to pay for education because it’s a public good” or some other such nonsense. Doesn’t it? I’m not sure where I’m going with that tangent, but the whole situation really upsets me - mostly because it happens every time the teachers in Detroit have a contract negotiation.

I’m not sure when, or where, this idea became ingrained into the collective minds of our nation, namely that: Once you sign a contract it is eternal, and compensation is basically prevented from going down; there’s a reason nobody executes perpetual contracts - namely that the future is uncertain. And besides, the teachers aren’t subject to the evil, heartless capitalists who would force them into a state of quasi-slavery were it not for the Union’s strongarming collective power. No. The teachers work for the benevolent government, which works outside the realm of profit and loss - and hence has no incentive to screw the teachers out of their “fair” wages. Right? Well, maybe the problem is bureaucracy, as Mises pointed out. When the costs are borne by those other than who receive the benefits, no rational economic calculation can take place. Perhaps what they need is some evil, heartless capitalists to introduce the competitive profit motive.

…oh, my libertarian pipe-dreams…

Look: Detroit is a shit-hole. It has a worldwide reputation for being a shit-hole, and has had that reputation for quite a while. Their school district is one of (if not) the worst in the State of Michigan, and the City itself is on the verge of perpetual bankruptcy. Look, Detroit. Your public schools are an abysmal failure - how you have the gall to ask for more money to pump into the system is beyond me. It is morally reprehensible. Nothing encourages bureaucratic incompetence like throwing money at their failures.

Every day the students go without class is an additional burden on society, and another hurdle in the path of those students who might possess the intellectual wherewithal to actually succeed in such a pitiful environment. Tell me again how a state-backed monopoly in education is providing a beneficial and much needed service with tremendous positive spillovers to the community in general.


Posted in: Potpourri

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