The Heritage Insider: Just 6 percent of workers voted for their union, the Minnesota model? a Post-Obama America is coming soon, looks who's talking about occupational licensure, and how not to protect voting systems

September 3, 2016

 

 

What workplace democracy? Only 6 percent of workers have voted for the union that represents them. Minnesota is like the Scandinavia of America: About both the Left has the false idea that they provide examples of progressive policy success. Are you ready for Post-Obama America? If not, then you haven’t been paying attention. Colin Kaepernick weighs in on occupational licensure. The government that couldn’t protect its employees’ personal data is thinking about nationalizing voting systems. Plus, visit InsiderOnline.org to see what else the conservative movement has been thinking, writing, and doing to win battles for liberty.

 

Only 6 percent of workers voted for their union. Workplace democracy is largely a myth, writes James Sherk: “In practice, only 6 percent of those covered by unions under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) have ever voted for union representation. In some cases, National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rules allow unions to organize workplaces without majority support or even an election. Unions do not have to stand for re-election after being formed, and it is difficult for workers to request a decertification election to remove an unwanted union. As a result, most current U.S. union members are represented by unions they had no say in electing.” [The Heritage Foundation]

 

Is Minnesota a blue-state model of a successful economy? Not really, explains Joseph Kennedy: “Minnesota’s economic growth is now just average while productivity continues to be below average. Minnesota’s growth in gross domestic product […] historically grew a touch faster than the U.S. However, from 2000 to the present, Minnesota’s GDP growth settled to just average with the U.S. Looking at GDP per worker, the average Minnesota worker in private industry, in both goods producing and service producing sectors, is less productive than the average American worker. Most states have done better than Minnesota in both income growth and job growth from 2000 to the present. Minnesota ranks 30th in per capita income growth, 34th in growth in disposable income, and 28th in rate of job creation.” [Center of the American Experiment]

 

It’s time to start thinking about post-Obama America. Sen. Jim DeMint identifies some of the things a new President and Congress will need to fix when President Obama has left office: a national debt that’s grown too high, a tax code that’s become even more complicated and uncompetitive, an entitlement state that has made too many Americans dependent on the government, education programs that leave students unprepared for college, a military that’s not as strong as it should be, and an economy that leaves too many out of work. Check out Post-Obama America, a new resource from The Heritage Foundation.

 

Comparing cosmetology to policing might say more about cosmetology than policing. Colin Kaepernick again weighed in on the important topic of police abuse of power this week, stating: “[Y]ou can become a cop in six months and don’t have to have the same amount of training as a cosmetologist. That’s insane. Someone that’s holding a curling iron has more education and more training than people that have a gun and are going out on the street to protect us.”

We don’t know what the right amount of training for a police officer is, but the amount of training a person must receive in order to practice cosmetology is certainly insane. As the Institute for Justice has shown over and over again in its research and litigation, cosmetology licensing is about protecting existing practitioners from new competition, not about ensuring health and safety. In IJ’s latest study on the issue, Angela Erickson found that requiring hair braiders to take thousands of hours of cosmetology training does nothing to enhance consumer safety: “[A]cross seven years and 10 jurisdictions, just nine complaints with health and safety issues were received for unlicensed braiders—just over one per year and just less than one per jurisdiction. Further, none of the complaints alleging consumer harm were verified by licensing boards.” Cosmetology licensing does seem to do one thing well, though: It generates plenty of complaints about the licensing status of cosmetologists—by other cosmetologists. [Institute for Justice]

 

Nationalizing voting systems is not a solution to a problem. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson is thinking about designating state and local voting systems as “critical infrastructure” that needs to be protected from hackers. A number of experts, reports Barbara Hollingsworth, say elections are a  states responsibility over which Homeland Security has no constitutional authority. Hans von Spakovsky points out that one easy way to limit hacking is for states to cease online registration systems. And Bradley Smith observes: “One of the great strengths of the American election system is that there is no national network or infrastructure that can be taken down. Hacks of isolated local systems can occur, but the system is so thoroughly decentralized that it is all but immune to any system-wide or systematic attack.” [CNSnews]

 

 

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