Letter: Economic adultery

Dear Editor,

A new sin needs to be added to the vernacular of modern society. I’m not talking about sin in the biblical sense of the word, but in the social sense. You see societies function properly through the outworking of written laws and unwritten social agreements. When individuals violate these unwritten social agreements, it is akin to the violation of one’s marital vows.

One of these social agreements is that of economic reciprocation which would state, if it were written, that I will conduct my business with those that conduct their business with me or I will financially support those that financially support me. Most people learn this lesson early in life from their parents or later in life “the hard way.” But somehow, someway this lesson was not communicated to some of our public sector employees.

Take, for example, those public sector employees who warmly welcomed the UAW and other private sector unions who stood in the wind and the rain and the snow last winter on the Capitol Square to support public workers’ fundamental human right to bargain collectively. What message does it send when these same public employees, who spoke so proudly of solidarity and of worker’s rights just a few months ago, purchase vehicles today from non-union manufacturers where these rights are not respected? Is it not a slap in the face? Is it not the height of hypocrisy? Is it not a violation of a social contract that says because you support me, I will support you? Is it not economic adultery?

The simple fact of the matter is that the public sector is financially dependent upon the private sector. So when public employees purchase American and union made products they are contributing to the financial well-being of union supportive American families who have stood in solidarity beside them.

Tags: opinion, letters, money