A Response To Richard, aka Those Who Believe Public Employee Unions Serve A Noble Purpose

I actually agree that within the world of free, private enterprise Labor Unions serve a useful purpose ... Financial organizations merge, organize to gain clout in the marketplace, and economies of scale ... Producers of raw materials do the same thing ... Labor is entitled, actually required, in the free market, to organize, collectively .... However, if one component (labor, capital, or raw materials) renders the entire product non-competitive in the marketplace, the entire enterprise fails

Public Employee Unions pervert the entire system, however .. In order for the free market system to work, ultimately, some enterprises MUST fail. The government, because of its seemingly limitless ability to tax, has until now, never been allowed to fail. There is no responsibility to the marketplace for the final product. There is no competition. Couple that with the ability of public employee unions to effectively vote in their own boss (See Lincoln Chafee), the system begins to act in favor of its employees, not the customer\shareholder\stakeholder (The Citizen Taxpayer) In a State like Rhode Island, where a disproportionate share of the populace draws sustenance from the State, whether it be employee, or charity case the interests of the state take precedence over the interests of the Citizen.
Not only is the condition terminal financially, it also tends to provoke a complete breakdown in the quality of the goods and services delivered, in this case, by the State of Rhode Island
Apt comparisons can be drawn between the collapse of government services in the waning days of the Soviet Union to the intolerable conditions here in Lil Rhody ... the poor school systems, the crumbling infrastructure, the inept law enforcement (see Providence) ...

So Richard, I thank your Unions everyday ... Everyday that I pay for a private education for my children, while my confiscatory taxes feed an incompetent public school system (that is clearly more focused on the quality of teacher compensation, than the teachers themselves) I thanked the Unions last year when I blew out a tire in late spring on Hope Street, in a pothole the size of CF ... I thank the Unions for a Law Enforcement system that forces citizens to give up their drivers license if they are late on the seemingly endless series of taxes, but encourages illegal aliens to drive on my rutted potholed streets .... I thank the Unions for creating a Dept of Motor Vehicles that would be shamed in the Soviet Union ... And of course, every night when I say my prayers, I thank the Unions for helping to elect an incompetent useful idiot, who may be borderline functional in the real world, to the title of Governor of the State of Rhode Island (and Providence Plantations)