New Obama Economist Alan Krueger Thinks We Don't Need Unions Anymore

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As Neil Munro points out, the cases where incoming Obama economist Alan Krueger agrees with Democratic orthodoxy–the cases the Republican National Committee is emphasizing–aren’t as intriguing as the instances where he’s disagreed.

My favorite so far is this 1992 paper on unionism, which reviews surveys of union and non-union workers and concludes that the decline in union membership between 1977 and 1991 resulted from a “decline in demand for unionization” especially a decline in the percentage of nonunion workers who “would vote for union representation.”

And why the decline in demand?

Our brief analysis suggests that nonunion workers are more likely to report being satisfied with their jobs in 1984 and 1992 than in 1977. … Another possibility is that … the services unions provide are no longer perceived as valuable by nonunion workers …. [E.A.]

Now I’m confused. 

Ezra Klein assured me it was all due to heavy-handed and illegal tactics by union-busting employers. … P.S.:  Since then, of course, much-publicized private-sector union organizing efforts have reversed this trend. You could probably write the same paper today. …

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Ron Paul STILL Thinks FEMA Should Be Abolished

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Even as Hurricane-turned-Tropical-Storm Irene continued to sweep up the East Coast, leaving 2 million people with out power, perennial contrarian Ron Paul held fast to his conviction that FEMA should be abolished.

Appearing on Fox News Sunday, the 2012 presidential candidate laughed off the suggestion that the agency's response to Irene may have changed his mind, saying that the agency is "deeply flawed" and has "one of the worst reputations for a bureaucracy ever."

"We've conditioned our people that FEMA will take care of us and everything will be OK," Paul said, "[You] try to make these programs work the best you can, but you can't just keep saying, 'Oh, they need money.' ... Well, we're out of money, this country is bankrupt….Anybody who wants to defend this department and this agency, they have a tough argument to argue for."

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