One thing I have learned from being in business is that to build a great company, you need to be able to hire and fire people at will. To the extent that unions protect workers from being fired, they hinder the development of great businesses. If you want to have a great economy with lots of jobs and opportunity, the labor force has to be as flexible and liquid as possible. I was always involved in small business, and we hired and fired people willy-nilly, until we had a great core of people, the same way a football team is built. And then we were very successful, created an innovative product, created a lot of jobs and had lots of happy customers.


My wife, on the other hand, worked for the school board and then the city, and she found it impossible to strengthen her work force because no one could be replaced unless they committed a murder. Now I have nothing against city workers, by and large they are doing their best, but they lack any meaningful incentive or reward for doing a great job, because the unions protect the underperforming workers, and salaries are set by union contract and not by individual negotiation. What's the point of being great if you get no reward for it? Your co-worker sucks but he gets the same salary you do because of the union.

---