Member-only story
How have we been convinced that labor unions are bad?
We have been swayed by a concerted propaganda effort
At the risk of sounding paranoid, our country has been victimized by a very effective propaganda effort aimed at demonizing unions. Why? The reason is simple: money.
If you don’t believe me that the powers that be help shape our perceptions to their advantage, then consider the following true story. When I was practicing Bankruptcy law in the middle of the Great Recession, I represented literally thousands of people who could not pay their debts due to loss of employment. One of my clients was a couple where the wife worked as a receptionist at a doctor’s office, and the husband had been a very senior executive at a national lending institution — the kind of institution you would know if I told you the name. Due to the collapse in lending, he was laid off from his high six-figure job, and could no longer afford his mortgage payments on his mansion or his large payments on his luxury cars. I’m sure some of you may be crying him a river, but he was actually a nice guy who was very down-to-earth. He just had certain skills that were very much in demand — when the economy is good.
Anyway, as I was discussing Bankruptcy with this couple, the wife was in tears. This happened a lot, and so I had Kleenex readily available…
