Elaine Chao in Wall Street Journal: Where to Begin?
Elaine Chao was the star of the Weekend Interview in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal, and it was quite the tear-jerker. Chao is evidently more intent on saving her legacy than doing her job in the last six months she’s in office.
First things first. This is some real rich irony.
“It’s really a land of meritocracy, where it doesn’t matter where you were born, who you know. If a person works hard, most of the time . . .” On this last point, Ms. Chao’s words trail off, as the current state of the economy seems to be weighing on her mind.
Riiight. Because nothing says “meritocracy” like appointing your husband’s friends, hiding your friend and shady lobbyist behind diplomatic immunity, and opening a virtual revolving door for anti-union corporate hacks (and much more).
Let’s next take a look at her out-of-whack priorities:
“I have a whole list here,” she says, of what Congress could do to hobble economic growth, and it includes legislation that is gaining traction on Capitol Hill. Every measure would make it more expensive to employ people in America, or would make it easier for unions to capture a larger slice of the workforce.
Chao says making it easier for workers to join unions would hobble economic growth. But the interviewer then takes an about-face, recognizing that when more workers are in unions, they have higher lifetime earnings and better employment.
In 1979, 24.1% of American workers belonged to a union. Today only 12.1% do, and the number falls to 7.5% for those who do not work for the government. Whether a worker has a college or even a high-school diploma is now much more important for lifetime earnings and employment than whether he has a union card.
So, backtrack. More workers in unions means more money for workers. Less workers in unions means less money for workers. But Chao also thinks more workers in unions means “hobbled economic growth.” So she ignores the best solution to fix the economy and decides to decry the “Europeanization of America” and focus all of the Department of Labor’s energies on “job training.”
Did you head just explode? Mine too.
