Janice Nittoli: Our Blue-Collar Great Depression - WSJ.com

DISTORTIONS TO THE PRICE OF LABOR: Janice Nittoli: Our Blue-Collar Great Depression - WSJ.com: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

What I'm not seeing in this article is a discussion of how union salaries and the huge additional costs that (one has to assume) well-meaning politicians have added to the cost of labor have distorted the labor input as a factor of production and wealth creation.

The clearing price of labor should be reduced.

Also, as noted in terms of caregivers, how many moderately well-off people could pay an independent contractor to do domestic or caregiving work if the expense was tax deductible?

And, while it might seem worthwhile to raise the minimum wage, it also means some jobs aren't worth doing. (This gets talked about, validated, etc. - but those with the "living wage" mentality have to ignore the ill-begotten losses.)

And, asking small, sometimes just a wife or husband, to pay all sorts of employment taxes and file all sorts of forms for casual labor is just ridiculous - if you want to spur small job creation.

And, prevailing union wage contracts make a number of very worthwhile infrastructure projects unaffordable.

We also allow teachers to stand behind a union and avoid the competition of a free market for education or standards to be held to. Thus, the unions and the teachers have institutionalized underperformance - while constantly getting more and more money allocated to comfortable salaries, work rules, pensions and other benefits.

And, if government could see its way to requiring individuals to do more for themselves and not pay and give benefits to their employees that are way above those of the private sector, then taxes could be cut and the average citizen would have more money to spend on local services and job creation. (The city of Bell, CA is but an obscene example of the public sector taking no umbrage for ripping off the citizens.)