We are all Slave now.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

Union wages have a uniquely high multiplier effect because union workers tend to consume in more sectors than non-union workers. Non-union workers are paid as little as management can pay them. Right there, a significant amount of purchasing power is eliminated. Non-union workers typically do not have benefits. They are more likely to have health care costs, interest on payday loans, and all other variety of debts that dog people living on the margin. These people do not have safety nets and acquire debt to survive in payoff periods. In short, non-union fungible construction labor tends to have very little discretionary income.

Union labor, otoh, gets paid more, has safety nets for periods of layoff or disability, and consequently tends not be in debt servitude. Union members can go to lunch and dinner at local establishments, drink at local bars, buy at local grocers, etc. They grow the local economy.

So the delta you're citing (union wage - non-union wage) is an incomplete assessment of the difference between union and non-union labor. It's not a question of one guy being able to spend $50 on dinner after work versus another being able to spend only $25. It's one guy being able to spend $25 versus another guy being able to spend $0. It's multiplier (union) vs. no multiplier (non-union).

Growing up around union workers, this stuff is just assumed for me, including having some sense (even if a 30 years out of date sense) of just how enormous the wage differentials are. My union relatives had decent homes in decent burbs with decent cars in front of them. They listened to the Talking Heads. The types I knew who were non-union doing the same thing lived in trailer parks or rundown apartments and listened to Black Sabbath.